2007 Student Academy Award Winners Honored in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills, CA – Eleven students from six colleges and universities were honored tonight (June 9) as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 34th Annual Student Academy Awards® competition. For several days, they had participated in a slate of industry-related activities and social events culminating in the awards ceremony, which featured actress Zooey Deschanel, director John Landis, and Academy President Sid Ganis as presenters, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. A student from Germany received this year’s Honorary Foreign Film Award.

The winners are:

Alternative
Gold Medal: “Fission,” Kun-I Chang, School of Visual Arts, New York
* Only the gold medal was awarded in the Alternative category.

Animation
Gold Medal (tie): “Art’s Desire,” Sarah Wickliffe, New York University and “Mirage,” Youngwoong Jang, School of Visual Arts, New York
Bronze Medal: “A Leg Up,” Bevin Carnes, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida

Documentary
Gold Medal: “Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide,” Ben Wu, Stanford University
Silver Medal: “Ladies of the Land,” Megan Thompson, New York University
Bronze Medal: “Lumo,” Bent-Jorgen S. Perlmutt and Nelson Walker III, Columbia University

Narrative
Gold Medal: “Rundown,” Patrick Alexander, Florida State University
Silver Medal: “High Maintenance,” Phillip Van, New York University
Bronze Medal: “Screening,” Anthony Green, New York University

Honorary Foreign Film
“Nevermore,” Toke Constantin Hebbeln, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany

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 U.S. students first competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to send as many as three finalists in each of the four award categories. Academy members then screened the finalists’ films and voted to select the winners.

“Nevermore,” the Honorary Foreign Film winner, was selected from a record pool of 49 submissions from 33 countries.

The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy 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. In 2006 two former Student Academy Award winners received Oscar® nominations: Lasseter received his fifth nomination for the animated feature “Cars,” and James Longley earned his first nomination for the documentary feature “Iraq in Fragments.” Over the years, former Student Academy Award winners have garnered a total of 35 Oscar nominations and have won or shared seven awards.