Mountain Film Fest hands out the awards for 2013

The 16th annual Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival has ended, and on Saturday (February 16), at the finale show, the film jury announced its picks for this edition’s awards.

The grand-prize award went to Crossing the Ice, directed by Justin Jones, a film about two Aussies dragging their tired asses—and all their equipment—for almost 1,200 miles across the Antarctic to the South Pole. A down-under version of There and Back Again, minus the hobbits and with way more snow.

The jury award got snagged by Silbergeier, directed by Vladimir Cellier, a short that details the first female ascent of the famous Swiss peak (by Nina Caprez).

Paragliding short feature The Boy Who Flies, directed by Benjamin Jordan, took best Canadian film honours.

Two films reviewed here by the Straight made the award grade as well. Himalayan Gold Rush (a feature by Oscar-nominated director Eric Valli), about the amazing profits to be made from a curious Nepalese transmutation of insect and fungus, grabbed the best-mountain-culture award. And the best-water-film silverware went to The Impossible River Journey, an unintentionally comic documentary by Arild Mehn-Andersen about his bumbling travails while following two river systems across post-apartheid South Africa.

For the rest of the awards, go here.