Big Water Film Festival - Bay Theater - Ashland - Wisconsin

15th Annual Big Water Film Festival
January 6-February 3, 2023

Award Winners in Previous Years

2022/2023

Best Feature.  Off the Beaten Path: Aaron’s Story.  Steve Date. 

Audience Favorite Award. Off the Beaten Path: Aaron’s Story.  Steve Date.

Best Documentary.  Imalirijit.  Vincent L’Herault and Tim Anaviapik Soucie.

Best Short:  A Fable for Four Voices.  Deb Ethier.

Best Short-Short.  Ghost’s Best Friend.  Michael James Leffler.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award. Beavers About Town. Yaz Ellis and Jack Mifflin.

Honorable Mention. Musher.  Anuradha Rana and Laurie Little.

2021/2022

Best Feature.  Skate or Die.  Ryan Ferguson. 

Audience Favorite Award.  Better Than Neil Armstrong. Alireza Ghasemi.

Best Documentary.  Say His Name – Five Days for George Floyd.  Cy Dodson.

Best Short.  Cold Storage.  Thomas Freundlich.

Best Short-Short.  Amanzi Olwandle.  Timothy Hay.

2019

Best Feature. Love Them First. Lindsey Seavert and Ben Garvin.

Audience Favorite Award. Love Them First. Lindsey Seavert and Ben Garvin.

Best Documentary. From Seed to Seed. Katharina Steiffenhofer.

Best Short. Wanted: Strong Woman. Marilyn Cooke.

Best Short-Short. Fairy Tail. Justin and Kristin Schaack.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award. Ouroboros. Emma Keehan.

Honorable Mention. Fraser Syndrome and Me. Kyle Anne Grendys.

2018

Best Feature. Manry at Sea~In the Wake of a Dream.  Steve Wystrach.

Audience Favorite Award. Risking Light. Dawn Mikkleson.

Best Documentary. Beneath the Ink. Cy Dodson.

Best Short. Radio Moon. Pierre Gaffie’.
 
Best Short-Short. Rag Dolls. Justin and Kristin Schaack.
 
Loren Savitsky Young Filmmakers Award. Last Meal. Austin Simmons.
 
Honorable Mention. Hoan Alone:  Personal Stories from the Bridge. Aaron Johnson.
 
2017

Best Feature. Saving Brinton. Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

Audience Favorite Award. Waabooz. Molly Katagiri.

Best Feature.  Saving Brinton.  Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

Best Documentary. The Ragman: A Hobo’s Story Untold. Cy Dosson.

Best Short. Behold, Such Clown. Jacob Pilgaard.
 
Best Short-Short. Light Sight. Seyed Tabatabaei.
 

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmakers Award. fifteen. Kara Hakanson.

Honorable Mention. Unleavened Bread. Wilfried Meance.
           and, for a decade of service to BWFF, the

Doyenne of Documentaries Award. Melody Gilbert.

2016

Audience Favorite.  I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker.  Clayton Cogswell

Best Feature.  The Great Alone.  Greg Kohs

Best Documentary.  Ghost Town to Havana.  Eugene Corr

Best Short.  Mousse.  John Hellberg

Best Short-Short.  Fish.  Saman Hosseinpuor

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmakers Award.  Smoke that Travels.  Kayla Briet.

Honorable Mention.  Women Outward Bound.   Maxine Davis

 

2015

Audience Favorite.  Appleton.  Jimmy Costa

Best Feature.  The Public Domain.  Patrick Coyle

Best Documentary.  Old Fashioned.  Holly De Ruyter

Best Short.  Counting Wolves.  George Desort

Best Short-Short.  Isola del Giglio.  Tom Schroeder

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmakers Award.  Nobody.  William Bryan.

Honorable Mention.  Taking Alcatraz.  John Ferry

2014

Audience Favorite.  American Heart.   Chris Newberry.

Best Feature.  Wicker Kittens.  Amy C. Elliott and Mike Scholtz.

Best Documentary.  The Starfish Throwers.  Jesse Roesler.

Best Short.  Contorsion.  Ingrid Chikhaoui.

Best Short Short.  Ice Dream:  Protect our Water.  David Doering.

Young Filmmaker.  Deliver Us from Evil.  Robert McDermott.

Honorable Mention- Feature.  Fragmented.  Douglas Elford-Argent.

