New Zealand rock climber Dave McKinney climbing the iconic Trollkonufingur, or Troll Finger, in the Faroe Islands. The expedition is detailed in a film at the NZ Mountain Film Festival, on at the Lyttelton Arts Factory on Friday and Saturday night.

From clambering up the highest peaks of Europe, to thrashing down steep mountain bike trails, the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival is an adventurer's ideal night out.

The annual festival of all things outdoors lands in Lyttelton, Christchurch, on Friday, set to either inspire Kiwis with worn tramping boots, or instil nerves among those who can't tell their crampons from their camping stoves.

Back-to-back screenings over two nights at the Lyttelton Arts Factory (LAF) will showcase the best international films on Friday, and top Kiwi films on Saturday night. Each screening will run for about two hours, including an interval.

JASE HANCOCK Extreme skier Sam Smoothy stars in The Sky Piercer, winner of the Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for best New Zealand film at the festival.

Festival organiser Francie Graham said Lyttelton was the "perfect place" for a festival of this kind.

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"I thought it was all about mountain climbing, but it really isn't. There is mountainbiking, there is cross-country skiing, there is an all-women film, so it's really a wide variety of things," Graham said.

JASE HANCOCK A scene from The Sky Piercer, a film by Jase Hancock screening at the NZ Mountain Film Festival.

"Lyttelton, and Christchurch as a whole, is quite a unique, outdoorsy community, full of people who appreciate challenges and pioneering."

Among the Kiwi films to show at the festival is The Sky Piercer, winner of the festival's Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for best New Zealand film. The film features Sam Smoothy (Cromwell), Xavier de La Rue (France), Nadine Wallner (Austria) and Fraser McDougall (Wanaka), and was directed by Jase Hancox.

The film follows the team on a very Kiwi experience of surfing, rock climbing and crayfishing as they wait for a weather window to ski and snowboard the east face of Aoraki-Mt Cook.

Another stellar Kiwi film is Trollfinger, following a team of Kiwis and locals from the Faroe Islands, as they embark on a new route up an iconic 313 metre sea stack known as the Troll Finger (Trøllkonufingur in Faroese).

Tickets to the festival are $15, available through the LAF website.