The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is now accepting entries for the 40th Anniversary Student Academy Awards competition in 2013. Gold, silver and bronze medal awards, along with cash prizes, may be presented to student filmmakers in the following categories: alternative, animation, narrative, documentary and foreign student film.
The U.S. competition is open to all full-time college and university students at accredited institutions, whose films are made within the curricular structure of a film program or class at their respective schools. For 2013, the Academy has again limited the accepted accreditation agencies for U.S. institutions to the following: Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; New England Association of Schools and Colleges; North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities; Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. U.S. entries must be submitted by April 1.
In the foreign student film category, entries are accepted only from full-time college and university students attending schools that are members of the international film school organization known as CILECT and located outside the borders of the United States. The deadline to submit a foreign student film for consideration is March 22.
The 40th Annual Student Academy Awards presentation will be held June 8, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. In total, the past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 43 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include Pete Docter (1992), John Lasseter (1979 and 1980), Spike Lee (1983), Trey Parker (1993) and Robert Zemeckis (1975).