We all know that Rio de Janeiro is brimming with culture, artists, and rising stars, but what about the States? More specifically, what about little ol’ Ashland, Wisconsin (my home away from home)? The Big Water Film Festival is held in Ashland annually, serving as a platform for small-time filmmakers in the Wisconsin-Minnesota area.
This year’s Big Water Film Festival (BWFF) was held November 6-8th at the Bay Area Theatre. 34 different films were presented at the competition in categories of documentary, feature length, short, short-short, and animation. People from all over the area came and supported the filmmakers, and voted for their favorites. The results are in! Below are the winners from the BWFF!
Audience Favorite: Appleton, by Jimmy Costa
Jimmy Costa created a late-night thriller, using some of the Ashland locals as his actors. Viewers were encouraged to leave the kids at home for this one, but clearly the crowds enjoyed, hence this award!
Best Feature: The Public Domain, by Patrick Coyle
Patrick Coyle is the only filmmaker in BWFF history to win both the Audience Award and Best Feature in the same year. Coyle is keeping the awards coming with the Best Feature title from this year’s festival. Here is the trailer for his film!
Holly De Ruyter dove into the history of the Supper Club in her film “Old Fashioned”. The funny thing about Supper Clubs is no one quite knows what it means! De Ruyter gets to the bottom of this in her award winning dicumentary.
Honorable Mention: Taking Alcatraz, by John Ferry
John Ferry is part of LilliMar Pictures, a film company that focuses primarily on Native American films. Ferry’s film, “Taking Alcatraz”, won BWFF’s Honorable Mention on Sunday. Ferry got the information straight from the source, the prime leader of the takeover, Adam Fortunate Eagle.
Best Short: Counting Wolves, by George Desort
George Desort follows wolves and moose on Isle Royale, near northwest Lake Superior. With a sequel to last year, Desort returned from following the scientists that are studying the wolves in the area. Desort is also a photographer, which is the way to my heart!
Best Short-Short: Isola del Giglio, by Tom Schroeder
Tom Schroeder created this animation to give us a sense of life on an Italian island. The watercolor-esque design is what captivated me about this film! Short and sweet is done very well in this one!
Loren Savitsky Young Filmmakers Award: Nobody, by William Bryan
William Bryan created “Nobody” to showcase the person Elvis Presley was before he became the Elvis. Bryan became a fan of Presley when he was just 11 years old, and has been inspired by him ever since. Although I didn’t get to see this film personally, I heard many great things about it!
The Big Water Film Festival was a complete success this year! I hope that some of you will consider making the trip to little Ashland next year!
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