AMPAS® Announces Student Academy Awards®

Students from eight colleges and universities have been named winners of the Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences' 35th Annual Student Academy Awards®. Eleven students attending college in the U.S., and one film student from the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany, who has been selected to receive the honorary foreign film award, will receive their awards in a ceremony 7 June at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Tickets are now available and are free.

The U.S. students first competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to send as many as three finalist films in each of four award categories. Academy members then screened the finalists’ films and voted to select the winners.

Winner's placement – Gold, Silver or Bronze – will not be revealed until the ceremony 7 June. In addition to a trophy, Gold Medal winners receive $5,000, Silver Medal winners receive $3,000, Bronze Medal winners receive $2,000, and the Honorary Foreign Film winner receives $1,000.

Winners are (listed alphabetically within each category by University):

Alternative:
San Francisco State University - Phoebe Tooke, CIRCLES OF CONFUSION.
University of Southern California (USC, Los Angeles) - Shih-Ting Hung, VIOLA: THE TRAVELING ROOMS OF A LITTLE GIANT.

Animation:
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts, Valencia, CA)- Nicole Mitchell, ZOOLOGIC.
The Ringling College of Arts and Design (Sarasota, FL) - Evan Mayfield, THE VISIONARY.
The School of Visual Arts (NYC) - Tatchapon Lertwirojkul, SIMULACRA.

Documentary:
American University (Washington, D.C.) - Laura Waters Hinson, AS WE FORGIVE.
Columbia University (NYC) - J.J. Adler, UNATTACHED.
USC - Brian David, IF A BODY MEET A BODY.

Narrative:
Florida State University - Z. Eric Yang, THE STATE OF SUNSHINE.
USC - Melanie McGraw, PITSTOP.
USC - Rajeev Dassani, A DAY'S WORK.

Honorary Foreign Film:
Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany - Reto Caffi, ON THE LINE (Auf der Strecke). Caffi was selected from a pool of 43 entries.

Information about tickets, etc.:
The Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Doors open at 5 p.m. All seating is unreserved. The Gold Medal-winning films and the Honorary Foreign Film will be screened in their entirety. A maximum of four free tickets may be requested online (click title of this post), in person at the Academy box office, by calling the Student Academy Awards department at (310) 247-3000, ext. 130, or by mail: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; 8949 Wilshire Boulevard; Beverly Hills CA 90211-1972.

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 35 Oscar® nominations and have won, or shared, six Academy Awards. Two former Student Academy Award winners were nominated in the Documentary Short Subject category at the 80th Academy Awards held earlier this year. James Longley was nominated for SARI'S MOTHER, and Amanda Micheli for LA CORONA (The Crown). The winner was Josh Raskin's I MET THE WALRUS.