The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have named 15 winners for the 51st Student Academy Awards, making those student films eligible to compete for the 2024 Oscars.
Five of the 15 winning films come from international film schools in India, Japan, France, Czech Republic and Germany, while the remainder come from film schools in the U.S., including USC, NYU, Chapman, Brigham Young University, Brown, the School of Visual Arts and San Francisco State University.
Three of the international schools — the National Institute of Design in India, Digital Hollywood University in Japan and Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku in the Czech Republic — are winning Student Academy Awards for the first time.
Unusually, no film school received more than one award.
Winners were selected from a pool of 2,683 entries from 738 colleges and universities worldwide. Previous Student Academy Award winners include Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.
The winning films are eligible to compete for the Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. Past winners have received 67 Oscar nominations and won 15 awards.
It was previously announced that this year’s presentation ceremony, usually held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, will take place at the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square in London on Monday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. BEST, in partnership with Rolex. Gold, silver and bronze placements in each of the four categories will be announced at the ceremony.
The Student Academy Awards were founded in 1972 to provide a platform for rising talent by creating opportunities to showcase their work.
This year’s Student Academy Awards winners are below, listed alphabetically by category.
Alternative/Experimental
Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, “A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers,” San Francisco State University
Dori Walker, “In Living Memory,” Brown University
Animation
Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer & Estelle Bonnardel, “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” MoPA 3D Animation School, France
Kei Kanamori, “Origami,” Digital Hollywood University, Japan
Spencer Baird, “Student Accomplice,” Brigham Young University
Documentary
Rishabh Raj Jain, “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness),” New York University
Hannah Rafkin, “Keeper,” School of Visual Arts
Aaron Johnson, “The 17%,” Chapman University
Narrative
Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, “The Compatriot,” Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic
Jens Kevin Georg, “Crust,” Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Robin Wang, “Neither Donkey nor Horse,” University of Southern California