"Premiere adventure events happen year round and we hope that the festival can bring another element through film to attract more people to come and visit Rotorua.
"We hope that this year will get the Rotorua community out to celebrate the lifestyles we live every day in nature's playground which is on our back doorstep," he said.
The five-week film festival features a selection of international feature films, documentaries and short films.
"For the first year of the festival we have decided on a trail and water theme.
"A selection of incredible films from the adventure and action sports genre, including mountainbiking, kayaking, surfing and skydiving, will captivate, shock, inspire, and above all entertain you," he said.
Rotorua's Reading Cinema will host the two-day Rotorua festival launch next weekend - November 8 and 9 - before it heads to Wellington, Nelson, Dunedin, Auckland and Hamilton.
"We are very excited to establish the festival and we are really pumped to be bringing such a high calibre of adventure films to New Zealand.
"We have handpicked some of the best mountainbike, kayak and surf films on the planet,' Mr Stevenson said.
On "Trail Night" the films Arrival, Coastal Crew (Canada) and Where The Trail Ends, (USA) will be shown.
On "Water Night" North Of The Sun (Norway) and Congo: The Grand Inga Project, (USA) will be shown.
Visit www.aaff.co.nz or Facebook for more details and to purchase tickets. There will be limited door sales on both nights.