2013

Best Feature: Awful Nice, Todd Skylar and Brock Williams.

Best Documentary: Gold Fever, JT Haines, Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

Best Short Film: World Fair, Amanda Murray.

Best Short Short: Woman Who Hates Plants, Morgan Miller.

Audience Favorite: Battle for the Elephants, J.J. Kelley.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award: Protect Our Future, Jordan Principato, Ahpahnae Thomas and Shania Jackson.

Honorable Mention (Feature): The Guide, John Meyers.

2012

Audience Favorite: Go Ganges!, J.J. Kelly and Josh Thomas.

Best Feature: Somewhere West, David Marek.

Best Documentary: Smokin’ Fish, Cory Mann and Luke Griswold-Tergis.

Best Short: Prisoner of Her Past, Howard Reich and Gordon Quinn.

Best Short-Short: Bounce, John Akre.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award: Lazarus, Nicholas Giombi.

Honorable Mention (Documentary): Wild Bill’s Run, Mike Scholtz.

2011

Best Short Film: Bike Race, Tom Schroeder.

Best Short-Short Film: Girl of My Dreams, Doug White.

Best Documentary: Just Like Us, Ahmed Ahmed.

Best Feature: Rough Tender, Joe Dressel.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award: Ink Jet, Tom Radovich.

Audience Favorite: Truck Farm, Ian Cheney.

Honorable Mention (Short): The Letter, Steve Date.

2010

Best Short: Breakfast, Liang Jyan Wang.

Best Short-Short: Frozen Clothesline, Tony Woiak.

Best Documentary: Paddle to Seattle, J.J. Kelly and Josh Thomas.

Best Feature: Into Temptation, Patrick Coyle.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award: Marble Rye, Max Rosen.

Audience Favorite: Into Temptation, Patrick Coyle.

2009

Best Short: Chronicles by the Other, Sophie Farkas Bolla.

Best Short-Short: Pete’s Palace, Amanda Becker.

Best Documentary: Women in Horse Racing: The Bettye Gabriel Story, Margaret Orlando, Rosemary Orlando, and Colleen Musker.

Best Feature: The Other Side of Paradise, Justin Hilliard.

Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award: Portrait of an Artist, Jake Ryan and Leo Joseph Marks.

Audience Favorite: Come and Get Your Love, Rhonda Rana.

2008

Best Short: Just One of the Gynos, Brandon Olive annd Alex Ranalvelo.

Best Documentary: Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart, John Ferry.

Best Feature: Woodpecker, Alex Karpovsky.

Audience Favorite: Mr. Positive, Mike Hazard and Emily Rumsey.

News

The next Big Water Film Festival will be virtual once again.

After much consideration, the Big Water Film Festival Committee has decided that once again our Festival will be virtual only.  The COVID pandemic keeps throwing all of us curveballs.  We have no way of knowing how dangerous congregating in a movie theater will be this Fall, and yet the pretty long lead time we need to put on the Festival required us to decide this summer whether we feel comfortable inviting our audience to gather in person.  The decision was made easier by the great reception given to our virtual 14th Annual Festival.  Many more people– from all around the world– saw our films virtually than usually see them in person, and a lot of people told us they appreciated the safety and convenience of viewing the films online.

Still, we miss getting together in person with our audience and filmmakers, and hope this year to re-introduce our popular Cinema and Cinnamon Rolls discussions with filmmakers in a live virtual programming format.

As with last year, tickets for the Festival will be absolutely free.  We had such great support last year through voluntary donations that we were able to pay all our expenses even though we sold no tickets.   Please keep supporting us this year, so that we can keep making the Festival free and open to anyone who wants to watch.

Just as a reminder of some of the great films we screened last year, here are the winners of the 14th Big Water Film Festival Awards:

Audience Favorite:  Better Than Neil Armstrong – Alireza Ghasemi – Iran. (Week 1)

Best Short:  Cold Storage – Thomas Freundlich-  Finland.  (Week 7)

Best Short-Short:  Amanzi Olwandle – Timothy Hay – South Africa. (Week 7)

Best Feature:  Skate or Die – Ryan Ferguson – United States. (Week 2)

Best Documentary:  Say His Name – Five Days for George Floyd – Cy Dodson – United States.  (Week 2)