This coming weekend sees the return of the eighth Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival to George Square Lecture Theatre and with twenty films from all areas of adventure, exploration and extreme sports it promises to be a fantastic event for anyone interested in watching insightful and awe-inspiring films set in some of the world’s most beautiful locations.

‘Three words: entertain, enlighten and inspire,’ summarises EMFF director and founder, Stevie Christie, when asked about the ethos behind the four-day adventure extravaganza. ‘We want people to have a great weekend watching the best adventure films around, but we are also looking to highlight some important issues, especially environmental ones. Most of all, however, we want to encourage people to go on adventures themselves. In a way it’s a bit strange we hold such an outdoor event indoors, but hopefully people will come for a weekend and then go back thinking what adventures they could do and where they could explore. Maybe they will even make a film about it and then we can show it next year!‘

The Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival is in its eighth year and over that time it has grown into one largest festivals of its kind in the UK, with over 2,500 people expected to descend on Edinburgh for EMFF 2010.

The Festival receives numerous entries of films every year and deciding which ones will make the cut and be shown over the weekend is the unenviable task left to Stevie and his colleagues: ‘It is a really hard job, and unfortunately the number of films that don’t get shown is far greater than the number that do. We try to get a good breadth of films, representing a wide variety of adventures and sports. I personally like films with a story, rather than just non-stop action shots although obviously we do have some of that too. We also try to strike a balance between small and large budget films, showing several films by amateur film-makers from around Scotland and elsewhere".

Certainly EMFF presents a wealth of variety, with film lengths ranging from five minutes to an hour-and-a-half and subjects varying from trial biking to BASE jumping and from mountaineering to record breaking white-water kayaking. Highlights include Uncomfortably Numb, a film charting two men’s 700km kayak journey through British Columbia, Beyond the Summits, a feature-length documentary on ‘best female climber of all time’ Catherine Destivelle, and Follow Me, a ten-minute flowing film displaying some of the world’s best mountain bikers as they reach the top of the trail and just say ‘follow me’. On the closing night of the festival there will also be another chance to see Immersion, often heralded as one of the best ski films of all time, showing not just unbelievable ski sequences but also exploring the personalities behind these mind-blowing stunts.

Although the festival does center around films, there are also other events taking place throughout the weekend including lectures from adventurer Benedict Allen and cycling world-circumnavigator Mark Beaumont and a new feature for 2010: a debate entitled "The Ethics of Adventure". ‘The decision to have a debate this year was largely influenced by the film Solo - Alone at Sea,’ explains Stevie.

The film describes the story of Andrew MacAuley, an Australian adventurer who in 2007 embarked on an expedition to become the first person to kayak solo from Tasmania to New Zealand and perished in the attempt, leaving his wife and young son behind. ‘It is a truly harrowing film and I think anyone who watches it will find themselves questioning the risks involved in Andrew’s tragic trip. We have assembled a fantastic panel for the debate and hopefully members of the audience will also contribute to what should be a really thought-provoking discussion on the ethics of risk and other important issues relating to adventuring and exploration. Solo – Alone at Sea will be shown directly before the debate and if you only come and see one thing this weekend I would recommend this be it. It’s a deeply moving piece of filmmaking and one not to be missed.’

It seems that there is much more to adventure film than shot after shot of snowboarders flying through pristine powder snow whilst shouting ‘gnarly’ at each other, and whether you are a seasoned mountaineer or merely an armchair explorer you would do well to head down to the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival this weekend to find out more.