Each year, Film Green Bay presents the Green Bay Film Festival, a platform for local filmmakers to “make their names and films known to a community thirsty for talent with a thriving knowledgeable film base,” according to the organization’s founding statement. The Festival was first begun in 2011, and this past year celebrated its fifth anniversary.

One interesting part of the Festival is the Future Filmmaker Competition. The competition is open to elementary, middle or high school students and is free to enter. A panel of judges evaluates the submissions and selects ten finalists, who receive a mentoring session with professionals of the industry as well as weekend passes to the Festival.

The judge panel selects three of the ten finalists to have their films screened at the Festival and then are awarded with first, second, or third place.

This year, NDA sophomore Marisa Jacques won first place in the Future Filmmaker Competition with her short film “More Than Puppy Love,” as well as a $250 scholarship for future projects.

Jacques, who recently won a George Kress Youth Award in the category of Art, was not expecting to win, but after being selected as one of the ten finalists, had been hoping her film would be shown.

“My film is about a little dog who is tied up at a fire hydrant while his owner is shopping,” explained Jacques. “A lady and her dog walk past and the little dogs fall in love. He chases after her and by the time the owner is finished shopping, his dog is out of sight. It starts to rain and he goes home for the night. The woman later finds the dog and returns it to the owner. It is still pouring out so she invites him in until the storm clears.”

The film, in fitting the competition’s requirements, was just under three minutes long and was a cartoon that took over 20 hours total to create. Jacques drew each frame on a computer program, then comprised the 6,000-odd frames to create the film.

Jacques film was produced, written, filmed and edited entirely on her own.

“Puppy Love” was her first cartoon. “I made it because I wanted to try something different. It’s fun to try new things,” she explained.

Although her award-winning cartoon was a first, Jacques has long been pursuing an interest in film.

“I have been interested in filmmaking since I was 7 or 8,” said Jacques. “My four siblings and I would put on plays for the family and neighbors. As everything became more digital, I started experimenting with recording off an iPod and it just went from there.”

Jacques’ hard work and determination paid off for her, and she was awarded a $250 scholarship, which she intends to use as a budget for projects in the future.

You can see her film, “More Than Puppy Love,” here at the Online Tritonian.