An American film about a kayaking trip through the Beriman Gorge in Papua New Guinea has won the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival's grand prize from 155 entries.
In Locked In - First Descent of the Beriman Gorge (main photo) directors Bryan Smith and David Pearson follows four kayakers through one of the most dangerous stretches of white water in the world.
Festival director Mark Sedon said the judges felt the audience would experience the remoteness of the location and the authentic danger of the mission through the quality of the cinematography and the outstanding style of editing.
The best of the 22 New Zealand films was Paddle for the North (pictured left) in which director Simon Lucas follows two Frenchmen, two Canadians, two New Zealanders and two dogs on a canoeing trip for 1500km along six remote North American rivers threatened by mining.
Mr Sedon said equipment such as drones, GoPro video cameras and tougher gear was significantly improving film quality each year.
The festival runs from July 1 to 9 in Wanaka, Cromwell and Queenstown.
