The awning of the Arlington Theatre shines on State Street during the first of two nights of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in the city. (Bridget Keon / Daily Nexus)

The only film festival that has ever had showings in outer space came to Santa Barbara this week. The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour had their Santa Barbara premiere on Feb. 24 at Arlington Theatre, with Santa Barbara’s crowd of 2,000 people marking the largest single location on their tour. 

Opening remarks delivered by Charla Sharp-Tomlinson, the event’s host who has been with the festival since 2001, welcomed back an audience where the majority had attended the festival before. Her words were informative and saturated with humor, starting off the night with excited and warm energy. 

“We are, believe it or not, the world’s largest film festival,” Tomlinson said. She followed it up with a joke, “We are the world’s largest film festival no one has ever heard of.” 

Tomlinson was referring to the festival’s scope, whose world tour features stops in all seven continents, including two locations in Antarctica, reaching an overall audience of around 600,000 people annually, according to Tomlinson. 

With one of their usual audience members being a NASA astronaut who was going to miss the festival due to his work in space, NASA reached out to the festival to request a screening they could send up to him, Tomlinson shared.

“Not only are we the world’s largest film festival, we are the galaxy’s largest film festival,” Tomlinson said. 

The evening featured five short films, ranging from eight to 48 minutes in length. All films for the festival are related to mountain culture or adventures. There were 87 films  selected this year as finalists out of a record-breaking pool of 570 submissions, and each tour location features a different line-up.

The first film, “A Baffin Vacation: Love On Ice,” followed a young couple on their 69-day vacation on Baffin Island. In a completely isolated landscape, the two of them traversed over 200 kilometers and skiied, climbed, kite skiied, kayaked and ice climbed their way through their journey. The couple, Sarah McNair-Landry and Erik Boomer, filmed and produced the documentary themselves. It was funny, rogue and set the tone for the evening.

The second film, “Flow Vision,” was the shortest of the night, spanning just eight minutes. It followed Ambroise Trauet, a downhill skateboarder, as he decided to skate a highly challenging road in Europe. He discussed how immersive his mental state became through this absolute thrill-chasing activity. Tomlinson quipped before the showing that it would get your heart racing, and the camera’s steady pursuit of Trauet’s remarkable speed certainly produced that effect. 

Next up was “Best Day Ever,” which won the Best Mountain Sports Film Award and Audience Choice Award at the 2025 Banff Film Festival. It was a 48-minute film about the project of implementing the world’s first complete adaptive trail network for adaptive mountain bikes in Vermont. It showed a community rallying behind some incredibly motivated individuals to make an outdoor space accessible for those who want to use it. It was emotional and inspirational all in one — both a call to action and a call of recognition. 

After this showing, prizes were awarded to audience members via a ticket raffle. It included gifts from UC Santa Barbara’s Adventure Programs and Arts & Lectures, as well as from the festival’s national sponsors. 

“Emil & Karl – Little Wheels, Big Mountains” followed. The incredibly wholesome film journeyed alongside two fathers who brought their 2-year-old toddlers on a bikepacking trip through the Swiss Alps. This film featured beautiful scenery, whimsical explorers and the pure hilarity that comes from bringing 2-year-olds on an adventure. 

Lastly came “Old Man Lightning,” which won the award for Best Climbing Film at the 2025 Banff Festival. It followed John “Verm” Sherman, the man known for creating the V-scale for bouldering, as he got back into shape with the goal of reconquering a world-famous boulder problem: Midnight Lightning. Located in Camp 4 in Yosemite, young Verm solved it in his peak and was ready to tackle it again many years down the line. It was comedic and a fantastic comeback story.

This last film concluded night one, with a second night following on Feb. 25, featuring a different selection of films. All films are available for rent via the Banff Film Festival website. 

The festival premiers annually in Banff, Canada in November. It is at this nine-day event that all selected films are shown and awards are distributed. Following this showing, the festival embarks upon a world tour, varying showings by location.

In Santa Barbara, the featured films were selected by Roman Baratiak, the UCSB Arts & Lectures associate director emeritus. He was also the man who initially brought the festival to Santa Barbara. While, to the groans of the crowd, he could not attend the screening this year, he sent a message to be read.

“Have fun. Enjoy the films. Heart emoji,” his message, read by Tomlinson, said — and the sold-out, 2000-person crowd certainly did.

This article appeared in the 3/5 print edition of the Daily Nexus.