Steamboat Pilot & Today

Adventure sports films from four local producers and three professional companies are on the schedule today and Saturday at the seventh annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival.

Screenings of the four local films start at 7 p.m. today at the Bristol Hall gym at Colorado Mountain College. There's a $5 suggested donation to the CMC Backcountry Club for admission.

Teasers for the four winter sports movies - Rastafellow Films' "Trying to Have Fun Without Guns," 3rd Party Productions' "The Good Fight," Bent and Broken Productions' "Yesterday" and Kerry Lofy's "Pillow Talk" - have been competing for a popular vote on the film festival's Web site since Oct. 2.

The teasers went up after the film festival's opening screening of Teton Gravity Research's 2009 movie, "Re:Session," and drew 500 hits on the festival Web site by the next day, event organizer Michael Martin said. Voting closes today, and the winners of categories including people's choice, best powder and best line/performance will be announced Saturday.

Brian McCleary, of Bent and Broken Productions, submitted a film for the fourth year in a row. "Yesterday" features about 10 athletes and is a compilation of skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling footage from Mount Hood in Oregon, Jackson Hole in Wyoming and the backcountry near Steamboat Springs. The format is similar to what Bent and Broken has done the past few years, McCleary said.

"It's fun just to see my friends : logging what they do, so maybe when we're 80 years old we can look back and say we did that when we were young," McCleary said. For the 2010 film festival, McCleary plans to use high-definition filming equipment and new editing software to make his submission, he said.

Bent and Broken's move toward new technology has been a trend in submitted films, Martin said.

"Generally speaking, looking at year over year, I think the quality has improved a lot," Martin said. "A lot of local filmmakers have really stepped up the production quality, not only in terms of the films themselves, but a lot of people are shooting in HD now."

A screening of Factors Films' "They Came From :" - which Martin described as a standout submission in this year's Reel Open adventure film category - closes out today's event.

On Saturday, screenings of Matchstick Productions' "In Deep," Standard Films' "Black Winter" and Michael Martin Productions' "The Sum of Zero" surround the awards ceremony for the best of today's featured films. Movie showings start at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel; the awards ceremony is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 at Ski Haus, at Surefoot or at the door.