Big Water Film Festival - Bay Theater - Ashland - Wisconsin

15th Annual Big Water Film Festival
November 2-5, 2022
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Award Winners in Previous Years

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.

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Ashland, WI 54806

See our Award-Winners

  • Award Winners in Previous Years

News

The 14th Annual Big Water Film Festival was a big success!

The 14th Annual Big Water Film Festival has now finished up.  Our first venture into the land of virtual film festivals came off better than we ever dreamed!  First off, we had spectacular films.  We thank every filmmaker who entrusted us with their film to show to our audience.  Next, we had great audiences.  If each week of our films had been a block of films showing at the Bay Theater in Ashland, we would have more than sold out the theater, more than once.  Finally, due to the donations that many of you made to the Film Festival and due to the Chequamegon Food Co-op’s including us in their “chip-up” program, we broke even, even though we sought no sponsors and charged no admission fees.  Thank you!

Here are the winners of this year’s 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)

We are already receiving films for our consideration for the 15th Big Water Film Festival.  We’ll be posting more about that in the months to come.

 

 

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