Maui Film Festival plans awards show

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

•	'2002 Wild on Water Awards' 7:30 p.m. March 24 Castle Theatre, Maui Arts & Cultural Center $10; $7 for Maui Film Festival Passport holders (808) 579-9996 Also: music and food, from 6 p.m. March 24, in Candlelight Cafe, in the cultural center's Yokouchi Founders Court

The Maui Film Festival, a staple on the Maui arts and cultural scene, will launch the Wild on Water Awards — the Wowwy Awards — in March. The awards will honor extreme sports athletes and the filmmakers and photographers who ride the surf and provide a window on the world of water sports enthusiasts.

Barry Rivers, founder-director of the Maui Film Festival, said the inaugural ceremony will be on the same night as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Oscars, "to drive home the point that in a mainstream entertainment industry more and more reliant on special effects to wow an audience ... winners of Wild on Water Awards pull off stunts and produce images that seem possible only with special effects when, in fact, they're created using the time-honored traditions of mind over matter and balls over brains."

The ceremony will be at 7:30 p.m. March 24 at Castle Theatre, Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Earlier in the day, there's a free, live-from-Los Angeles telecast of the Oscars, from 2 to 6 p.m. at Castle Theatre.

The Wowwy will honor male and female winners in these categories: Best Big Wave Surfer, Best Surfer, Best Windsurfer, Best Kite Surfer, as well as Waterman of the Year and Waterwoman of the Year.

Additional praise will be bestowed on the Environmentalist of the Year, the Photographer of the Year, the Cinematographer/Videographer of the Year, the Innovator of the Year, and Living Legend.

Also, the Film/Video of the Year, on par with the Academy Award for the Best Film, will also be honored.

Filmmakers and photographers interest in the competition should contact Ginny Kiick, who is coordinating the event, at (808) 579-9244 by March 1.

Rivers said he intends to expand the scope of the competition in upcoming years and plans an international telecast of the Wowwy program by 2004.

Some proceeds will benefit the Surfrider Foundation and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.