WHITEFISH — The 20th annual Backcountry Film Festival returns to Whitefish Tuesday night — helping spark conversations about the human connection to wild places.

Eleven films focused on winter adventures will be showcased during the Backcountry Film Festival, helping promote access and stewardship of public lands.

The popular film festival returns to the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish Tuesday at 7 p.m. with all proceeds benefiting Wild Montana’s Flathead-Kootenai Chapter.

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“This is our biggest fundraiser and it’s so nice to engage businesses from the community to be a part of our organization,” said Flathead-Kootenai chapter President Chris Rost.

Wild Montana is a grassroots conservation nonprofit that unites and mobilizes communities around a shared love of wild places in Montana.

Rost said their vision aligns perfectly with the Backcountry Film Festival, "Been involved in the film festival for 10 years, I think four of our chapters actually host it around the state."

Tickets cost $20 to attend and Flathead businesses donate prizes to be raffled off during intermission with all proceeds going to Wild Montana.

“They recognize the value of public lands and people getting out there and recreating and so that’s part of what Wild Montana does is we unite communities and of course businesses are part of our communities, so we all come together to support public lands,” Rost said.

Glacier Guides and Montana Raft Company donated a six-person raft trip to be raffled off. Owner Denny Gignoux encourages Montanans to adventure outside as much as possible.

“We just support people being able to escape their cellphones and their computers and the hustle and bustle of normal life to get out and really have great adventures,” Gignoux said.

Rost said proceeds from the festival will be reinvested into the community through trail maintenance projects across northwest Montana.

“We have a great project with the Creston Fish Hatchery where we are actually creating a brand-new trail out there, and we also help in the Jewell Basin with different trail maintenance and advocacy type projects, there’s a lot of stuff we do so that money is great," Rost said.

More information on the film festival can be found here.