At the 23rd annual Midwest Media Educators Association film festival, students won several awards for videos they created in broadcasting.

The competition was hosted by Neuqua Valley High School on April 29.

“A gold award is being in the top third in every category, a silver award is being the second third in the category, while bronze is the lower third of all the videos submitted,” broadcasting teacher David Jennings said.

Seniors Caroline Cisilino, Keileen Driscoll, and Kelsey Pekosh won a gold award for their video “Safe and Sound.”

“It was around a 3-minute song by Taylor Swift, the song was sort of  death lullaby. Our video basically started out by showing the audience a funeral to establish a scene to show (Driscoll) the light and the dark and which one she chooses,” Cisilino said.

A public service announcement video called “Stop Lock Turning”  by seniors Emma Fox, Allison Kolman, Nicole LaFleur, and Kendra Whelan also won a gold award.

“Close the Chromebooks” was submitted by seniors Alec Dolan, Peter Dolan and Jourdan Habecker and won a silver award. Seniors Grace Kelley, Mason Otzwirk and Cameron Zayia won a silver for “You’re in the Army Now.”

The video “Elf On the Shelf” by seniors Fox, Allison Kolmann and Kelsey Pekosh won a silver award.

In the dramatic narrative category, the video “The Tracks of My Tears” by seniors Bill Gill and Art Reza won a silver award.

The music video the “Somewhere Only We Know” won a silver award by seniors Fox, Kolman, LaFleur and Whelan.

“Cheeto Fingers” was a public service announcement video that seniors Ryan Hancock, Ronni Katarzynski, Kelley and Otzwirk that won a silver award.

For the bronze award senior John Fitzgerald won for his submission “LAX.”

Seniors Ashley Tijerina and Jacob Watkins won a bronze award for their dramatic narrative video “A Deadly Run.”

For the category of 7-day challenge seniors Cisilino, Driscoll and Pekosh won a bronze award for their video “Mind Over Matter.”

Videos were submitted during February.

“Students are judged on the technical qualities of the film. Judges look for how the videos are well shot, well edited, well lit, and sound. The videos have been viewed and judged by professionals in the industry,” Jennings said.

According to Cisilino, “Safe and Sound” was made in just three days.

“It feels good to be recognized. We worked so hard to make the video in just three days so I felt like it was worth it,” Cisilino said.

MMEA allowed students to see other students videos from different schools.

“All of the people that won their awards had very good videos so I say hard work is something that I learned. Some of the other schools had  better access to more equipment than we did. But, you are not going to get a gold award for just easily getting something done,” Cisilino said.