Thirty-two students from 20 colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 35th 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, respectively, 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 7.
The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):
Alternative
CIRCLES OF CONFUSION, Phoebe Tooke, San Francisco State University
COME WANDER WITH ME, Phillip Van, New York University
COMFORT ZONE, Mandi Lin, California College of the Arts
A CONVOLUTION OF IMAGINED HISTORIES, Thomas Micah Stansell, Georgia State University
DOXOLOGY, Michael Langan, Rhode Island School of Design
FISH, Hyun Jeen Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York
VIOLA: THE TRAVELING ROOMS OF A LITTLE GIANT, Shih-Ting Hung, University of Southern California
Animation
THE GLOAMING, Andrew Huang, University of Southern California
MR. POPCORN, Alexander Krivicich, Cornell University, New York
PAPER SHEPHERD, David Houry, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio
SIMULACRA, Tatchapon Lertwirojkul, The School of Visual Arts
SNOW DAY, Kim Hazel, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
TOUMAI, Carlos Stevens, The Art Institute of Portland, Oregon
THE VISIONARY, Evan Mayfield, Ringling College of Art and Design
ZOOLOGIC, Nicole Mitchell, California Institute of the Arts
Documentary
AS WE FORGIVE, Laura Waters Hinson, American University, Washington, D.C.
IF A BODY MEET A BODY, Brian Davis, University of Southern California
THE LEGEND OF ROSALIE, Nicholas Berger, Stanford University
RECRUITER, Adam Salky, Columbia University, New York
SONG OF A SPERM DONOR, Emmanuel Dayan, Stanford University
TIJUANA, Nada Mas, Yolanda Pividal, City College of New York
UNATTACHED, J.J. Adler, Columbia University
Narrative
CASSANDRA, Mauricio Chernovetzky, San Diego State University
A DAY'S WORK, Rajeev Dassani, University of Southern California
A DEATH IN PROGRESS, Donald Bitters III, Columbia College Chicago
MR. A., Joe Murphy, Columbia University
PAL/SECAM, Dmitry Povolotsky, Columbia University
PICTURE DAY, Nick Paley, New York University
PITSTOP, Melanie McGraw, University of Southern California
RED WEDNESDAY, Nazanin Shirazi, University of Texas at Austin
THE STATE OF SUNSHINE, Z. Eric Yang, Florida State University
WIANBU -- COMFORT WOMAN, James Bang, Columbia University
Phillip Van (in the Alternative category) won the Silver Medal in the Narrative category in 2007 with his film HIGH MAINTENANCE.
To reach this stage, students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each region 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. Academy voters have selected students from the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Israel and Slovenia as finalists.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 35 Oscar nominations and have won or shared six Academy Awards. Two former Student Academy Award winners were nominees at the 80th Academy Awards held earlier this year -- James Longley and Amanda Micheli were nominated in the Documentary Short Subject category (for different films).
Tickets for the 35th Annual Student Academy Awards presentation ceremony, at which the Gold Medal-winning films and the winning foreign student film will be screened in their entirety, are free and now available. A maximum of four tickets may be requested online at
www.oscars.org , in person at the Academy box office, by mail, or by calling the Student Academy Awards department at 310-247-3000, ext. 130. The ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 7, at 6 p.m. at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Doors open at 5 p.m. All seating is unreserved.
