Kathy Richards
Van Singel Fine Arts Center
A Kelloggsvile is among 60 Michigan high school students who were named as finalists in the Meijer Great Choices Student Film Festival. More than 300 videos were submitted for the annual film festival.
Tiler DeWitt, who attends Kelloggsville High School, is in the running for the 60 awards totaling $21,150 in prizes that will be awards to students on Saturday June 2, for the winning entires in the 2018 Meijer Great Choices Film Festival. The 10 a.m. awards presentation will be at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center, 8500 Burlingame Ave. SW, Byron Center.
High School students from throughout the state, submitted more than 300 :30 public service announcement videos promoting positive choices in the areas of Character Education, Healthy Living, and Celebrating Diversity. There are two different audiences that the young filmmakers targeted in their PSA’s: Kindergarten through 6th or 7th through 12th grades. DeWitt submitted his film in the K-6 Celebrating Diversity category. The Meijer Great Choices competition was designed for Michigan student film makers to exhibit their creative talent in audio/visual communications and to share their messages with K-12 schools throughout Michigan.
Audio/Visual/Advertising students and professors from Compass College of Cinematic Arts, Ferris State University, Cornerstone University, Grand Valley State University, Northwood University and Western Michigan University were the preliminary judges and choose the anonymous finalists based on specific criteria. High school students throughout Michigan have been notified that they are finalists and are invited to participate in the June 2nd awards presentation activities. There are eighteen 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners that will be announced at the awards presentation who will receive prizes of $1,500, $1,000, or $500 in the form of a gift card to Meijer. The 42 runners up (fourth through tenth place winners) will each receive a gift card for $75. All of the finalists in attendance will receive an award and gift at the awards presentation.
All 60 of the top PSA’s will be shown at the Awards Reception at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center. In September, the winning PSA’s in each category will be reproduced on DVDs and distributed to schools across the state as tools for their Character Education, Health Education and Diversity programs.
The Meijer Great Choices Film Festival also awards 12 classroom grants totaling $3,300 to K-8 classrooms who submitted video entries in the Meijer Great Choices Junior Film Festival competition. These PSA videos will also be recognized at Saturday’s Awards event.
The purpose of the film festival is to highlight the talent of the state’s audio/visual students while allowing these students to make a positive impact on Michigan’s K-12 youth in the areas of Diversity, Character Education, and Healthy Lifestyles. The festival is in partnership with Meijer, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, The Vander Laan Family Foundation, and the Van Singel Fine Arts Center.
