El Yelmo 2025: And the award goes to…
'This award is an incredible honour'
10 July, 2025, by Cross CountryThe Spanish free-flight festival El Yelmo celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend, and it saw more than 20,000 spectators and 300 pilots turn up.
As well as the air displays and competitions in XC and hike-and-fly, two of the sport’s biggest acro legends were honoured.
Cousins Raul Rodriguez and Horacio Llorens were both given Spanish Olympic Committee medals of sporting merit for their contribution to paragliding. It’s the first time paraglider pilots have been given such a medal.
El Yelmo is the biggest free-flight festival in Spain and second only to the Coupe Icare in France in terms of size in Europe.
The film festival is always hotly contested, and this year the French production Avec Riton won top honours.
The film, directed by Antoine Girard, Brian Mathé, and Morgan Monchaud, chronicles a 1,200km paragliding expedition along the legendary peaks of the Peruvian Andes.
Also scooping awards, the Spanish film X-Pyr 2024 about the Pyrenean hike-and-fly race won Best Air Sports Film. “This award is an incredible honour, especially from such a prestigious and long-established film festival” said Íñigo Redín, race director and founder of the X-Pyr race series.
The best short film went to Soul Flyers – A wingsuit trip in Reunion Island.
The best adventure film award went to The Magic of Freedom, by Jake Holland.
And finally, the Best Andalusian Production category, which has the collaboration of RTVA, went to Paragliding World Cup – Algodonales, by Will Appleyard and Aggie Heizer.
