The 2011 winners are:
Alternative category
Gold Medal: The Vermeers, Tal S. Shamir, The New School, New York
Animation category
Gold Medal (tie): Correspondence, Zach Hyer, Pratt Institute, New York; and Dragonboy, Bernardo Warman and Shaofu Zhang, Academy of Art University, California
Bronze Medal: Defective Detective, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
Documentary category
Gold Medal: Vera Klement: Blunt Edge, Wonjung Bae, Columbia College Chicago
Silver Medal: Imaginary Circumstances, Anthony Weeks, Stanford University
Bronze Medal: Sin Pais (Without Country), Theo Rigby, Stanford University
Narrative category
Gold Medal: Thief, Julian Higgins, American Film Institute, California
Silver Medal: High Maintenance, Shawn Wines, Columbia University
Bronze Medal: Fatakra, Soham Mehta, University of Texas at Austin
Foreign Student Film category
Gold Medal: Tuba Atlantic, Hallvar Witzo, The Norwegian Film School, Norway
Silver Medal: Bekas, Karzan Kader, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sweden
Bronze Medal: Raju, Max Zaehle, Hamburg Media School, Germany
Gold Medal award winners received cash grants of $5,000, Silver Medal award winners received $3,000 and Bronze Medal award winners received $2,000.
The U.S. students first competed in one of three regional competitions. Each region was permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalists in each of the four categories. Academy members then screened the finalists’ films and voted to select the winners. The foreign student winners were selected by Academy members at special voting screenings from a pool of 52 entries from 32 countries.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 43 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards.
