One year ago the Grade 5 class at Grosvenor Wentworth Park School in Halifax wrote, shot and directed the stop-motion short film, "The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly."

Now this western-flavoured ode to energy conservation is among 2010's official entries for the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

The charming film is also making history: it marks the first time that grade-school students have made the nominations for the annual Ottawa festival.

"We do more than one film a year, but this was our first kick at the can with animation," Andrew Stickings, a teacher at Grosvenor Wentworth Park, told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.

After a class discussion, 23 students came up with the plot for a high noon light-bulb shootout set in a tumbleweed-infested town named "Squander."

The clever concept also pitted energy-wasting characters against energy savers.

"We looked through the thesaurus to look for names of the town," student Emma Knapp told Canada AM.

The fledgling filmmakers corralled all their miniature cowboy hats, bandanas and popsicle sticks for the set-building process.

One child brought in cowboy-boot stickers. Another enlisted the help of his electrician father. Everyone involved helped to construct the film's set.

"We did a lot of it during lunch breaks," says Stickings.

Each day six to eight students stayed behind to create their masterpiece. After two months the final product was completed.

The stop animation process was very time consuming, says Stickings.

"We took 2,000 pictures," he says. The final product features 1,600 delightful images of good bulbs and bad bulbs strutting through saloon doors and dusty streets.

"The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly" went on to win a youth award at the Atlantic Film Festival.

That victory inspired Stickings to submit the film to the Ottawa festival.

"I sent it off to see what would happen," Stickings said with a smile.

"The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly" will face some competition, however. One school from the United States and another from South Korea are also vying for this year's award in the animation category.

"It's exciting," says student Joseph Carpenter. "We were only in Grade 5. They usually look at grades higher than us."

The Ottawa International Animation Festival starts on October 20th.