From 14th to 17th April the annual film festival celebrating adventure and discovery returns to Val d’Isere, taking place at the Congress Centre and Maison de Val.

Over four evenings you’ll be able to discover eleven films that will be judged by a jury as well as by the public. The evening screenings will be hosted by the legendary master of ceremonies, Sylvain Tesson.

Immerse yourself in a program full of emotions and adventures, with captivating films that will take you around the world. Meet the films in the running and get ready to experience an unforgettable edition!

View the full programme here: Festival programme

“At every edition of the Aventure et Découverte Festival in Val d’Isère, I wonder about the share of irrationality that drives adventurers. What are we looking for when we take on an impossible rock face, raging rapids, invisible steppes, or boundless seas? What are we trying to escape? What do we seek to conquer, to atone for? What Grail, what star, what quest lies at the horizon’s end?

I have often thought that there was an element of madness in these feats. I used to call it ‘craziness’—this urge to challenge the world.

But as I discover the films of this 28th edition, as I meet the heroes and filmmakers, I realize—just as you will—that adventurers are far more mentally resilient than we might believe!

They do not seek ‘risk for risk’s sake.’ They will all tell us so—from Nouria Newman to Pierre Petit, from Eliott Schonfeld to Yohan Guignard, Arthur Bourbon, and all those I cannot name here. The spirit of adventure embraces the unexpected, boldness, and danger all the more readily because the risks have been measured, studied, and mastered. The climbers, sailors, and explorers who will take the stage over these four days are not reckless daredevils but courageous hearts, guided by disciplined minds. Dreamers, yes—but with their dreams firmly on their shoulders.

If they face danger, it is not out of a morbid taste for peril, but because they believe that their desire to live will only grow stronger once they have conquered the risks.

The essayist Catherine Van Offelen has recently put a name to this harmonious balance between daring and reason in the traveler’s mind: phronesis. It is an ancient Greek concept. Our modern societies have misinterpreted it as ‘prudence,’ reducing it to a mere ‘precautionary principle’ that stifles action and shrinks the soul.

In her book Risquer la prudence (published by Gallimard), Van Offelen defines this virtue, which seems tailor-made for the participants of the Aventure et Découverte festival. Phronesis is practical wisdom—an art of action that does not reject peril but weighs it carefully before embracing it, meets it eye to eye, and approaches it intelligently.

Nothing is more daring than the prudent. Nothing is more serious than the risk-taker. Nothing is more measured than the adventurer. And nothing is more vital than this 28th edition of Aventure et Découverte!

Among the many expressions of the thirst for life that will be on display throughout our festival, we are honored by the presence of our president, Claire Chazal. A tireless advocate for the arts and literature, for taste and words, for both far-flung journeys and inner explorations. She dedicates long hours of her life to classical dance.

That is another kind of adventure—one of controlled gestures, mastered movement, and restrained power. Between grace and phronesis, this year, adventure is in good company!”

Sylvain Tesson.