Courtesy Photo Nick Poli, Kevin O’Brien, and Gavin MacDonald, founders of The Sunset Project, gather for a photo recently. The Sunset Project is teaming up with the Thunder Bay International Film Festival to present the Sanctuary Selection film competition.

ALPENA — Filmmakers from Alpena and all over the Great Lakes region are eligible to enter a new competition, vying for the grand prize of $5,000 cash and inclusion of their film in the Thunder Bay International Film Festival.

The contest, called the Sanctuary Selections film competition, is a partnership between the TBIFF and The Sunset Project, a nonprofit based in Northeast Michigan that focuses on creative advancement.

Film submissions are being accepted now through Dec. 1. The submission window opened Oct. 1. The top five selected films will be shown in the 12th annual TBIFF, which will take place Jan. 24 to 28 in Alpena.

“Thunder Bay International Film Festival has been a really awesome staple of our community and a great way to learn about the sanctuary,” said Gavin MacDonald, executive director of The Sunset Project.

He reached out to Stephanie Gandulla with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary earlier this year to talk about a possible partnership.

“I said, ‘Hey, we’d love to build in, sort of, a deeper, bigger Great Lakes regional element to the film festival,'” he said. “We’re looking for really well-told, well-produced stories about the region and about the people from the region.”

The contest is open to anyone living in the Great Lakes region, which includes seven states and some Canadian provinces.

“We’re looking for professional-level films,” added Nick Poli, creative director of The Sunset Project. “Films that would be already entered into some sort of a film festival circuit. Specifically, our goal here is really to get some of these outside filmmakers … to have an opportunity to present their films to a new audience, tell their stories in a new way, and be involved in the Northeast Michigan community as a whole.”

Every January, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary hosts the TBIFF at several locations throughout Northeast Michigan. Through a longstanding partnership with the International Ocean Film Festival, TBIFF screens nearly 100 ocean and Great Lakes films from around the world.

​The Sanctuary Selections Panel is composed of industry professionals, Northeast Michigan community members, and representatives from TBIFF and TSP. The finalists will be selected based on creativity, originality, cinematography, and ability to adhere to the predetermined theme, “Representing the Great Lakes region through strong storytelling ­– with a focus on discovery, authentic experience, and human connection.”

Filmmakers will be contacted and notified of their film’s status on Jan. 5. Finalists must attend the screenings on Jan. 27 to be eligible for the cash prize. To ease the travel burden for the five finalists, TSP will provide lodging (one room per finalist) for the film festival’s Friday and Saturday nights. Finalists are encouraged to attend the Friday night gala of the festival and experience world-class ocean and Great Lakes films screened throughout the weekend.

For more details and contest rules, visit thesunsetproject.org/sanctuaryselections.