Sheffield’s annual film festival is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary later this month. The event is part of the city’s Festival of the Outdoors and screens films about adventure, travel and extreme sports like kayaking and rock climbing.
Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF) was founded in 2005, by outdoors enthusiast Matt Heason, It holds talks and workshops on subjects related to adventure and the outdoors.
Ben Dransfield, the festival’s head of digital communications, said: “Matt had visited Kendal Mountain Festival many times and saw that the Sheffield outdoorsy crowd were a big fan of those types of films.
“He got in touch with the Showroom cinema and put together some screenings that soon snowballed into its own adventure film festival.”
The festival will run from 21-23 March, with events being held across the city centre including at the Showroom cinema and in the Winter Garden.
Around 100 films make the official selection each year. It aims to provide a platform for diverse, up-and-coming and local talent to showcase their work, with awards such as Best Spirit Of Adventure Film and Best Film Made In Sheffield being handed out.
Dransfield believes that the variety of the event is what makes it so successful. He said: “Whether it’s climbing or kayaking you’re into, there’s something for everyone.
“It’s super accessible and community driven with a lot of the team being volunteers. Everyone just wants to make a great festival. It’s exciting to see Sheffield on the film festival map.”
ShAFF has partnerships with several outdoor-focused companies and organisations such as Rab, Patagonia and the Woodland Trust.
As part of their promotion of the outdoors, they also encourage visitors to ‘travel sustainably using public transport or human power’.
Tickets are available here.