Academy Announces Finalists for 2006 Student Academy Awards
May 5, 2006 6:14 PM
Thirty-four students from 19 colleges and universities have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition. Their films will now be screened for, and judged by, Academy members in order to select the winners.
Gold, silver and bronze medals, along with accompanying cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, 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.
The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):
Alternative
6 a.m., Carmen Balanzat, City College of New York
F_HO_SE, Seth Resnick, University of Southern California
Lucinda, Jason Eppink, University of Southern California
Perspective,Travis Hatfield and Samuel Day, Ball State University, Indiana
Time Machines,Lisa Mishima, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
A Very Small Trilogy of Loneliness, Bogdan Apetri, Columbia University
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
Lolly’s 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
Documentary
Afloat, Erin Hudson, Stanford University
Halal Vivero, Sara Colangelo, New York University
Jane’s Birthday Trip, Etienne Kallos, New York University
The Ladies, Christina Voros, New York University
Let Them Eat Cake, Lisa Kaselak, University of Texas, Austin
Reporter Zero, Carrie Lozano, University of California, Berkeley
Three Beauties, Mak Hossain, Purdue University
The Women’s Kingdom, Xiaoli Zhou, University of California, Berkeley
Narrative
Bartholomew’s Song, Lowell Frank and Destin Daniel Cretton, San Diego State University
Christmas Wish List, Sean Overbeeke, University of North Carolina
Duncan Removed, Peter Livolsi, American Film Institute
El Viaje (One Day Trip), Cady Abarca-Benavides, Columbia University
Good Girl, Heayun Kang, Columbia University
Just, Jesse Wheeler, University of Southern California
Pop Foul, Moon Molson and Jennifer Handorf, Columbia University
The Problem with Fiber Optics, Greg Jardin, Florida State University
Sirah, Cristine Spindler, Florida State University
Resnick (in the Alternative category) was a winner in the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition last year for the screenplay Fire in a Coal Mine, written with Ron Moscowitz. Hudson (in the Documentary category), with Ben Wu, won a Silver Medal in last year’s Student Academy Awards for the documentary Unhitched.
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.
