Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS
Academy Announces 2006 Student Academy Award Winners
By Leslie Unger
posted May 18, 2006, 16:37
Thirteen students from nine different
colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences' 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition.
They will participate in a week of industry-related activities and social
events culminating June 10 with the awards presentation ceremony at the
Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. One film student from South Africa also
has been selected to receive this year's Honorary Foreign Student Film
Award.
Thirteen students from nine different
colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences' 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition.
They will participate in a week of industry-related activities and social
events culminating June 10 with the awards presentation ceremony at the
Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. One film student from South Africa also
has been selected to receive this year's Honorary Foreign Student Film
Award.
The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):
Alternative*
"6 a.m.," Carmen Vidal Balanzat, City College of New York
"Perspective," Travis Hatfield and Samuel Day, Ball State University, Indiana
* Only gold and silver medals will be awarded in the Alternative category.
Animation
"The Dancing Thief," Meng Vue, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota,
Florida
"The Possum," Chris Choy, California Institute of the Arts
"Turtles," Thomas Leavitt, Brigham Young University
Documentary
"Reporter Zero," Carrie Lozano, University of California, Berkeley
"Three Beauties," Mak Hossain, Purdue University
"The Women's Kingdom," Xiaoli Zhou, University of California, Berkeley
Narrative
"Christmas Wish List," Sean Overbeeke, University of North Carolina
"El Viaje" ("One Day Trip"), Cady Abarca-Benavides, Columbia University
"Pop Foul," Moon Molson and Jennifer Handorf, Columbia University
Honorary Foreign Student Film Award
"Elalini," Tristan Holmes, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium
and Live Performance (AFDA).
While the U.S. winners know they will each receive an award, the level
of that award - gold, silver or bronze - will not be revealed until the June
10 ceremony. Besides trophies, gold medalists receive $5,000, silver
medalists are awarded $3,000 and bronze medal recipients are presented with
$2,000. The Honorary Foreign Film winner receives $1,000 in addition to the
trophy.
The U.S. students first competed in one of three regional
competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to nominate as many as
three finalists in each of the four award categories. Academy members then
screened these finalists' films and voted to select the winners.
"Elalini" by Honorary Foreign Film winner Tristan Holmes, was selected
from an original pool of 29 submissions from 22 countries. Holmes is the
first student from South Africa to win this award.
The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy in 1972 to
support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.
Among past winners who have gone on to prominent careers as filmmakers are
Spike Lee, Robert Zemeckis, John Lasseter and Trey Parker. Three of last
year's winners received Oscar nominations earlier this year: Dan Krauss for
his documentary, "The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang
Club," Shane Acker for his animated short film, "9," and Honorary Foreign
Film winner Ulrike Grote for her live action short "The Runaway"
("Ausreisser"). Overall, 33 past Student Academy Award winners have
garnered Oscar nominations over the years.
The June 10 Student Academy Awards presentation ceremony begins at 6
p.m. It is free and open to the public. Clips from the bronze and silver
medal films will be shown, and the gold medal films and Honorary Foreign
film will be screened in their entirety. Seating is on a first-come,
first-served basis only, and early arrival is suggested as once capacity is
reached even ticket holders will be turned away. To request up to a maximum
of four tickets, call the Academy at (310) 247-3000, ext. 130. The Academy
is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
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