The audacious American documentary directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Varsarhelvi has overcome all expectations winning 20 Emmys in the following seven categories: outstanding directing for a documentary/nonfiction program, outstanding cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, picture editing, music composition and best achievement in interactive media.

The film highlights the brilliant and legendary mission undertaken by Alex Honnold, the greatest rock climber in the world who has embraced the risk to scale, completely alone and under extreme conditions, 3,000 ft vertical wall of El Capitan in Yosemite California.

The documentary spreads a strong life-related message: living life with purpose and encouraging people to not be overwhelmed by the fear.

“The storytelling of Free Solo represents not only the commitment towards extreme sports, which is part of Panerai DNA, furthermore it is a statement of modus vivendi: setting big goals in life and breaking through self-imposed limits. The only way to live the best life ever”, said Jean-Marc Pontroué, Panerai CEO.

What makes Free solo an extraordinary story is the portrait of a man with a breathtaking heart, a hero who kept his passion for climbing alive by showing an unbelievable lucidity and a complete awareness of the risk of death despite the adrenaline and physical effort.

A huge contribution for the great documentary’s outcome was made surely by the crew and how they approached in capturing Hannold while climbing. As stated by Panerai Ambassador Jimmy Chin “There was a tremendous amount of planning and choreography in terms of shooting Alex on the wall. Logistically there was a lot of matters that we had to deal with it as carrying all the equipment, building cameras on the wall, it’s a pretty significant physical task”.

For the special occasion, the National Geographic photographer and director Jimmy Chin celebrated his win for Best Documentary wearing the Panerai Luminor Due-45mm.