The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Submissions for the fifth annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival are due Sept. 14. (Michael Martin/courtesy)

Submissions for the fifth annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival are due Sept. 14. (Michael Martin/courtesy)

Submissions for the fifth annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival are due Sept. 14. (Michael Martin/courtesy)

Submissions for the fifth annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival are due Sept. 14. (Michael Martin/courtesy)

Submissions for the fifth annual Steamboat Mountain Film Festival are due Sept. 14. (Michael Martin/courtesy)

Michael Martin has been making ski movies for more than a decade, but they’ve been a part of his life for much longer.

“For me, I kind of grew up with ski films, so it’s always been an interest of mine to be making films,” he said.

In 2003, Martin started the Steamboat Mountain Film Festival to share that love of snow-themed action with a town that lived and breathed it.

Now in its fifth year, the film festival has grown to include a TV show for aspiring filmmakers and two categories: one for action, “Reel People,” and one for lifestyle, “Reel Open.” Submissions for the festival are due Sept. 14.

“We’ve kind of evolved from it being just strictly action sport to incorporating a lot of different films,” Martin said.

The “Reel Open” category is new this year, and can include just about anything — as long as it’s 35 minutes or less. The category has the loose qualifier of involving “adventure.”

“That can be interpreted kind of however you want to interpret it,” Martin said.

Submissions for the “Reel People” category must be 20 minutes or less and need to include a three- to five-minute teaser to be aired on the festival’s television show, WZ-TV. That show, Martin said, started in June as a way to showcase local filmmakers of all genres. WZ-TV airs at 8 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays on Steamboat TV18.

The festival is from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 11 to 13. It will include three big premieres: “Hello My Name Is” from First Tracks Productions, “Lost and Found” from Teton Gravity Research and “Seven Sunny Days” from Matchstick Productions.

The film festival tends to range in size each year from 20 to 40 submissions, and in the past has spanned whole days and included filmmaking seminars. Martin said he hopes it will continue to grow.