Paddle Canada’s Waterwalker Film Festival is a tribute to the late Bill Mason, a great conservationist, canoeist, and filmmaker who cared passionately about his work and the wilderness. He wanted to share its beauty and to promote its protection. As he once said, "Film is for me a means of expressing my feelings about the things I enjoy, things I am concerned about, mostly the natural world".
The Waterwalker Film Festival came together following Mason's death to help continue his vision. We hope, through this festival, to raise public awareness and support for wilderness conservation by celebrating these films from around the world on canoeing, kayaking, safety, conservation, and protection of our waterways.
Our mission is to provide an accessible and affordable film festival that paddle lovers across North America can offer to their local communities. Our host fees are very low and with proceeds supporting our Bill Mason Memorial Scholarship fund.
Note that all of our categories are PASSWORD PROTECTED and have a small fee ($2). This is in an attempt to limit irrelevant submissions.
The password is the same as the discount code used to get a free submission. To figure it out we have a quiz that every legit paddling filmmaker will guess right away. It is: the object (typically) made of wood, consisting of a handle, blade and shaft, used to propel a canoe (or other craft) through the water.
Waterwalker has never offered cash prizes. However, we do offer awards in the following categories:
- Canadian Location
- Raft
- River Kayak
- Documentary
- Adventure
- Inspirational
- Canoe
- Education
- Shorts
- Best Envrionmental
- Sea Kayak
- SUP
- Amateur