“Unless you are on top of Everest, there are few better places to be on a March weekend.”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the World's Greatest Living Explorer

The Sheffield Adventure Film Festival is back for it's 7th year. With sell-out screenings and ticket sales up by 77% last year Festival director Matt Heason promises ShAFF 2012 will be much, much more than just another film festival.

If you don't have time right now to read the whole programme, take 2 minutes to watch our all-kicking, all-screaming video trailer to see what's in store. It's already had 70,000+ hits on You Tube, smashing last year's total of 28,000 hits. Produced by award-winning climbing film-maker Alastair Lee of Posing Productions fame, French mountain guide and filmmaker Seb Montaz-Rosset said: “One of the best, if not the best, I've seen for a festival” (Read Matt's blog for more reaction).

The weekend of 9-11 March is a 'must-do' diary date for climbers with the CWIF International Bouldering Festival just up the road at the Climbing Works, the world's biggest bouldering wall. We've timetabled the festivals so you can make the best of both events.

NEW FOR 2012:

• New awards category 'Best Viral' to reflect the surging popularity and quality of shorts posted on You Tube and Vimeo.
• New 'Adventure Bites Loop' - an hour long repeat screening of the festival's best shorts.
• Extra ski/board films screening to accommodate the strong field of ski/board entries.
• Extra Young Adventurers showing afternoon matinee in addition to the Saturday and Sunday morning showings which sold out last year.
• Feature length movies - 3 feature length film screenings including big budget ski hits All.I.Can and The Art of Flight.
• New charity auction on behalf of Community Action Nepal.

ShAFF 2012 will have more films, lectures, competitions, music and activities than ever before. We're delighted to announce that the Californian outdoor gear and clothing company, Patagonia have come on board as Presenting Sponsor.

There's a record-breaking number of films - more than 75 in total averaging around 20 minutes in length, including 30 UK premieres. To make the programme more flexible, affordable and family-friendly, in addition to the usual 2 hour hand-picked mixed and specialist screenings, there's a one hour 'Adventure Bites' loop screening running continually in the cafe for just £3 for adults and £1 for kids and an extra Saturday afternoon showing of the 'Young Adventurers' films.

We have a great line-up of inspirational speakers including Simon Yates launching his new book “The Wild Within”, Andy Turner, fresh back from a trip to Canada, giving a illustrated talk and presenting the Petzl ShAFF Shorts Video Competition; John Porter's short talk on The MacIntyre Years before hosting ShAFF's first ever charity auction and Steve McClure will be there too.

The Showroom cinema's art deco cafe/bar is always a great place to relax and catch up with friends. To create a real festival-going atmosphere we're showcasing local musical talent with more live bands than ever before playing sets in between film screenings and our special ShAFF beer brewed by the Buxton Real Ale Company.

We have big prize competitions - the Arc'teryx Photo Shot with a wild card entry going up against four of the best adventure sports pro photographers in the business for a £500 cash prize and kit; and a chance to win £500 of kit and get your 3 minute adventure video shown on big screen with the the Petzl ShAFF Shorts competition.

Why not run off the Showroom's excellent food and drink and exhaust the kids by taking part in the South Yorkshire Orienteers Urban Orienteering Course after the Young Adventurers Saturday morning showing, then sell-off your spare kit at our My Outdoors Sponsored 2nd hand kit sale and relax with a massage at one of our health clinics before checking out our art and photography exhibitions?

It couldn't be easier to get to - the Showroom is just across the road from Sheffield's train station - 45 minutes from Manchester via the glorious Peak District and less than 2 hours from London. And it's better value than ever with our Carnet Ticket Bundle offer - buy 5, 10 or 15 tickets at one to get great discounts on showings.

Can't wait til March? You don't have to. We're holding three Expert Q&A nights in the month before the festival on Sheffield and the Peak District's adventure sports - Accelerate/New Balance/Trail Running magazine Off-road running night (Thursday 9th February); off-width climbing with the Wide Boyz (23rd February) and Mountain biking (Thursday 1st March) with Steve Peat and Sheffield's young guns.