Best Film on Culture and Nature: "On the Mountain", Eleonora Mastropietro, Italy

The main jury of Echo decided on several categories this year. Among them: best feature film, best climbing film, best mountaineering film, best culture & nature film and the Grand Prix.

The decisions were read by Ivo Baru - a member of the jury, who said about the winning film in the Best Film on Culture and Nature category, "On the Mountain":

No dialogues, no text, great 5!!! Watching it, it's amazing how much somewhere in the back of my subconscious "spins" - "Modern Times" by Charlie Chaplin. It might be interesting to look at it with anthropological "glasses"...

On the Italian side of Mont Blanc, at 3744 m above sea level, stands the grandiose version of the newly built cable car station. Where ten years ago climbers climbed for hours and days, today it is possible to reach in ten minutes.

"We climb to the mountains to find our soul" - was written in one of the films in the selection, and we believe that for many of those present, the mountains represent a spiritual journey to yourself, a place where you find your inner peace and discover the deepest in yourself.

If that is the image of the climbers who slowly and persistently climbed to these 3700 meters, this is the image today:

• Comfortable sunbeds finely arranged according to the sun's rays

• A guy with ripped jeans on his knees is drinking a glass of wine

• An aunt in a fur coat and thin boots climbs a small two-meter rock. The friend takes a picture of her during this feat

• A river of tourists who can't see anything around them, busy taking selfies

• The restaurant is full. In the kitchen, it's getting ready

• White piano in the lobby

Director Eleonora Mastropietro just quietly observes. It doesn't say anything. Her pictures are bigger than any words.

Congratulations!