UMFF 2025. 9. 26 - 9. 30

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UMFF  /  UMCA  /   UMCA 2025

Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award

The Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award is awarded to those who have made exceptional contributions to the progress of mountain culture, such as nature, environment, climbing films and literature.

Reinhold Messner

To commemorate the hosting of Korea¡¯s only mountain film festival, the Ulju Mountain Film Festival (UMFF), Reinhold Messner was invited in 2016 to share his life and philosophy through a lecture and exhibitions. His lecture drew over 300 Korean mountaineers who came to hear about his mountaineering experiences.

Messner¡¯s lecture became a catalyst for highlighting various aspects of mountain culture. One key outcome was the establishment of the Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award by UMFF, which is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to mountain culture.

Messner is a living legend in the world of mountaineering. He was the first person in history to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, and the first to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders. Since 1974, he has authored some 80 books, and since 2003, he has operated both Messner Mountain Museum (MMM) and the Messner Foundation for Himalayan Residents.

UMCA Selection Criteria

The Committee for Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award (UMCA) is pleased to announce that the winner of UMCA 2025 is Reinhold Messner (81) from South Tyrol of Italy. Widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time, Messner made a long list of groundbreaking ascents, notably the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen, along with Peter Habeler, the first solo ascent of the mountain again without the oxygen use, and the first successful ascents of all 14 eight-thousanders. Messner also first crossed Antarctica and Greenland without snowmobiles or dog sleds, and crossed the Gobi Desert alone.

Messner¡¯s neverending passions for mountain and exploration did not end there, but led him to explore several other domains of human creativity as well. He has published over 80 books on climbing and exploration. His books have been translated into numerous languages, not to mention Korean, sharing his unique experiences and deep reflections with the general public around the world. Moreover, he endeavored into the art of filmmaking, producing fine films about climbing and exploration. He founded the Messner Mountain Museum (MMM), which consists of six locations.

Despite his old age, Messner is still working hard to preserve traditional mountaineering and disseminate its values to the world, especially through the Reinhold Messner Horizonte, founded by himself and his wife Diane Messner, travelling to give talks, feature films, and hold public discussions about the attitude towards the mountains. Their newest project is located in the 3 Zinnen Dolomites region, the ¡°Reinhold Messner Haus¡± opening at the end of June 2025.

In short, incomparable is his contribution to the world of mountaineering and mountain culture by revealing the unique perspective of mountaineers to the outside world and expanding the horizons of mountain culture to a new level. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival (UMFF), by awarding Messner the UMCA of this year the Committee wishes to celebrate the spirits of mountain and mountain cultures as well as to express congratulations to his great achievements.

UMCA Committee

  • Choi Joong-ki(Chairman of UMCA Committee) Chairman of Korean Society of Mountain and Mountaineering Research
  • Christine Pae Vice President of Korea Alpine Federation
  • Oh Young-hoon Researcher, Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies, Seoul National University
  • Albert Lee Publisher of Alpinist Magazine in Korea
  • Chung Young-mok Professor Emeritus, Seoul National university College of Fine Arts
  • Chung Il-keun Chair Professor, Kyungnam University

UMCA Exhibition

  • Date : 1 Apr (Fri) ~ 10 Apr (Sun)
  • Venue : Welcome Center Square

UMCA Lecture + Q&A

  • Date : 2 Apr (Sat) 14:00 ~ 15:30
  • Venue : Alps Cinema 2

MOVIE #TO_BE + Q&A

  • Date : 3 Apr (Sat) 10:00 ~ 11:30
  • Venue : Alps Cinema 2
  • Guest : Krzysztof Wielicki(Lead Character), Grzegorz Lipiec (Director), Maja Pietraszewska-Koper (Producer)

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Stephen Venables Interview

“Thank you very much for nominating me. I feel very honored. And slightly embarrassed to be followed on from people like Diemberger and Bonington!”

1. How does it feel to come to Korea after 5 years?

I am really looking forward to returning to Korea, as I remember well our wonderful welcome and enthusiastic audience last time. But I am particularly pleased this time to be coming in the autumn, when your wonderful forests will look incredibly beautiful and it will be cool enough to enjoy some of your fine granite rock climbs.

2. How have you been doing since then? What kind of exploratory activities did you do during COVID-19?

When the big Covid-19 panic broke out in March 2019 I was aboard Pelagic Australis sailing back from the Antarctic Peninsula to Chile. I was only just able to fly back to Spain and then got the last flight from Spain to Britain. I then spent a very pleasant spring, enjoying beautiful weather in Edinburgh and doing little rock climbs in the royal park of Holyrood, just beside our apartment. Since the end of lockdowns, I have been enjoying the mountains and sea cliffs of Scotland and last September, with my colleague Skip Novak, I led a team on a ski traverse across the mountains of South Georgia.

3. What are you going to lecture about at UMFF?

I have not decided yet, but I will try to include some of the best moments from 50 years of mountaineering around the world. And I will certainly took a bit about the wonderful island of South Georgia, where I have made ten expeditions, and which is the subject of the film ‘A Southern Quest’.

4. Which mountain film have you seen that impressed you the most?

‘The Long Hope’ is a fairly recent film about Britain’s biggest sea cliff, on the island of Hoy, in the far north of Scotland. It is an immense precipice of very scary sandstone, with vomiting fulmars (a European sea bird) adding to the danger. The first ascent by Ed Drummond and Oliver Hill, in the sixties, took several days, and involved some precarious aid climbing. Five decades later, Scotland’s rock climber, Dave MacLeod managed to climb the route completely free, in a single day. it was an astonishing piece of climbing. What I liked about the film was its sense of history - using archive photos and interviews from the sixties ascent - combined with the excitement of Dave’s modern ascent. It was a well told story, full of human emotion.

5. How big is the audience for mountain films in the UK? Do people in the UK enjoy watching mountain films?

Good mountain films are very, very rarely shown on mainstream television here. However, they are popular with a specialist audience at film festivals like the Kendal Mountain Festival.

6. Climbing the East Face of Everest in 1988 is probably your greatest memory. This year is the 70th anniversary of Everest's first ascent, and there are over 150 Everest summitter in Korea. What does Everest mean to you as a mountaineer?

I feel a special connection with the 70th anniversary, because we were the official 35th anniversary expedition and John Hunt - leader in 1953 - was our Honorary Leader in 1988. He became a good friend and I also got to know nearly all the other members of the 1953 team and, although I never met Tenzing Norgay, I have got to know several of his relatives. So I fell a personal connection with the mountain and I have very fond memories of our own climb in 1988. We were not good enough to climb in pure alpine style, but by using fixed ropes we came back alive! I was lucky enough to join an outstanding team - just four people, unsupported, on the the biggest face on the world’s highest mountain.

7. What would you like to say to your fans in Korea who are waiting for you?

I am looking forward very much to meeting you!