Forty-two student filmmakers, representing four countries and 21 U.S. schools are still in the running for the 2010 Student Academy Awards, which will be presented on June 21 at the Academy.
For the main awards, which are presented in four different categories, 37 different films were named as finalists by the Academy. USC, NYU, CalArts and the Savannah College of Art and Design each placed three films on the list of finalists; Stanford University and the American Film Institute have two finalists each.
For the Foreign Film Award, an honorary prize, finalists include two filmmakers from the United Kingdom, along with others from Sweden, Germany and Slovenia.
Over the years, Student Academy Award winners have gone on to win or share seven Oscars, and be nominated for 40. Past winners include Spike Lee, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis and “South Park” creator Trey Parker, who said he stiffed the Academy for his minibar tab in 1993 and jokingly blames that for his loss to Phil Collins in the Best Song Oscar competition seven years later.
Awards are separated into four categories: Animation, Narrative, Documentary and Alternative. Academy voters may select up to three winners in each category; winners are announced in advance, but the level of their prize – gold, silver or bronze – is not revealed until the ceremony, which takes place at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The three levels carry cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,500.
(Photo of 2009 Student Academy award winners by Matt Petit/AMPAS.)
The finalists:
Alternative
“Balance,” Debra Sea, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
“Multiply,” Emily Henricks, University of Southern California
“My Mother’s Prelude,” Imran Shafi, University of Southern California
“Surface: Film from Below,” Varathit Uthaisri, Parsons The New School for Design, New York
“Water, Moon, Mirror, Flower,” Tianran Duan, University of Southern California
Animation
“Deadline,” Bang Lao Yir, Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia
“Departure of Love,” Jennifer Bors, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
“Down to the Bone,” Peter Ahern, Pratt Institute, New York
“Dried Up,” Isaiah Powers and Jeremy Casper, Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri
“Lifeline,” Andres Salaff, California Institute of the Arts
“Mashed,” Adam Fisher, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York
“Piece of Cake,” Eliza Ivanova, California Institute of the Arts
“The Wonder Hospital,” Beomsik Shimbe Shim, California Institute of the Arts
Documentary
“A’plas,” Diego Colombi, Savannah College of Art and Design
“Arresting Ana,” Lucie Schwartz, University of California, Berkeley
“Dreams Awake (Suea Despierto),” Kevin Gordon and Rebekah Meredith, Stanford University, California
“Ecoviews: Three Stories from Chesapeake Bay,” Ted Roach and J.P. Eason, American University, Washington, D.C.
“My Name Is Sydney,” Melanie Vi Levy, Stanford University
“Prayers for Peace,” Dustin Grella, School of Visual Arts, New York
“Rediscovering Pape,” Maria Royo, City College of New York
“When I’m 64,” Caitlin Brown, New York University
“‘Yizkor’ Remembrance,” Ruth Fertig, University of Texas at Austin
Narrative
“The Cemetery Club,” Yitz Brilliant and Geoffrey Booth, Columbia University, New York
“Day Labor,” Lowell Frank, San Diego State University, California
“Down in Number 5,” Kim Spurlock, New York University
“Equestrian Sexual Response,” Zeke Hawkins, American Film Institute, California
“God of Love,” Luke Matheny, New York University
“Inspector 42,” Nathan Lee and Lyvia Martinez, Brigham Young University
“The Last Bogatyr,” Sarah R. Lotfi and Kevin Beechwood, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
“The Lunch Box,” Lubomir Kocka, Savannah College of Art and Design
“Patrol,” John Ford, American Film Institute
Foreign finalists:
“The Confession,” Tanel Toom, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
“Janna & Liv,” Therese Ahlbeck, Dramatiska Institutet, Sweden
“The Night Father Christmas Died,” Martin Schreier, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
“The Road Home,” Rahul Gandotra, London Film School, United Kingdom
“Trieste Is Ours,” Ziga Virc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
The AMPAS press releases: Student Academy Awards Finalists, Foreign Finalists.
