Finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition include 34 students from 19 colleges and universities.
Gold, silver and bronze medals, along with accompanying cash prizes of $5000, $3000 and $2000, may be awarded in each of the four categories. Winning filmmakers will participate in a week of industry-related and social activities, culminating in the presentation ceremony on June 10, 2006.
The animation finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):
Animation
BETTY, Rie Ito, School of Visual Arts, New York
THE DANCING THIEF, Meng Vue, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
INSTITUTE FOR THE DIGITALLY CHALLENGED, Riash Shahnawaz, Pratt Institute, New York
LOLLYS BOX, Valerie LaPointe, University of Southern California
ONNAZURI: OR MEN, WOMEN, AND CAPITALISM, Yusuke Murakami, New York University
THE POSSUM, Chris Choy, California Institute of the Arts
THE SHOES, Wenchung Lu, California Institute of the Arts
TURTLES, Thomas Leavitt, Brigham Young University
To reach this stage, students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions is permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalist films in each of the four categories. An honorary foreign film student also will be honored by the Academy. Five students from Denmark, Germany, Poland, South Africa and Spain have been named as finalists.
The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.
