In March, we talked about some of the rule changes the Academy is making to the short film categories — one of which is that Student Academy Award winners will qualify for Oscar consideration. So it’s worth keeping an eye on this year’s Student Academy Award competition; some of the films selected could pop up at the big show next year.
The Academy has named 43 films — 34 from the US, nine international — as finalists in this year’s competition, with winners to be named in six categories: Alternative, Animation, Documentary, Narrative and Foreign. The ceremony takes place on June 8 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The US finalists have qualified through regional competitions, while the foreign candidates were selected by an executive committee.
Check out the full list of finalists below. Who knows: one of them could be the next Spike Lee, John Lasseter, Robert Zemeckis or Trey Parker — all past Student Academy Award winners.
Alternative
“Beyond the Spheres,” Meghdad Asadi Lari, Rochester Institute of Technology
“Bottled Up,” Rafael Cortina, Occidental College
“Bye Hyungjik,” Hyungjik Lee, Florida State University
“The Compositor,” John Mattiuzzi, School of Visual Arts
“File Not Found,” Maria Sequeira, University of Southern California
“The Pirate of Love,” Sara Gunnarsdottir, California Institute of the Arts
“Zug,” Perry Janes, University of Michigan
Animation
“Couch & Potatoes,” Chris Lam and Eunsoo Jeong, San Jose State University
“Dia de los Muertos,” Lindsey St. Pierre and Ashley Graham, Ringling College of Art and Design
“Drifters,” Ethan Clarke, California Institute of the Arts
“Make a Wish,” Heejin Kim, School of Visual Arts
“Peck Pocketed,” Kevin Herron, Ringling College of Art and Design
“Runaway,” Emily Buchanan and Esther Parobek, Ringling College of Art and Design
“Still I Breathe,” Sang Ho Lee and Zack Lydon , School of Visual Arts
“Watercolors,” Robert Kornstein, New York University
“Will,” Eusong Lee, California Institute of the Arts
Documentary
“The Battle of the Jazz Guitarist,” Mark Columbus, University of California, Los Angeles
“Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker Cartoonists,” Rachel Loube, School of Visual Arts “Everybody”s Business,” Laura Green, Stanford University
“Graceland Girls,” Jordan Theresa Salvatoriello, Emerson College
“A Second Chance,” David Aristizabal, University of Southern California
“Through the Fire,” Eunice Lau, New York University
“Vultures of Tibet,” Russell O. Bush, University of Texas at Austin
“Win or Lose,” Daniel Koehler, Elon University
“Wonder Workshop,” Amitabh Joshi and Erik Spink, School of Visual Arts
Narrative
“Caught,” Bruce Li, New York University
“Cootie Contagion,” Joshua Smooha, Florida State University
“Footsteps,” Thomas (Hyungkyun) Kim, New York University
“Josephine and the Roach,” Jonathan Langager, University of Southern California
“Kalifornija,” Tomas Vengris, American Film Institute
“The Midwife”s Husband,” Deja Bernhardt, University of Texas at Austin
“Ol” Daddy,” Brian Schwarz, University of Texas at Austin
“Samnang,” Asaph Polonsky, American Film Institute
“Un Mundo para Raúl (A World for Raúl),” Mauro Mueller, Columbia University
Foreign Film
“Erbgut (Liquidation),” Matthias Zuder, Hamburg Media School, Germany
“För Sverige i Tiden (King of Sweden),” Jonas Westbom, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sweden “Kanyekanye,” Miklas Manneke, AFDA The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, South Africa
“The Library of Burned Books,” Alasdair Beckett-King, London Film School, United Kingdom
“Miss Todd,” Kristina Yee, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
“MO,” Jakub Kouril, FAMU, Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic “Parvaneh,”Talkhon Hamzavi, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
“To Guard a Mountain,” Izer Aliu, The Norwegian Filmschool, Norway
“Tweesprong (Crossroads),” Wouter Bouvijn, Rits School of Arts, Erasmus College Brussels, Belgium