Wānaka filmmaker Finlay Woods has won the NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival’s (NZMFF) Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for Best NZ-Made Film for his film Terra Incognita.

The film follows a crew of world-class skiers led by Freeride World Tour competitor Craig Murray as they attempt to ski new lines in the Southern Alps and experiment with pack horses to access ski touring.

“It feels great to receive this recognition for the film after all of the work put in by so many people,” Finlay said. 

“And for it to be from the NZMFF is really special - I spent so many of my younger years going and being inspired by the films in the festival.”

Terra Incognita (which translates to terrain unknown) explores the realities of pushing into some of the most remote places in the country and the triumphs and tribulations of those endeavours.

“For us the goal of Terra Incognita was to explore new places in the Southern Alps,” Craig said, which was a “transformative and educational process”.

“We experienced a range of places, weather and conditions as well as sharing a ride of emotions with many great people. In some ways I think our motivation and positivity created our own luck. 

“More than once, when a plan completely fell through, another unexpected opportunity would arise.”

Finley and Craig extended a “massive thank you” to all the people who helped make the film possible.

Another 18 awards were granted in a range of categories and the Grand Prize was awarded to French director Hugo Clouzeau for his film, ‘Nuptse: Touching the Intangible’, which follows three climbers who are dreaming of opening a new extreme route on the legendary south face of Nuptse, a wall approaching 8000m in the heart of the Himalayas.

Those films and several dozen more (whittled down from a record 241 entries) will feature at this year’s NZMFF, which will take place in Wānaka from June 21-25, in Queenstown from June 27-28 and online in July.

Find the full festival programme at the NZMFF website or at Paper Plus.

PHOTO: Supplied