The Academy has announced the finalist films in the 50th Student Academy Awards competition, naming eight films in the unified international Animation category.
This year’s race is packed with French student films from some of the nation’s most respected animation programs, accounting for half of the finalists. The United States is represented by two films from stalwarts CalArts and SCAD, with the remaining spots filled by Israel’s Bezalel Academy and U.K.’s NFTS.
French students captured a majority of the nominations in last year’s SAAs (three out of seven), capturing the Bronze Medal with The Seine’s Tears. In the prior year, when the Academy still separated the categories into International and Domestic Film Schools, all three International nominees were French — Louis’ Shoes won the Gold for 2021.
Medalists in the Student Academy Awards are automatically qualified for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar category at the main Academy Awards. While an SAA winner has yet to take home the coveted statuette (John Minnis’ film Charade produced at Sheridan College was not in the Student race before winning the Academy Award in 1984), recent medalists turned Oscar nominees include An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It by Lachlan Pendragon (Griffith Film School, Australia) this year, Daughter by Daria Kashcheeva (FAMU, Czechia) in 2019 and 9 by Shane Acker back in 2005.
You can find the full list of Student Academy Awards for 2023 here. The semi-finalist list is also online here.
50th Student Academy Awards Finalists: Animation
Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier & Yannick Jacquin, Boom, École des Nouvelles Images (France)
A couple of dumb birds tries its best to protect its eggs from a volcano eruption. (CGI)
César Luton, Achille Pasquier & Clémence Bailly, Diplomatie de l’Éclipse / The Diplomacy of the Eclipse, MoPA 3D Animation School (France)
At the moment of alignment, of total eclipse, humanity will vanish, this was the message sent by the Sun and the Moon. The World Council decides to send his best negotiator to stop the end of the world. (CGI)
Tom Koryto Blumen, Friendly Fire, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem (Israel)
A Palestinian boy’s mistimed kick sparks a friendly game of football with an IDF guard. The unequal contest escalates and the line between a friendly game and war begins to blur. (Paint Mural Animation)
Justine King, The Little Poet, California Institute of the Arts (United States)
The Little Poet sits in the museum sketching, imagining what it would be like to live in a painting as a little girl and a little boy explore the brushstroke worlds of Van Gogh, Monet, Miró, Seurat… (2D)
Lisa Kenney, Mum’s Spaghetti, National Film and Television School (United Kingdom)
MC mastermind Poppy and her beatboxing border terrier Snoop are the new kids in town — and they’re ready to make their reputation known. Straight As and bubble baths are their way of life — but when confronted by an older crew en route to her first day at school, Poppy quickly changes her tune. (Stop-Motion)
Maxime Wattrelos, Jérémy Trochet & Marie Heribel, Samara Op.4, Pôle 3D Digital & Creative School (France)
An old automaton sculptor retraces his own life throughout the four seasons. (CGI)
Rachel Mow, The Sun Is Bad, Savannah College of Art & Design (United States)
In Hong Kong during the late 80s, an angry girl sets out to destroy the sun as he wrecks and melts her city. (2D)
Clément Del Negro, Camille Souchard & Matthias Bourgueil, Tear Off, Rubika (France)
A young bee must overcome her condition if she is to survive the destructive hornet that has invaded her hive. This adventure allows us to discover the dark side of a colony that is utopian at first glance. The film also explores the world of bees in more depth, with a story that highlights the fear of the unknown, of the dark, of claustrophobia, pushed in that by a macro camera which follows the character, in an alternative and frightening documented universe. (CGI)
Note: Boom, The Diplomacy of the Eclipse and Tear Off are available to watch in SIGGRAPH’s Electronic Theater virtual screenings, tickets available now.
