' Tenzing' First-Look Clip Debuts at Telluride Ahead of Apple TV+ Release
Deadline has published the first-look clip and interview for Tenzing, an Everest drama from director Jennifer Peedom, ahead of its screening at the Telluride Film Festival (Deadline).
The film recreates the historic 1953 ascent of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary — the first humans to reach the summit of Everest, known to Sherpas and Tibetans as Chomolungma. It stars newcomer Genden Phuntsok as Norgay, alongside Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe, who plays expedition leader Colonel John Hunt. Peedom wrote the screenplay with Luke Davies, the screenwriter behind Lion.
Production took the crew to two mountain ranges: Mount Aoraki in New Zealand and on location in Nepal. Peedom, an Australian documentarian turned feature director, has spent two decades circling this material. She told Deadline that a 20-year-old piece she made for the Australian television programme Dateline, titled The Sherpa's Burden, planted the seed for the film.
Her aim, she said, is to correct mountaineering narratives that have historically centred white climbers while erasing the contributions of the Sherpa people who made the summits possible. The film positions Norgay not as a supporting figure in Hillary's story but as the protagonist of his own.
The festival trail is already mapped out. Tenzing is set to open the Zurich Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on 25 August (THR). From there it lands for audiences at home: a theatrical run in select cinemas begins 9 October 2026, followed by its streaming debut on Apple TV+ one week later, on 16 October. The film has an official press page at Apple's site (Apple TV Press).
The staggered release — a week in theatres before moving to streaming — follows the pattern Apple has used for prestige titles it wants in the awards conversation. Telluride, held over Labour Day weekend in Colorado, is one of the festivals that signals the start of that conversation each year, and a screening there often functions as a first read for critics and awards voters alike.
For audiences, the draw is straightforward: a Himalayan epic with a name cast, directed by a film-maker who has been telling Sherpa stories since before most of her current cast was famous. Whether Tenzing earns a place in the awards race will depend on how it plays at Telluride and Zurich — the first real reactions will land with the festival crowds.
