Foreign Finalists Selected for Student Academy Award®

Beverly Hills, CA – Five finalists, selected from a record 49 entries representing 33 foreign countries, will compete for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2007 Honorary Foreign Film Award in the 34th Annual Student Academy Awards® competition. The winning student filmmaker will be brought to Los Angeles in June to participate, along with U.S.-based Student Academy Award winners, in a week of industry-related activities and social events that will culminate in the awards presentation ceremony on June 9 in Beverly Hills.

The finalists are (listed in alphabetical order):

“Fair Trade,” Michael Dreher, Hochschule fur Fernsehen und Film, Munich, Germany

“Gaining Ground,” Marc Brummund, Hamburg Media Schoool, Germany

“Love, Death & Air Guitar,” Lourens Blok, Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academie, the Netherlands

“Milan,” Michaela Kezele, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Serbia

“Nevermore,” Toke Constantin Hebbeln, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

This is the first time a film representing Serbia has made it to the finals in the Honorary Foreign Film category.

Several past winners in the Honorary Foreign Film competition have gone on to achieve further recognition by the Academy. In 2005 student winner Ulrike Grote’s “Ausreisser” (“The Runaway”) was nominated in the Live Action Short Film category at the 78th Academy Awards. In 2002, student winner Martin Strange-Hansen of Denmark won an Oscar for “This Charming Man.” He had won an Honorary Foreign Film award that same year with “Feeding Desire.” In 2000 Florian Gallenberger of Germany won both the Honorary Foreign Film Award and the Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category with “Quiero Ser.” Two previous winners, Jan Sverak, who was a student in the former Czechoslovakia, and Mike van Diem of the Netherlands, have gone on to direct films that won Oscar® statuettes in the Foreign Language Film category.

Tickets for the 34th Student Academy Awards presentation ceremony, at which the winning foreign student film will be screened in its entirety along with the other Gold Medal-winning films, are free and available now. To request a maximum of four tickets, call the Academy’s box office at (310) 247-3000 x130. The ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 9, at 6 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.