International Student Film Competition Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary;
Ceremony Held at Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tonight honored its student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 50th Student Academy Awards® ceremony. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards were announced and presented during an in-person ceremony held at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received a total of 2,443 entries from 720 colleges and universities around the world. With welcome remarks by Patricia Cardoso, the night’s category presenters included “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, SAA committee chair Peggy Rajski and past winners Brad Bailey, Sujin Kim, Ken Kwapis, Freddy Macdonald, Olivia Peace and Kevin Wilson Jr.
The 2023 Student Academy Award medalists are:
Alternative / Experimental
- Gold: “Skin,” Leo Behrens, American Film Institute
Animation
- Gold: “Boom,” Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier & Yannick Jacquin, École des Nouvelles Images, France
- Silver: “Diplomatie de l’Éclipse,” César Luton, Achille Pasquier & Clémence Bailly, MoPA 3D Animation School, France
- Bronze: “Mum’s Spaghetti,” Lisa Kenney, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
Documentary
- Gold: “Wings of Dust,” Giorgio Ghiotto, New York University
- Silver: “Duet,” Lyuwei Chen, New York University
- Bronze: “Hasta Encontrarlos (Till We Find Them),” Jean Chapiro, Columbia University
Narrative
- Gold: “Invisible Border,” Mark Gerstorfer, Filmakademie Wien, Austria
- Silver: “Revisited,” Iain Aigin Stronach Forbes, Den Norske Filmskolen, Norway
- Bronze: “Istina (Truth),” Tamara Denić, Hamburg Media School, Germany
First-time honors go to École des Nouvelles Images (France).
All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for 2023 Oscars® in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. The 2023 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award® winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis. Past winners have gone on to receive 67 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared 15 awards.
The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work.
