Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg student Martin Lapp wins Rookie of the Year; University of Hertfordshire’s ‘Bertie the Elephant’ wins Film of the Year.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- The Rookies, an International Awards for young designers, creators, innovators, and artists announced the winners for 2016. Over 1,800 entries were received from higher education school students located in 77 countries worldwide. Close to 500 academic facilities encouraged their students to submit work and compete for the hotly contested School of the Year title, while students battled for Rookie of the Year, Game of the Year, and Film of the Year titles.
The official categories for 2016 were: Architecture, Film Making, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Motion Graphics, Gaming, Photography, Robotics, VFX & Animation, Virtual Reality, Web & Mobile.
“Once again we have proven there is a wealth of undiscovered talent emerging from educational facilities around the world, and we couldn’t be more excited to help get their careers on the fast track,” said Andrew McDonald, co-founder of The Rookies.
The winners have been selected by an official Judging Panel which included Academy Awards winner Joe Letteri from Weta Digital and 50 other equally influential and respected industry veterans. The Judges were asked to score entries based on criteria including creative skills, technical skills, presentation, variety of skills, raw talent and employment potential. The results were extremely close with only a few points difference between the winners.
“People are genuinely shocked when they discover how amazing the student work is these days, even after six years we are still constantly blown away with the quality and diversity of young talent,” said Alwyn Hunt, co-founder of The Rookies.
The winners were:
Architecture
School of the Year
- Winner: CICE – Escuela De Nuevas Tecnologías - Spain, Madrid.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Arman Ron - Azad University
- Runner Up: Yan S. Dong - Full Sail University
- Highly Commended: Ängel L. Sánchez - CICE - Escuela De Nuevas Tecnologías, Nikoo Dolatkhah - Art + Architecture Academy of Guilan University, Andrés Carrión Albert - CICE - Escuela De Nuevas Tecnologías.
Film Making
School of the Year
- Winner: School of Visual Arts - New York, United States.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Liz Ran Yang - School of Visual Arts
- Runner Up: Vladimir Faraday - Moscow Institute TV and Radio, Film.
Film of the Year
- Winner: Run - Chapman University
- Runner Up: Keepsake - University of Hertfordshire
Graphic Design
School of the Year
- Winner: Media Design School - Auckland, New Zealand.
- Runner Up: Savannah College of Art and Design - Savannah, United States
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Jay Kim - Art Center College of Design
- Runner Up: Sherylene Chan - Media Design School
- Highly Commended: Anna Dormer Volgsten - Beckmans College of Design, Mitch Viney - Sae Institute, Bailey Hancox - Media Design School.
Illustration
School of the Year
- Winner: Gnomon - Los Angeles, United States.
- Runner Up: 3DSense Media School - Singapore, Singapore.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Alice Robinson - Loughborough University
- Runner Up: Ryan Richmond - Herron School of Art and Design
- Highly Commended: Raphael Herrera Lomotan - Mapua Institute of Technology, Veronika Epsteina - University of Hertfordshire, Apple Qingyang Zhang - Gnomon.
Industrial Design
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Anaïs Bourcier - L'école De Design Nantes Atlantique
- Runner Up: Anna Freeman - SYDNEY TAFE ULTIMO COLLEGE
- Highly Commended: Eilish McVey - Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Sujay Samant - Dsk Isd Rubika, Lun Yeh - University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt.
Motion Graphics
School of the Year
- Winner: Savannah College of Art and Design - Savannah, United States.
- Runner Up: Vancouver Film School - Vancouver, Canada.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Jitao Sun - Academy of Art University
- Runner Up: Joash Berkeley - Savannah College of Art and Design
Next-Gen Gaming
School of the Year
- Winner: University of Hertfordshire - Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
- Runner Up: GNOMON - Los Angeles, United States.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Ray Thuc Le - THINK TANK TRAINING CENTRE
- Runner Up: Tom Nietfeld - DARMSTADT UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES.
- Highly Commended: Tim Moreels - HOWEST UNIVERSITY, Christen Smith - GNOMON, Juliano Yi - Gnomon.
Game of the Year
- Winner: Nexus - University of Hertfordshire
- Runner Up: Rally Bug Turbo - University of Hertfordshire
Internships
- Oceania: Stephanie Lee - CG Spectrum
- United States: Adair Pounds - Savannah College of Art And Design
- United Kingdom: DI LORENZO Antoine - NEW3DGE
Photography
School of the Year
- Winner: Media Design School - Auckland, New Zealand.
- Runner Up: University of Hertfordshire - Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Phillip Chang - Media Design School
- Runner Up: Chandan Singh Shekhawat - Birla Institute of Technology
VFX & Animation
School of the Year
- Winner: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg - Ludwigsburg, Germany.
- Runner Up: Gobelins, L’école De L’image - Saint-Marcel, Paris.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Martin Lapp - Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
- Runner Up: Rodrigo Janz - Vancouver Film School
- Highly Commended: Martin Nabelek - Thomas Bata University, Johannes Franz - Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Beat Reichenbach - Gnomon.
Film of the Year
- Winner: Bertie The Elephant - University of Hertfordshire
- Runner Up: Escargore - Media Design School
Internships
- Oceania: Caroline Ng - Gnomon, Jay Tarquin Shadlow - University of Technology Sydney, Karl Davis - Media Design School, Ross Novak - Animation Mentor.
- Canada: Breno Guinart - Think Tank Training Centre, Diego Rebello - Lost Boys | School of Visual Effects, Jacob Zaguri - Think Tank Training Centre.
- United States: Brian Magno - Gnomon, Sveta Kudakova - Art Center College of Design, Syed Ali Haider Rizvi - Savannah College of Art and Design.
- United Kingdom: Joel Best - University of Technology Sydney, Martin Nabelek - Thomas Bata University, Zak Boxall - University of Hertfordshire.
Virtual Reality
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Thomas Walker - Rochester Institute of Technology
- Runner Up: Justin P. Couchot - Savannah College of Art And Design
Game of the Year
- Winner: Vietnam VR Experience - University of Hertfordshire
Web & Mobile
School of the Year
- Winner: Vancouver Film School - Vancouver, Canada.
- Runner Up: Savannah College of Art and Design - Savannah, United States.
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Ainara Sáinz Gutierrez - Vancouver Film School
- Runner Up: Michelle Fine - Savannah College of Art and Design
People’s Choice
Rookie of the Year
- Winner: Veronika Epsteina - University of Hertfordshire
- Runner Up: Ayhan Aydogan - Academy of Art University
The Rookies are supported by Lenovo, NVIDIA, Vimeo, Wacom, AMD, Creative Market, Envato, G-Technology, Sketchfab, Chaosgroup, Luxion, Escape Motions, Mediatemple, and Houdini.
“Lenovo strives to support and nurture tomorrow’s storytellers and celebrate their accomplishments. The Rookies provides an unparalleled opportunity for artists to highlight their work, network with their peers and receive feedback from mentors. By supporting organizations like The Rookies, Lenovo continues to invest in tomorrow’s film, television and game development artists,” remarked Rob Hoffmann, Lenovo Workstation Media & Entertainment Marketing Manager.
Leading production studios Weta Digital, Crytek, Animal Logic, Dreamworks, Framestore, Gameloft, Method Studios, Monolith, Ninja Theory, Rising Sun Pictures, River Studios, and The Mill are supporting The Rookies by providing world class judges, prizes, and 19 professional internships throughout Canada, Europe, Oceania, and the USA.
Source: The Rookies
