RIO's 2019 Amateur Film Awards contest begins

RIO Fishing Products, which is based in my hometown of Idaho Falls, Idaho, launched its 2019 Amateur Fly Fishing Film Awards contest on Jan. 1, with one lucky winner earning an all-expense paid trip to fish and hang with the RIO team on some of fly fishing's most fabled waters. 

I know, living here in Idaho Falls with ready access to not only the Henry's Fork, Teton and South Fork rivers, but also the wealth of public lands and the hundreds of smaller trout streams within a day's drive, that I'm a fortunate angler, indeed. But when I hear a trip to my home waters described by some as "the trip of a lifetime," I'm humbled. If eastern Idaho isn't the center of the fly-fishing universe, it's but a short cast away. 

The contest, open to new and amateur filmmakers, will also land the lucky winner's film in to next year's International Fly Fishing Film Festival—an honor, to be sure. Here are the rules, direct from RIO: 

The RIO “Amateur Fly Fishing Film Awards” is an opportunity for amateur fly fishing film makers to showcase this wonderful sport by entering a short film into this online film competition. Your submission could be a short story, a documentary, a collection of awesome shots, or even a clip from your cellphone that you feel deserves to be seen. Let your creativity be your guide! The rules are quite simple - make a 3-minute or less fly fishing film, and enter your film to be judged by the RIO panel, and by like-minded fly fishing enthusiasts on a variety of social media outlets.

RIO's 2019 Amateur Fly Fishing Film Awards run from 1/1/19 to 6/30/19, with the month of July being sent aside for all the final voting. The winner of the RIO Award will receive a check for $500 from the guys at IF4, as well as receive a free and automatic entry into the prestigious IF4 film tour next year. In addition, the winner will get an all expenses paid trip to fish in Idaho with the RIO crew sometime in September 2019 - exact dates to be confirmed.

If you've got the creative juices to shoot some remarkable video footage, get busy—you've only got six months to get it shot, edited and presented to the team at RIO, where it'll be judged by an appointed panel and presented to the masses on social media. 

Go for it. What have you got to lose?

— Chris Hunt