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Now in its 18th year in St. Louis and 25th across the globe, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, is one of the most anticipated events of spring for adventure lovers in the St. Louis area. This year's festival, brought to St. Louis by Alpine Shop, will be held at the OMNIMAX® Theater at the St. Louis Science Center on Wednesday, March 31 and Thursday, April 1. Each night will begin at 7 pm.

The World Tour features award-winning films and audience favorites from approximately 300 films entered in the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival held each November at The Banff Centre in the town of Banff in Alberta, Canada. With 13 of those films showing over two nights, the St. Louis stop of the 2009-2010 World Tour will feature everything from adrenaline sports to family-friendly adventures, with generous doses of humor and human interest as well.

"If there's one event that Alpine Shop puts on each year that truly represents what our company believes in, it's the Banff Mountain Film Festival," said Todd Oswald, marketing director for Alpine Shop. "No other event showcases our vision of "Generations Transformed Through Discovery Outdoors" like this."

Wednesday’s feature length film, Finding Farley, won the Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Awards at the Festival this past November. When filmmakers Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison, along with their two-year-old son, Zev, and indomitable dog, Willow, set out to retrace the literary footsteps of Farley Mowat – one of Canada’s most widely read authors - they meant it literally. Finding Farley ended up being a 5000-kilometer trip – trekking, sailing, portaging and paddling from the Prairies to the Maritimes.

Other award-winning films on Wednesday include: the Best Short Mountain Film, Mont-Blanc Speed Flying – a breathtaking continuous shot that follows a group of six paragliders from the upper slopes of Mont Blanc down to Chamonix; and the Radical Reels People’s Choice Award winning Kranked – Revolved – a high-adrenaline mountain bike journey from the French Alps to the lust coast of British Columbia.

Thursday night’s festival showcases the film Take a Seat, a recipient of a Special Jury Mention. In 2006, Dominic Gill set out from the northern coast of Alaska with a tandem bike, a camera, and a heavy trailer. His destination was the southernmost tip of South America, but the goal was to find strangers to help peddle the 220lb bike. Take a Seat is a tale of the extraordinary characters and incidents encountered over Gill’s two-year journey across two continents.

Thursday night will also feature another Special Jury Mention recipient, Project Megawoosh, a special extended cut of a viral video that captivated the world with the world’s tallest water slide.

Tickets are $10 for a one night pass or $17.50 for both nights and are available at all Alpine Shop locations or by phone at 314-962-7715. For a full list of films expected to show on each night, please visit: http://alpineshop.com/Events/misc/Banff_Film_Festival.html.