It was a cross-country tie in the animation category at the 38th annual Student Academy Awards as two of the three finalists were presented with the Gold Medal honor.
The tie was between the films Correspondence, by Zach Hyer of the Pratt Institute in New York; and Dragonboy, by Bernardo Warman and Shaofu Zhang, of the Academy of Art University, California.
Watch Correspondence here: http://www.oscars.org/video/watch/38saa_clip_correspondence.html
Watch Dragonboy here: http://www.oscars.org/video/watch/38saa_clip_dragonboy.html
The Bronze Medal went to Defective Detective, by Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, of the Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida. Watch Defective Detective here: http://www.oscars.org/video/watch/38saa_clip_defective_detective.html
The honors were presented Saturday at a gala ceremony that culminated a week of Academy-sponsored activities in Los Angeles for the finalists in the five categories. The awards revealed which of the finalists received which medal. Gold Medal award winners received cash grants of $5,000, Silver Medal award winners received $3,000 and Bronze Medal award winners received $2,000.
The full list of winners follows:
Alternative category
- Gold Medal: The Vermeers, Tal S. Shamir, The New School, New York. (Only one medal was awarded in the Alternative category.)
Animation category
- Gold Medal (tie): Correspondence, Zach Hyer, Pratt Institute, New York; and Dragonboy, Bernardo Warman and Shaofu Zhang, Academy of Art University, California
- Bronze Medal: Defective Detective, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis, Ringling College of Art and Design, Florida
Documentary category
- Gold Medal: Vera Klement: Blunt Edge, Wonjung Bae, Columbia College Chicago
- Silver Medal: Imaginary Circumstances, Anthony Weeks, Stanford University
- Bronze Medal: Sin Pais (Without Country), Theo Rigby, Stanford University
Narrative category
- Gold Medal: Thief, Julian Higgins, American Film Institute, California
- Silver Medal: High Maintenance, Shawn Wines, Columbia University
- Bronze Medal: Fatakra, Soham Mehta, University of Texas at Austin
Foreign Student Film category
- Gold Medal: Tuba Atlantic, Hallvar Witzo, The Norwegian Film School, Norway
- Silver Medal: Bekas, Karzan Kader, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sweden
- Bronze Medal: Raju, Max Zaehle, Hamburg Media School, Germany
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 43 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards.
