There are peo­ple who dread winter—the ones who pack up and head south to avoid the bit­ter cold and snow. And then there are those who embrace the cold, dark sea­son. Those whose hearts beat faster when the fore­cast calls for that first snow­storm. Those who come alive when the ground turns white. The Coldsmoke Awards cel­e­brates all that is impor­tant to the lat­ter group. 

Born out of a desire to cel­e­brate win­ter moun­tain cul­ture, the Coldsmoke Win­ter Film Tour is a trav­el­ing fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ing the tal­ent and cre­ativ­i­ty of win­ter cul­ture-based films. The tour cul­mi­nates with the Coldsmoke Awards—an Acad­e­my Awards on snow, if you will. Here are 7 things to know about the Coldsmoke Win­ter Film Tour and Awards.

It’s All About the Moun­tain Town
The film tour stops in some of the most pop­u­lar moun­tain towns in North America—you didn’t think a cel­e­bra­tion of win­ter moun­tain cul­ture would take place in a boom­ing metrop­o­lis, did you? Begin­ning and fin­ish­ing in Boze­man, Mon­tana, the tour makes stops at Jack­son Hole, Whistler and the Alta, Utah through­out the win­ter months.

More Than Just Ski Movies
This isn’t your typ­i­cal ski movie pre­miere series. The Coldsmoke Plat­form is about cel­e­brat­ing all aspects of moun­tain life in the win­ter: cul­ture, art, tal­ent, busi­ness­es, ideas and images. Any­one who has spent some time in a moun­tain town can attest to the cre­ative types they tend to attract: Coldsmoke is all about bring­ing these indi­vid­u­als and their cre­ations together.

The rule of thumb for the Film Tour is that films must include ice or snow—snowmobiling, kite ski­ing, ice climb­ing, expe­di­tion­ing, alpine climb­ing, trav­el: it’s all welcome.

…Okay, There Are Some Ski Movies
While win­ter is not just about ski­ing, nobody can deny that ski­ing and snow­board­ing do make up a sig­nif­i­cant part of win­ter moun­tain cul­ture. The Coldsmoke Film Tour focus­es on a tru­ly excep­tion­al crop of ski and snow­board films. Their selec­tions tend to include those with stun­ning visu­als and ground break­ing  effects, like Brain Farm’s infa­mous The Art of Flight and snow­board genius Jere­my Jones’ Fur­ther.

A Lit­tle Bit of Every­thing
Films will include both pro­fes­sion­al and ama­teur sub­mis­sions, and fea­tures will range from shorts to full length films. You might even come across a few sub­ti­tled films.

Not Your Aver­age Film Cat­e­gories
Yes, there are awards for best cin­e­matog­ra­phy and best editing—but have you ever heard of a fes­ti­val with an award for the best pow­der? What about the “Explorer’s Award” or the “Best Descent”? These are some of the cat­e­gories pre­sent­ed at the awards show, which takes place on the tour’s final stop in Bozeman.

The Peo­ple Have a Choice
Per­haps the most cov­et­ed award of all is the People’s Choice Awards. Win­ter-lovers can peruse some of the 26 entries at the Coldsmoke web­site to  vote for their favorite. The win­ner of this award will walk away with a cool $10,000 in cash. The People’s hard work is reward­ed, too: one vot­er will win a prize of $1,000 cash plus a Pow­der Moun­tain cat ski­ing trip.

Leave the White Tie at Home
Those who attend a stop on the film tour are wel­come to stray from your typ­i­cal film pre­miere dress code. After all, some of the screen­ings venues will include sports bars and clubs, fit­ted out with the prop­er screens and sound sys­tems, of course.

The sug­gest­ed guide­line? “Be freaky, be bois­ter­ous”. In oth­er words, expect more than a few retro neon ski one­sies. Atten­dees might also want to bring along a bag of sorts, for the loot they are like­ly to pick up along the way.

Check out  www.coldsmokeco.com/awards for details on the event—let it snow!