Academy honors Student Academy Award winners

Jun 07, 2008 by Ian Evans

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 35th Annual Student Academy Awards® competition tonight honored twelve students from nine colleges and universities. The ceremonies ended a week of industry-related activities and social events. Oscar®-nominated writer-director Jason Reitman, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, former Student Academy Award winner and Emmy®-winning director Todd Holland, and Academy President Sid Ganis presided over the cereminies at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The 2008 winners are:

Honorary Foreign Film

  • On the Line (Auf der Strecke), Reto Caffi, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany

Alternative

  • Gold Medal: Viola: The Traveling Rooms of a Little Giant, Shih-Ting Hung, University of Southern California
  • Silver Medal: Circles of Confusion, Phoebe Tooke, San Francisco State University

Animation

  • Gold Medal: Zoologic, Nicole Mitchell, California Institute of the Arts
  • Silver Medal: Simulacra, Tatchapon Lertwirojkul, The School of Visual Arts, New York
  • Bronze Medal: The Visionary, Evan Mayfield, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida

Documentary

  • Gold Medal: As We Forgive, Laura Waters Hinson, American University, Washington, D.C.
  • Silver Medal: Unattached, J.J. Adler, Columbia University
  • Bronze Medal: If a Body Meet a Body, Brian Davis, University of Southern California

Narrative

  • Gold Medal: A Day’s Work, Rajeev Dassani, University of Southern California
  • Silver Medal: The State of Sunshine, Z. Eric Yang, Florida State University
  • Bronze Medal: Pitstop, Melanie McGraw, University of Southern California

While the U.S. winners knew they would each receive an award, the level of that award — Gold, Silver or Bronze — was not revealed until the ceremony. Besides trophies, Gold Medal recipients received $5,000, Silver Medal recipients were awarded $3,000 and Bronze Medal recipients were awarded $2,000. The Honorary Foreign Film winner received $1,000 in addition to the trophy.

The Academy established Student Academy Awards 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.