The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 winners of the 42nd Student Academy Awards competition. The Academy reported a record number of entries this year – 1,686 films from 282 domestic and 93 international colleges and universities.
First-time honors go to Chapman University in the alternative category and Filmakademie Wien in the foreign film competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 33 finalists, announced last month.
The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging talent to showcase their work. Past winners, including Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker and Robert Zemeckis, have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards.
The winners are:
Alternative
Chiaroscuro, Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California
Zoe, ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York
Animation
An Object at Rest, Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts
Soar, Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco
Taking the Plunge, Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of Visual Arts
Documentary
Boxeadora, Meg Smaker, Stanford University
I Married My Family’s Killer, Emily Kassie, Brown University
Looking at the Stars, Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California
Narrative
Day One, Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California
Stealth, Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute
This Way Up, Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute
Foreign Film
Everything Will Be Okay…, Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria
Fidelity, Ilker Catak, Hamburg Media School, Germany
The Last Will, Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Winners will spend a week in Los Angeles attending industry events, culminating in the awards ceremony on Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony.