Eduardo Martínez and Jabier Baraiazarra, President and Director of the BBK Mendi Film Bilbao Bizkaia at the closing ceremony of the 13th edition
Bilbao, 14th December 2020. The BBK Mendi Film Bilbao-Bizkaia International Mountain Film Festival has successfully celebrated its 13th edition. A total of 5,578 people have attended the screenings at Euskalduna, at Sala BBK and at the Golem cinemas in Bilbao.
41 sessions have been scheduled and 83% of the capacity has been occupied. This occupancy rate has been the best at Mendi Film during its 13-year history, overcoming the 70% rate from the last two editions.
Mendi Film has been one of the few international mountain film festivals that has been celebrated on-site this year, which filmmakers and producers have highly valued. On behalf of all of them, Mendi Film would like to express its sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported the festival.
"Mountain film festivals in the world have also been affected by the pandemic. Many of these have been cancelled or postponed. The only festival that had the courage to open its doors was the 10-day BBK Mendi Film Festival in Bilbao, Spain. It became a meeting place for cinematography and mountain culture from all over the world", Pavol Barabás, the director honoured with the 2020 Audience Award for 'Everest-The Hard Way,' Grand Prize in 2016 with the film 'Freedom Underload' and Grand Prize in 2011 from the International Alliance for Mountain Film.
The need for mountain film directors and filmmakers to display their work and the great demand from the audience for this type of films and stories have given Mendi Film the strength to celebrate this new edition during this peculiar year.
During this 13th edition, 57 films ─representing 18 countries─ related to Mountain Culture have been screened. The Grand Prize of the Official Selection went to the renowned director Michael Dillon with the film about Sir Edmund Hillary's last great journey: "Hillary - Ocean to Sky".
The Jury, with the filmmaker Asier Altuna, the soundtrack composer Paula Olaz, the film producer Itziar García, the coordinator of the Polish Institute of Culture in Madrid Iwona Zielinska-Sasiada and the audiovisual student Jon San Sebastián, has underlined that the overall quality of this year’s films has been "very good."
There have been 7 world premieres and one European premiere. And most of the films (91% of the films) have been released in Spain for the first time.
The 14th edition of BBK Mendi Film Bilbao-Bizkaia will take place from 3rd to 12th December 2021.
