News Photo by Darby Hinkley

Winners of the Fourth Annual Student Film Competition at the Thunder Bay International Film Festival were announced Saturday after the finalists’ films were shown at Alpena Community College. Pictured, from left to right, are first place winner Akia Rutherford from Rogers City High School, and second place winners Noah Fetty, Matthew Guest, and Tanner Hatch from Alpena High School. Awards were sponsored by the Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Michigan Sea Grant for five of the 12 selected and screened films. This year, the competition had 48 entries from six Michigan schools. Twelve were selected to be screened at the film festival. Students submitted films 5 minutes or less in length about the theme “Exploration Is…” All the winning films will be posted on the Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Facebook page.

The top five award winners were: Fifth place: Elizabeth Black and Lilly Hamann from Alpena High School; fourth place: Molly Nichols and Kaitlin Miller from Stockbridge High School; third place: The Stockbridge High School “Inventeam”; second place: Noah Fetty, Matthew Guest, and Tanner Hatch from Alpena High School; first place: Akia Rutherford from Rogers City High School. Rutherford also won the People’s Choice award, selected by audience voting after the films were screened.