Jennifer Peedom Directs Tenzing (2026), Her First Feature

Published by Wilderness Film Productions.
We served as the Nepal production support company for the Tenzing (2026) shoot.

Introduction

Jennifer Peedom's path to directing Tenzing began long before Apple came calling. She arrived with more than a decade of documentary work inside the Sherpa community itself. Her 2015 film Sherpa remains one of the most respected accounts of the 2014 Everest avalanche that killed sixteen Sherpa guides, and that reputation shaped why Tenzing Norgay's family trusted her with this project.

In Tenzing (2026), Peedom directs her first narrative feature, working with a Hollywood cast and a global distributor for the first time in her career. This piece covers her real background, why she was chosen to direct Tenzing, the film itself, and how Wilderness Film Productions supported the Nepal shoot.

Who Is Jennifer Peedom

Jennifer Peedom was born in Canberra, Australia, and grew up taking family holidays built around bushwalking and cross-country skiing in the mountains. She graduated from RMIT in Melbourne with a Bachelor of Business with Honours in 1997. She worked as a commodities trader before moving into filmmaking. Her first major credit was a 2003 SBS Dateline special called Everest's Sherpas: Forgotten Heroes of the Himalayas, which began her long working relationship with the Sherpa community.

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Her early feature Solo, co-directed with David Michôd, told the story of Australian adventurer Andrew McAuley's fatal attempt to kayak solo from Tasmania to New Zealand. It won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary Under One Hour in 2009. In 2017, she directed Mountain, a collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra narrated by Willem Dafoe. That film became one of the highest-grossing Australian documentaries of all time. She followed it with River in 2021, again narrated by Dafoe, and Deeper in 2025, about the rescue of a boys' football team from a flooded cave in Thailand.

The 2014 Everest Avalanche and Sherpa

In April 2014, an ice block broke free from Everest's Western Shoulder and fell into the Khumbu Icefall. Sixteen Sherpa guides died, in the deadliest single day in the mountain's climbing history. Peedom was already in the Khumbu Valley filming what would become Sherpa. The avalanche reshaped the film's focus onto the guides themselves rather than the foreign climbers who hire them.
Sherpa premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2015, where it won the audience award. It went on to earn a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary in 2016. Critics praised its unflinching look at the risks Sherpas take and the tensions between local guides and the climbers who depend on them.

Why Peedom Was Chosen to Direct Tenzing

Norbu Tenzing, Tenzing Norgay's son, serves as an executive producer on Tenzing. He had reportedly turned down earlier proposals for a film about his father. Peedom's long relationship with the Sherpa community, built over two decades of documentary work in the Khumbu Valley, gave the family confidence in her approach. Tenzing marks her first narrative feature. She has said in interviews that her approach to the material has not changed with the larger scale of the production.

About Tenzing (2026)

Tenzing is an Apple Original Films production written by Luke Davies. Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing Norgay, Tom Hiddleston plays Edmund Hillary, and Willem Dafoe plays Colonel John Hunt. Caitríona Balfe plays Jill Henderson, and Tenzin Dalha also appears in a significant role. The film is produced by See-Saw Films, the company behind The King's Speech and Lion. Tenzing premieres in select theaters on October 9, 2026, and debuts globally on Apple TV+ on October 16, 2026.

Filming Locations in Nepal

Principal photography took place across five primary locations in Nepal. These included Patan Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Jomsom in the Mustang district, Bandipur in Tanahun district, sites across Sindhupalchok, and Khumjung village in Solukhumbu near Everest itself. Each location was selected to match a specific period or setting within the story, from 1950s Kathmandu to the mountain villages where Tenzing Norgay's own life unfolded.

How Wilderness Film Productions Supported the Shoot

Wilderness Film Productions, working through our sister company Wilderness Outdoors, managed the ground operation for the Nepal portion of this production. The production chain began with See-Saw Films as the international producer, which assigned local production to India Take One Production, and India Take One brought us on as the local partner handling permits, logistics, and coordination across all five locations.

Our team scouted and photographed candidate sites before Peedom arrived, delivering accessibility and permit reports ahead of principal photography. We coordinated accommodation and transport for a crew that peaked at 120 people, hired and supervised 45 local crew members including Sherpa guides, porters, drivers, and translators, and stationed high-altitude medical teams at every location above 3,500 meters.

Aerial and drone work was handled separately, assigned to us directly by Plum Productions and See-Saw Films. When a last-minute weather change forced a location shift from Namche Bazaar to a lower valley, our team secured the new site and moved all equipment within 72 hours. The Nepal shoot did not lose a single day to permit or logistical issues.