Mountain movies are taking over big time in 2026!
From the deadly slopes of K2 to the world’s highest peak, some of the most talked-about films emerging from this year’s festival circuit are taking audiences to extreme altitudes – and asking much bigger questions about the people who climb them.
At Sundance, The Last First: Winter K2 revisited one of modern mountaineering’s most tragic expeditions. Venice and TIFF brought Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Everest: The Other Side, while Tenzing is retelling one of the most famous achievements in climbing history from a perspective cinema has rarely centred.
With all three arriving on screens this fall, here’s why mountain cinema is suddenly worth watching.
The Last First: Winter K2
First up is The Last First: Winter K2, a new documentary from director Amir Bar-Lev that takes audiences to one of the most formidable mountains on Earth.
The film revisits the dramatic winter 2021 season on K2, following Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Pakistani father-and-son climbers Ali and Sajid Sadpara as they attempt to become the first to reach the summit during winter. Their expedition unfolds alongside a changing climbing landscape, from commercial expeditions and social-media personalities to a Nepalese team pursuing mountaineering history on their own terms.
What begins as a story about an extraordinary physical challenge ultimately goes much deeper, exploring ambition, money, power and the culture surrounding extreme mountaineering. The mountain itself is inevitably a major presence, with K2’s brutal winter conditions providing the backdrop to a story that becomes increasingly tragic.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the documentary was acquired by Apple Original Films. The Last First: Winter K2 arrives on Apple TV on October 2, 2026.
Everest: The Other Side
From K2, we head to the world’s highest mountain for Everest: The Other Side, the latest documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaking duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin & Little Monster Films.
The filmmakers behind Free Solo turn their attention to ski mountaineer Jim Morrison and his late partner Hilaree Nelson, whose shared dream was to climb and ski Everest’s formidable North Face. What emerges is both an extreme adventure story and an intimate portrait of love, ambition and loss.
The film is already making its way around some of the world’s biggest festivals, receiving its world premiere at Venice before heading to Telluride and TIFF. For UK film fans, it’s also part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival before opening in cinemas and IMAX later this autumn.
And if the filmmakers sound familiar, they should. Vasarhelyi and Chin have made a career out of bringing some of the world’s most inaccessible places to the big screen, with previous films including Free Solo, The Rescue and Wild Life. This time, Everest provides the spectacular – and unforgiving – setting.
Everest: The Other Side opens in cinemas and IMAX worldwide on October 30, 2026.
Tenzing
Everest also takes centre stage in Tenzing, although this time we’re swapping documentary filmmaking for a sweeping big-screen drama.
Directed by Jennifer Peedom, the film tells the story of Tenzing Norgay, played by Genden Phuntsok, and the historic 1953 expedition that saw Norgay and New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary become the first people confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary, while Willem Dafoe stars as expedition leader John Hunt and Caitríona Balfe plays expedition secretary Jill Henderson.
Crucially, however, Tenzing places Norgay at the centre of a story that has so often been told through a Western lens. The film explores the tensions of class and empire surrounding the expedition, as well as Norgay’s very different relationship with the mountain: where members of the British expedition see Everest as a summit to conquer, he knows it as Chomolungma, the sacred mountain revered in Tibetan culture.
It’s another mountain movie emerging from this year’s festival circuit, but unlike Winter K2 and Everest: The Other Side, Tenzing recreates one of mountaineering’s most famous chapters as a narrative feature – making it an interesting companion piece to the two documentaries.
Tenzing opens in select cinemas on October 9 before arriving on Apple TV on October 16, 2026.
Mountains are having a movie moment
Three films, two of the world’s most famous mountains and three very different ways of looking at why people continue to risk everything to reach the world’s highest places.
But perhaps the most interesting thing connecting this new wave of mountain cinema is that the focus is shifting beyond simply reaching the summit. The Last First: Winter K2 examines the changing culture and power dynamics of modern mountaineering; Everest: The Other Side turns an extraordinary expedition into a deeply personal story of love and loss; while Tenzing places a Himalayan climber at the center of his own history.
With all three making their way from the festival circuit to wider audiences this autumn, 2026 might just be the year to head to the mountains – from the safety of a cinema seat, at least.
Supporting Nepal
Away from the big screen, Nepal is currently recovering from devastating flash floods triggered by a Himalayan glacier collapse on August 26, which caused widespread loss of life and severe damage to homes, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Those wishing to support affected communities can donate directly to the Government of Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, which is helping fund ongoing search, rescue, relief and recovery efforts.