ACADEMY NAMES ‘STUDENT’ ACADEMY AWARDS

Last year’s honorary foreign film winner Tanel Toom prior to the 37th Annual Student Academy Awards® on Saturday, June 12 th, 2010, in Beverly Hills. Credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Twelve students from nine U.S. colleges and universities and three students from outside the U.S. have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition.

The student filmmakers will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry-related activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 11, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Alternative category
The Vermeers, Tal S. Shamir, The New School, New York

Animation category
Correspondence, Zach Hyer, Pratt Institute, New York
Defective Detective, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
Dragonboy, Bernardo Warman and Shaofu Zhang, Academy of Art University, California

Documentary category
Imaginary Circumstances, Anthony Weeks, Stanford University
Sin Pais (Without Country), Theo Rigby, Stanford University
Vera Klement: Blunt Edge, Wonjung Bae, Columbia College Chicago

Narrative category
Fatakra, Soham Mehta, University of Texas at Austin
High Maintenance, Shawn Wines, Columbia University
Thief, Julian Higgins, American Film Institute, California

Foreign Student Film category
Bekas, Karzan Kader, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sweden
Raju, Max Zaehle, Hamburg Media School, Germany
Tuba Atlantic, Hallvar Witzo, Norwegian Film School, Norway

Academy members have viewed these films at special screenings to determine the winners’ placements – Gold, Silver or Bronze – which will not be revealed until the June 11 ceremony.  Gold Medal award winners receive cash grants of $5,000, Silver Medal award winners receive $3,000 and Bronze Medal award winners receive $2,000.

The U.S. students first competed in one of three regional competitions.  Each region is 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 students were selected 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.

How wonderful for them.

For more than anything that you ever wanted to know about this event, go online at www.oscars.org.