Deadline's Telluride Film Festival review covers "Tenzing", an Apple Original Films biopic that revisits the historic 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest but tells the story from the perspective of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who reached the summit moments after Edmund Hillary, rather than centring on the British climbers usually credited with the feat. Director Jennifer Peedom, a documentary filmmaker known for Mountain, River and Sherpa, spent roughly two decades developing the project, which the reviewer notes fills a surprising gap given how few major narrative films have tackled one of history's great real-life triumphs.

The film, shot on location in New Zealand and Tibet, follows Tenzing (played as a boy by Samdrup Dorje Lama and as a young man by Tenzin Dhalha) from his childhood herding yaks in Tibet through his insistence on being recognised as an official expedition member rather than merely a hired guide. Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary, Willem Dafoe plays expedition leader Colonel John Hunt, and Caitríona Balfe plays expedition secretary Jill Henderson, with Johnny Flynn appearing in flashbacks as George Mallory, whose fatal 1923 attempt preceded the successful 1953 climb. The reviewer describes the film as handsomely shot but slow-paced by modern standards, praising its choice to foreground the class tensions Tenzing faced and his bond with Hillary as the story's emotional core.