Run the Alps x On Trail Running Film Festival 2025 – Call for Applications
Run the Alps is excited to announce that our Alps Trail Running Film Festival will be back for its third season in January 2025! Once again, our friends at On will be the lead sponsor for the festival.
Did you catch the wonderful films in this year’s festival? If not, check them out– and enjoy!
The Festival is part of Run the Alps’ mission to share, celebrate and steward trail running here in the Alps.
Now, on to some news for all the filmmakers out there!
We’re now accepting applications for this year’s film grant, for films that have trail running in the Alps as a central part of the story. Not a filmmaker but know someone who is? Please share this news with them!
Pitch us your idea for a short film (4-8 minutes), for a chance to win one of 3 x €5000 grants. From spectacular locations and incredible characters, to grueling races and mind-blowing records, there are so many stories that could be told! Applications are open to everyone, regardless of film or trail experience.
The three winning films will be aired at Run the Alps Trail Running Film Festival in early 2025, held in partnership with On. Plus – they’ll be considered for screening at Kendal Mountain Festival, Europe’s premier adventure festival, taking place in November 2024.
Your grant application should include:
- a short summary of your film
- a brief outline (200-250 words) detailing key story points, characters, locations, and any potential obstacles
- information about you (and your team if you have one)
- a brief budget outline
- why you want to make this film
Please note, your film can be shot in any language.
Grant Details
Three selected winners will receive a grant of €5000 to make their film, plus feedback and support from a professional trail running filmmaker throughout the production process.
Run the Alps may also be able to help with logistics and/or accommodation support for non-Alps based applications. Please let us know if this is of interest. It will not affect your chances of being selected.
Selection Panel
Our grant winners will be selected by our wonderful selection panel:
Dom Bush
Filmmaker, Land & Sky Media
Dom Bush, one of our 2024 grant winners for the film Red Needle, has over a decade of experience in the adventure and documentary industries. He’s a skier, climber and mountaineer, and produces social and environmental projects for top outdoor brands and organizations. His portfolio includes collaborations with the BBC, BFI Doc Society, Channel 4, National Trust, British Council, and the Guardian. He’s also a qualified higher education teacher and was part of the 2021 BAFTA Crew program.
“These opportunities for filmmakers are fantastic, providing a lot of freedom without constraints to a specific brief or company guidelines. They’re all about encouraging groundbreaking and creative projects.”
Jenny Rice
Kendal Mountain Festival
Jenny oversees film scouting, programming, and selection for the Kendal Mountain Festival’s film competition. She also handles speaker and event programming for running, cycling, and swimming –and does all their graphic design! Passionate about using Kendal’s platform to highlight diverse and underrepresented stories, Jenny is an avid athlete herself, having swum, cycled, run and mixed them all together in swimrun and triathlon. Since moving to Kendal in 2014, she’s also become a keen fell runner. She’s competed in many classic fell races, and in 2019, completed the Bob Graham Round in an extremely stressful 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 21 seconds.
Milo Zanecchia
Adventure Filmmaker & Photographer
Milo is a Swiss-American living in Lugano, Switzerland, and a regular creator of films and content for Run the Alps. His photo and film work spans commercial projects for numerous outdoor brands and tourist organizations, projects for humanitarian organizations and documentary films. He is a keen trail runner, cyclist and snowboarder and his film ’The Reality of Trail Running’ featured in the very first Run the Alps film festival.
Yassine Diboun
Trail Runner & Coach at Wy’East WolfPack
Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Yassine is an elite trail runner competing in races across the globe, from Western States 100 to UTMB. He holds several Fastest Known Times including the Loowit and Wonderland trails. As co-founder of the Wy’East Wolfpack trail running community, he puts his knowledge and skills to coaching the Portland running community and will be a special guest on one of the Run the Alps’ Bernese Oberland tours this summer.
Photo: Sage Brown
Katie Moore
Director, Producer & Run the Alps’ Film Festival Manager
Katie is a mountain addict and visual storyteller, with years of experience in the outdoor industry. She left her home town of Slough, England to work a ski season and never went back! She has a string of award-winning commercial and documentary credits, and has worked on films with Kilian Jornet, Emelie Forsberg and Hillary Gerardi.
Deadlines
The deadline for submissions is June 20th, and winning applicants will be notified by June 30th. Final films must be delivered by October 1st to be eligible for inclusion in the festival and for the chance to be screened at the Kendal Mountain Festival.
For additional information, please see the Submission Guidelines here. All submissions and any questions should be sent to: filmfestival@runthealps.com.
We look forward to sharing and celebrating trail running in the Alps with you!
Need Inspiration?
Check out some of our favorite films with trail running in the Alps as a central part of the story:
