The Big Water Film Festival takes place on the shores of Lake Superior, in Ashland, Wisconsin and surrounding communities. Our Festival headquarters is the Bay Theater on Main Street in Ashland, an Art Deco theater with a completely modernized main screen with stadium seating.

Regular attendees at our Festival know it for its friendliness and the ease with which audience members and filmmakers can mingle and chat. Our Friday evening screenings are always preceded by a reception with good food at a bar across the street from the Bay Theater.

Big Water's first twelve years were as a live Festival. Then, in 2020 COVID forced us to cancel what would have been the 13th BWFF. Our 14th and 15th Annual Festivals (we just decided to skip 13, like the 13th floor at a hotel) were all virtual. You can see what films we presented most recently here: https://15thbigwater.eventive.org/welcome.

For our 16th Festival, to be held in January/February of 2024, we plan to have a hybrid of live and online showings. Filmmakers should plan to have accepted films shown online for a brief period of time through the Eventive platform, which provides full DRM anti-piracy protections. As of our opening for submissions for the 16th Big Water Film Festival, specific dates have not yet been set.

We accept films of all genres and points of origin. Some of our favorite films have been made by local or Midwest filmmakers and some have come to us from all around the world, including Iran or France or Canada. Our website lists all of our previous award winners. https://bigwaterfilmfestival.org/award-winners-in-previous-years/.

Awards & Prizes

BWFF values your work and devotes a fair amount of its budget to awards. The Big Water Film Festival awards the following prizes: Best Feature, Best Short, Best Short-Short, Best Documentary, Audience Favorite, and the Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award. Each award comes with a certificate, a beautiful hand-made award bowl, and $150. (For as long as we are obliged to run a virtual-only Festival, we unfortunately cannot include the award bowl among our prizes.)

IF YOU WISH TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE LOREN SAVITSKY YOUNG FILMMAKER AWARD, PLEASE INCLUDE A COVER LETTER WITH YOUR DATE OF BIRTH. A FILMMAKER MUST BE 25 YEARS OLD OR UNDER ON THE OPENING DATE OF THE FESTIVAL TO QUALIFY.

Rules & Terms

1. The entrant certifies to the Festival that he/she/they/it has the right to submit the film and all visual or sound elements contained in the film, to the Festival, and to consent to the public showing of the film, and will defend and hold harmless the Festival, its committee members, and sponsors for any costs or damages associated with any copyright or other intellectual property or other claim (such as but not limited to libel, slander, or invasion of privacy) associated with the film or its submittal.
3. The entrant grants to the Festival the right to use the film, any trailer(s), still photos, publicity materials, and information about the cast and crew to promote the Festival.
4. If the film is accepted, entrant grants to the Festival the right to show the film at the 16th Annual Festival, which will be presented in person and online only during parts of the months of January and February, 2024. The Festival will not be obligated to withdraw the film from the Festival unless entrant provides notice to the Festival of the film's withdrawal before October 10, 2023.
15 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Deb Ethier

    Excellent venue for independent films with great, friendly communication. I felt very, very honoured to have my film "A Fable for Four Voices" win Best Short! A recommended festival!

    February 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks, Deb. "A Fable" is just beautiful. Even some of our animation-phobic viewers loved your film!

  • Nathaniel Hoff

    Big Water Film Festival was a great experience. It was hosted online, but we were in contact with the staff and everything went smoothly. We really appreciated the opportunity to screen for this event and hope to work with them again in the future. Ever Upwards! Nathaniel

    February 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks, Nathaniel. We were happy to be able to show your film, which got very high audience favorite ratings.

  • Justin + Kristin Schaack

    Thank you so much to the staff and volunteers at Big Water Film Festival. The hospitality, screening venue, and location in Ashland were all a delight! Thank you so much for supporting filmmakers.

    December 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks, Justin and Kristin. We love your films and hope you come back soon.

  • KARE 11

    Wonderful festival in beautiful lakeside town put on by people who adore film. Plus, the awards were pottery plates, how cool is that? Thank so much for having us out and for all your do to support independent filmmakers.

    November 2019
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    Response from festival:

    What a great film you shared with us. Thanks for coming.

  • Pat Battistini

    I can't thank Tish, Claire, and the rest of the staff for making us part of this year's festival. The communications and support were amazing. We will definitely keep this festival on our radar for any future projects we have!

    November 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks, Pat. We loved "Tin Can."