
CHARLES GAGNIER AND BEN CORMIER AWARDED FIRST PLACE HONORS IN SPRING BACK TO VAIL’S FIRST-EVER BREITLING ALL MOUNTAIN FILM COMPETITION
- The Winning Video Production Team, Gagnier and Cormier, Were Awarded Two Breitling Backcountry Emergency Watches
- Breitling All Mountain Film Competition Was Held Tuesday, April 14 – Friday, April 17 at Vail and Breckenridge Resorts
VAIL, Colo.—April 24, 2009—X-Games gold medalist and U.S. Open winner Charles Gagnier and Mystic Lands Production filmmaker Ben Cormier, both from Canada, claimed first place in the Breitling All Mountain Film Competition held in Vail, Colo. as part of the annual Spring Back to Vail end-of-season festival. The winning duo were awarded two Breitling backcountry emergency watches valued at $12,000 at the festival’s World Pond Skimming Championships held Sunday, April 19. The public was able to view all videos on Friday, April 17 at Garfinkel’s in Lionshead Village.
Charles Gagnier, James Deighan of Highline Sports & Ent. and Ben Cormier
Film Comp duo Liam Downey and Josh Berman were awarded second place and received one Cablecam day with Dactylcam.com, while David Lesh and William Ball took third place and were awarded two Epic Season Passes for the ’09-’10 season. Fourth place honors went to Matt Luczkow and Rex Lint; in fifth place was Benny Hernreich and taking sixth place was Tom Naab and Tyler Malay. Honorable Mention “Best Trick” went to Mark Koelker and Honorable Mention “Most Entertaining” went to Brent Meyer’s video and to Bob Aubrey’s video.

Level 1′ Josh Berman shooting in Vail, CO
“Filmmakers’ videos showcased a wide variety of creative shots and use of terrain on Vail and Breckenridge Mountains,” said JF DuRocher, IF3 International Freeski Film Festival co-founder and Breitling All Mountain Film Competition originator. “Every submission had a different flavor and a different taste, from ballet skiing to innovative maneuvers, Each and every entry had something different to offer, which made the beauty of such competition. The organizers were more than pleased to witness such diversity, originality and creativity and will adapt the format of the competition in order to reward different facet of creation next year. “

Charles Gagnier live on Vail’s TV
With a total of 20 video submissions, The Breitling All Mountain Film Comp featured teams of two people, one rider and one filmmaker, utilizing any terrain on Vail Mountain and Breckenridge Mountain over the course of four days, Tuesday, April 14 to Friday, April 17, in order to create the most unique and original three-minute video. Videos were judged by a select panel of professional judges including JF DuRocher of IF3 International Freeski Film Festival, Chad Moore of Reelcomp.com and Ben McNair, Vail resident and respected snowboarder.


Premier Party @ Garf’s !
“As judges, we recognized that each team had a different perspective of the film comp concept, the rules and the regulations and therefore didn’t disqualify any videos and respectfully reviewed all of them based on the judging criteria,” explains DuRocher. “The judges, who each come from different riding and filmmaking backgrounds, believed that filmmakers and athletes shared the responsibility of honesty in submitting videos and needed to honor the rules and regulations of the competition.”
“Adding an on-mountain film competition to Spring Back’s already wildly popular festival is something we’ve talked about doing for years and is such a natural fit,” said James Deighan of Highline Sports & Entertainment. “When JF came to us two years ago with the concept, we were thrilled, it took us a year to bring on a title sponsor in Breitling, and then the competition became a reality.. We hope this event continues to go and can’t wait to see what some of the world’s very best riders and filmmakers create next year!”
Most of the videos are available on Vimeo We will be adding all of the videos shortly.
Spring Back to Vail 2009 was presented by Vail Resorts, Bud Light, Amp Energy, Volvo, Town of Vail, Breitling, Tuaca and SKI Magazine. Brought to you in part by Smith Optics, Liberty Skis, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, reelcomp.com, Neve, Army, Vail Daily, TV8, KZYR The Zephyr. The ECO Village is brought to you by IZSTYLE, Reverb, Stonyfield Farm and Honest Tea.