Matchstick Productions

Brand overview and significance

Matchstick Productions is one of skiing’s defining film studios. Founded in the early 1990s by Steve Winter and Murray Wais and based around Crested Butte in Colorado, the company has released an annual feature-length ski film for decades, from the “Ski Movie” trilogy era to recent titles such as “The Stomping Grounds” (2021), “Anywhere From Here” (2022), “The Land of Giants” (2023), “Calm Beneath Castles” (2024) and “After the Snowfall” (2025). Its signature is clear: big-mountain lines filmed with narrative intention, park and backcountry segments that showcase modern trick vocabulary without losing flow, and athlete-driven stories that leave a lasting imprint on ski culture. MSP’s tours bring premieres to resort towns and cities each fall, giving communities a reason to gather, celebrate the season ahead, and meet the skiers who shape the sport.

MSP is widely recognized for pairing progressive skiing with polished cinematography and precise editing. The films are equally comfortable in marquee destinations and in “backyard” zones, and the casts have long featured household names and rising talents—X Games champions, World Cup winners, Olympic medalists, and cult favorites alike. If you want a single brand that tracks the arc of freeskiing—park, street, all-mountain, and big-mountain—Matchstick remains a reference point.

Product lines and key technologies

Matchstick’s core product is the annual feature film, supported by a fall film tour, digital shorts, remastered classics from the archive, and athlete minis that extend each year’s story. The features typically mix helicopter and lift-served big-mountain segments, sled-access missions, and resort or park shoots; pacing and music selection aim for clarity rather than spectacle for its own sake. Cameras, aerial platforms, and stabilizers evolve with the industry, but the company’s hallmark is how those tools serve readable skiing—long-lens shots that show speed and exposure, drone and heli angles that keep the line’s shape intact, and cut timing that lets tricks breathe.

Beyond cinema, MSP collaborates with festivals and venues to stage high-energy premieres, then sustains interest through the season with athlete edits, bonus cuts, and behind-the-scenes pieces. The result functions like a product family: the feature for the big screen, the tour for community, the shorts for ongoing stoke, and the archive for context.

Ride feel: who it’s for (terrains & use-cases)

While MSP doesn’t manufacture skis, its films speak directly to how modern skiing feels in different environments. Viewers who favor big lines, exposure, and snowpack problem-solving will gravitate to Alaska spines and interior faces; park and slopestyle fans will find clean trick grammar and progressive jumps in resort builds; all-mountain riders see everyday terrain—storm-day tree laps, windbuffed bowls, chalky ridgelines—ridden at a level that’s aspirational but still recognizable. If you want a film that makes you plan dawn patrols, wax for storm cycles, or practice a grab that stabilizes rotation, MSP’s pacing and shot selection make the “how” visible on first watch.

For families and newer skiers, the brand’s recent storytelling (including kid-narrated perspectives and segments that foreground why we ski) softens the barrier to entry without diluting the action. Veterans still get the heavy lines and technical tricks; newer riders get a map for what to practice next.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

MSP casts read like snapshots of the sport’s top shelf. Across eras you’ll encounter style leaders and contest winners in the same timeline—big-mountain chargers, freestyle innovators, and versatile all-terrain skiers. That blend is part of the brand’s authority: the films don’t treat competition and film as separate worlds, but as complementary arenas that shape how we all ski. Athletes featured across recent titles include names synonymous with Alaskan spines, British Columbia pillows, and resort-park precision; their segment choices keep the films grounded in real terrain rather than studio effects.

The reputation that follows is twofold. Within skiing, MSP remains a benchmark for “movie of the year” conversation and a known launchpad for breakout athletes. Outside the bubble, it’s one of the labels non-skiers recognize when they ask what modern skiing looks like now.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

MSP’s geographic backbone stretches from its Colorado roots to the Pacific Northwest and across the North. Crews return often to British Columbia for storm cycles, deep forests, and alpine windows, and to Alaska for spring spines and long fall-line panels that define big-mountain skiing. Resort and sidecountry segments frequently draw on Whistler Blackcomb, while Norway’s Lyngen Alps provide summit-to-sea canvases that reward patient snow reading. In Alaska, Alyeska Resort anchors storm-day laps and tour stops; in Colorado, Crested Butte Mountain Resort sits close to the company’s base and often features in tour chatter and athlete migrations.

This repeating map matters for viewers: if you ride these places, the films feel like field notes; if you dream of them, the films double as an honest preview.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

For a film studio, “construction” means fieldcraft. MSP’s output is built on experienced producers, cinematographers, editors, and avalanche-literate athletes working with permitted guide operations and resorts. The safety framework—forecasting, terrain management, contingency planning, and the discipline to walk away—underwrites the big shots you see on screen. Environmental impact is naturally part of the conversation in mountain media; MSP’s model leans on concentrated shooting windows, small crews, and local partners, plus a film-tour format that keeps premieres close to ski communities rather than far-flung red carpets.

Durability shows up in another way: the films are made to last. Rewatches reward attention to line choice, snow texture, and trick timing—the same details skiers take back to their home mountains.

How to choose within the lineup

If you want modern, everything-in-one-place skiing—park, all-mountain, and big-mountain—start with “The Stomping Grounds” for its “home-zone” lens and with “Anywhere From Here” for an accessible, kid-narrated tour of what’s possible. If you’re chasing heavy terrain and stacked casts, “The Land of Giants” delivers marquee faces, while “Calm Beneath Castles” leans into world-tour storytelling rhythm. For a right-now snapshot, catch “After the Snowfall” on the fall tour. History dive? Cue up the original “Ski Movie” releases to see how tricks, filming, and speed have evolved; the contrast with current work is part of the fun.

Think of this like picking lines on a storm day: match the film to your mood. Want progression cues for park laps? Choose a title with deep resort features. Want to study sluff management, speed checks, and exposure? Pick an Alaska-heavy year and watch how athletes protect momentum and exits. Planning a trip to British Columbia or Alaska for the first time? Use those segments to set expectations about terrain spacing, tree density, and weather windows, then compare against our location primers for British Columbia and Alaska.

Why riders care

Matchstick matters because it has spent three decades making skiing legible. The films showcase the sport’s top end without hiding the mechanics that get you there—how to line up a spine with speed in reserve, where to put the grab so a spin reads cleanly, why a particular face asks for a certain entry. They celebrate the culture where it actually lives: on storm-day chairs, in boot rooms, and on the long drives between zones. If your winter starts when the premiere tour hits your town and your goals for the season come from a sequence you can’t stop replaying, this is the label that keeps you hungry for the next dawn. And if you’re new to ski films, there’s no easier on-ramp: watch one title, pick a favorite segment, and you’ll know exactly what you want to ski tomorrow.