Academy announces Student Academy Award finalists

May 14, 2007 by Ian Evans

Thirty-three students from 16 colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 34th Annual Student Academy Awards® competition. Their films will now be screened for and judged by Academy members, who will vote to select the winners. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards, along with accompanying cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, may be presented in each of four categories. Winning filmmakers will participate in a week of industry-related and social activities, culminating in the awards ceremony on June 9.

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

Alternative

  • Bottleneck, Andrew Shipsides, Savannah College of Art & Design, Georgia
  • Death, Destruction & the Weather, Emery C. Martin, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia
  • Fission, Kun-I Chang, School of Visual Arts, New York City, New York
  • Moon Cake, Martin Stano, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Animation

  • Africa Parting, Robyn Yannoukos and Brian LoSchiavo, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Art’s Desire, Sarah Wickliffe, New York University, New York City
  • Doppelganger, Ki-Peum Lee, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia
  • End, Joe Sun, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
  • Icarus and the Tree Herder, Ian Worrel, California Institute of the Arts
  • A Leg Up, Bevin Carnes, Ringling College of Art and Design
  • Mirage, Youngwoong Jang, School of Visual Arts, New York City
  • Respire, Mon Ami, Chris Nabholz, Ringling College of Art and Design
  • Travel Diary, Keng-Ming Liu, School of Visual Arts, New York City

Documentary

  • Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide, Ben Wu, Stanford University, California
  • Gimme Green, Isaac Brown and Eric Flagg, University of Florida, Gainesville
  • In the Wake of Catastrophe, Trevor Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  • Ladies of the Land, Megan Thompson, New York University
  • Left in Baghdad, Peter Jordan and John Kane, Stanford University
  • Long Haul, Erin Hudson, Stanford University
  • Lumo, Bent-Jorgen S. Perlmutt and Nelson Walker, III, Columbia University
  • Silences, Octavio Warnock-Graham, City College of New York

Narrative

  • Deacon’s Mondays, Destin Cretton and Lowell Frank, San Diego State University, California
  • The Drill, Joel Davenport, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
  • High Maintenance, Phillip Van, New York University
  • House of the Olive Trees, Thouly Dosios, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Rundown, Patrick Alexander, Florida State University, Tallahassee
  • Screening, Anthony Green, New York University
  • The Second Coming, Ya’ Ke Smith, University of Texas at Austin
  • The Second Line, John Magary, Columbia University

Hudson and Wu (in the Documentary category) were Silver Medal winners in 2005 with their documentary Unhitched. Hudson was also a finalist in 2006 with her documentary Afloat.

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. A foreign student also will be honored by the Academy in the Honorary Foreign Film category. Five students have been named as finalists: three from Germany and one each from the Netherlands and Serbia.

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

Tickets for the 34th Student Academy Awards presentation ceremony, at which the Gold Medal-winning films will be screened in their entirety along with the Honorary Foreign Film, are free and available now. To request a maximum of four tickets, call the Academy’s box office at (310) 247-3000, ext. 130. The ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 9, at 6 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.