Nine animated finalists set for Student Academy Award

Nine animated student films have been selected as finalists for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 38th annual Student Academy Awards Competition.

The nominated films are:
•The Birds Upstairs, Christopher Jarvis, New York University
•Correspondence, Zach Hyer, Pratt Institute, New York
•Defective Detective, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
•Dragonboy, Bernardo Warman, Academy of Art University, California
•The Girl and the Fox, Tyler Kupferer, Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia
•Heart, Erick Oh, University of California, Los Angeles
•The Renter, Jason Carpenter, California Institute of the Arts
•Swing, Yen-Ting Kuo, School of Visual Arts, New York
•Treasure, Chelsea Bartlett, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida

Academy members will view the films at special screenings and vote on the best films. The academy will present Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards along with cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000. The award winners also will attend a week of industry-related events in Los Angeles, culminating with an awards ceremony June 11 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The Student Academy Awards also presents honors for alternative, documentary and narrative films.

To reach this stage, students 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. For the first time this year, up to three films may be honored in the Foreign Student Film category. Academy members have selected students from the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom as finalists.
Previous Student Academy Award winners include current Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, who won the Student Academy Award in 1979 and 1980.
- by Thomas J. McLean(Animation Magazine)