Academy Announces finalists for 2006 Student Academy Awards

May 03, 2006 by Ian Evans

Thirty-four students from 19 colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition. Their films will now be screened for and judged by Academy members in order to select the winners. Gold, silver and bronze medals, along with accompanying cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, may be awarded in each of the four categories. Winning filmmakers will participate in a week of industry-related and social activities, culminating in the presentation ceremony on June 10.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):

Alternative

  • 6 a.m., Carmen Vidal Balanzat, City College of New York
  • F__HO_SE, Seth Resnik, University of Southern California
  • Lucinda, Jason Eppink, University of Southern California
  • Perspective, Travis Hatfield and Samuel Day, Ball State University, Indiana
  • Time Machines, Lisa Mishima, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
  • A Very Small Trilogy of Loneliness, Bogdan Apetri, Columbia University

Animation

  • Betty, Rie Ito, School of Visual Arts, New York
  • The Dancing Thief, Meng Vue, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
  • Institute for the Digitally Challenged, Riash Shahnawaz, Pratt Institute, New York
  • Lolly’s Box, Valerie LaPointe, University of Southern California
  • Onnazuri: Or Men, Women, and Capitalism, Yusuke Murakami, New York Univeristy
  • The Possum, Chris Choy, California Institute of the Arts
  • The Shoes, Wenchung Lu, California Institute of the Arts
  • Turtles, Thomas Leavitt, Brigham Young University

Documentary

  • Afloat, Erin Hudson, Stanford University
  • Halal Vivero, Sara Colangelo, New York University
  • Jane’s Birthday Trip, Etienne Kallos, New York University
  • The Ladies, Christina Voros, New York University
  • Let Them Eat Cake, Lisa Kaselak, University of Texas, Austin
  • 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

  • Bartholomew’s Song, Lowell Frank and Destin Daniel Cretton, San Diego State University
  • Christmas Wish List, Sean Overbeeke, University of North Carolina
  • Duncan Removed, Peter Livolsi, American Film Institute
  • El Viaje (One Day Trip), Cady Abarca-Benavides, Columbia University
  • Good Girl, Kang Heayun, Columbia University
  • Just, Jesse Wheeler, University of Southern California
  • Pop Foul, Moon Molson and Jennifer Handorf, Columbia University
  • The Problem with Fiber Optics, Greg Jardin, Florida State University
  • Sirah, Cristine Spindler, Florida State University

To reach this stage, students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions is permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalist films in each of the four categories. An honorary foreign film student also will be honored by the Academy. Five students from Denmark, Germany, Poland, South Africa and Spain have been named as finalists.

The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.