`40th Student Academy Award winners

Forty-one students from 23 U.S. colleges and universities as well as 10 students from foreign universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards competition. 

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 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards.  They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.

Academy members will now vote to determine up to three winning films in each category. The winners, but not their medal placements, will be announced later this month.  The winning students will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry activities and social events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 7, at 6 p.m., at the DGA Theater in Hollywood, at which time the gold, silver and bronze medalists will be revealed.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Alternative
“Dreamers,” Joseph Dwyer, Boston University
“Entropic Apogee,” Bill Manolios, Art Institute of California – San Francisco
“Jaspa’ Jenkins,” Robert Carnilius, Columbia College Chicago
“Oscillate,” Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York
“Passer Passer,” Louis Morton, University of Southern California
“Person,” Drew Brown and Ramona Ramdeen, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida
“The Private Life of Fenfen,” Leslie Tai, Stanford University
“Staircases,” Steinar Bergoy Nedrebo, School of Visual Arts, New York

Animation 
“Baxter,” Ty Coyle, Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia
“Goodnight Boon,” Jeremy Jensen, New York University
“Higher Sky,” Teng Cheng, University of Southern California
“Marcel,” Eric Cunha and Seung Sung, School of Visual Arts, New York
“Owned,” Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah
“Roadkill Redemption,” Karl Hadrika, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
“Two Ghosts,” Amy Lee Ketchum, University of Southern California
“Umbra,” Pedro Jesus Atienzar Godoy, Pratt Institute, New York
“Yamashita,” Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California

Documentary
“The Apothecary,” Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University
“Eth“no”representation,” Ryan Metzler and Scott Kulicke, Occidental College, California
“Heel’d,” Thomas Smith and McKenna Hinkle, Villanova University, Pennsylvania
“Light Mind,” Jie Yi, School of Visual Arts, New York
“My Sister Sarah,” Elizabeth Chatelain, University of Texas at Austin
“One Child,” Zijian Mu, New York University
“Punches & Pedicures,” Ashley Brandon and Dennis Höhne, Wright State University, Ohio
“Scattered,” Lindsay Lindenbaum, School of Visual Arts, New York
“White Earth,” J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University

Narrative
“AM800,” James Roe, University of New Orleans
“Above the Sea,” Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York
“Door God,” Yulin Liu, New York University
“Interstate,” Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California
“Istifa (Resignation),” Rahat Mahajan, Art Center College of Design, California
“So You’ve Grown Attached,” Kate Tsang, New York University
“Sweepstakes,” Mark Tumas, Temple University, Pennsylvania
“Way in Rye,” Goran Stankovic, American Film Institute, California
“What Remains,” Julie Koegl, University of North Carolina School of the Arts

Foreign Film
“Border Patrol,” Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom
“Intruder,” Geun Buem Park, Korean Academy of Film Arts, South Korea
“Kam,” Katarina Morano, University of Ljubljana – Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, Slovenia
“Nocebo,” Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany
“North,” Philip Sheerin, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
“Paris on the Water,” Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
“Sacred Defense,” Nima Mohaghegh, Netherlands Film Academy
“Souffle Court,” Johann Dulat, ENS Louis-Lumière – The National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School, France
“The Oasis,” Carl Marott, The National Film School of Denmark
“Wo Wir Sind,” Ilker Çatak, Hamburg Media School, Germany

To reach this stage, U.S. 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.  The Student Academy Awards Nominating Committee screened and voted on the finalists in the Foreign Film category.