The 21st NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival will be run again this year in in-person and online formats. The popular seven-day event is scheduled to be held in Wānaka from June 23 to 27, Queenstown June 29 to 30 and online from June 23 to July 23.

The online festival has become increasingly popular with the number of online viewers matching the number of attendees last year.

“We were a little reluctant to show our films online at first,” said festival director Mark Sedon. “Bringing people together for the festival and encouraging them to visit the Southern Alps is an important part of what we do but, of course, Covid forced us to adapt a few years ago and introducing the online festival has turned out to be a very good thing. It opens the festival up to more people generally and helps us reach a few younger fans which is also one of our goals.”

Submissions for films close April 20.