2026 Adaptive Adventure Film Festival Recap
The Adaptive Adventure Film Festival this year was outstanding! As the biggest community event in the Mastering Mountains’ calendar, we were blown away by the turnout and are so grateful for the incredible support of our local community and sponsors.
A Night of Inspiration
This year’s festival featured six powerful films — spanning from rock climbing, rafting, skiing, and mountain biking — highlighting resilience, community, and hope within each of the subjects. The films from the evening were The Parkinson's Project (Best International Film), Riverbound (Best NZ-Made Film), 2 Legs is 2 Easy, Dragon Mom, Onsight and Best Day Ever, each story showcased individuals pursuing adventure and redefining boundaries.
The feedback from the night has been wonderful, with several attendees sharing how the event expanded their understanding of what is possible in the outdoors with a disability. Creating that exact shift in perception is at the heart of why our Adaptive Adventure Film Festival exists.
Fuelling Future Adventures
This event was also a fundraiser, enabling Mastering Mountains to continue empowering people with neurological conditions to access the outdoors, manage their conditions long term and reconnect to themselves and their community.
Across the entire event, we raised roughly $7,500. Every single dollar goes directly toward running our rehabilitation programmes, developing resources, and cultivating community for New Zealanders living with neurological conditions and their whānau. These funds make a massive difference in helping participants access the equipment, mentoring, and support needed to achieve their outdoor goals.
It Takes a Community
An evening like this is truly a collective effort, and it could not have happened without our wonderful community. We are also deeply grateful to our presenting partner, Black Diamond, and our sponsors: NZ Mountain Safety Council, Suzuki New Zealand, Nikon NZ, Trail Journeys NZ, Shipleys Audiovisual, and Mountain Journeys. A huge thanks goes to our hosts, Bivouac Outdoor, our 10 fantastic helpers who worked graciously to keep things running smoothly, and to our many amazing raffle prizes and luck-dip donors.
The Adventure Continues
As always, it’s an incredible privilege to participate in events with such a strong sense of community. We were amazed to see so many people engage with films that normalise disabilities outdoors, and then donate in support of making the outdoors more accessible, helping create a future where every person with a disability can live a life of hope, connection, and adventure on their own terms. We are already thinking ahead to next year's festival and can’t wait to enjoy it with you.
If you are interested in hosting a screening of the film festival near you, please get in touch – we are keen to hear from you!
A huge thank you to our other sponsors:
Old Ghost Ultra, FreshChoice, Pure Sport Nutrition, Sanitarium, Boulder Co Christchurch, Real Meals, Scorpio Books, Hanmer Hot Springs, Uprising, Ground Effect, Miro , Earl, Wicked Rogaine, Soma Studios, Earth Sea Sky, Utopia Ice, and Smash Palace.
