Tag: Student Academy Awards

53rd Student Academy Awards To Be Held For First Time At The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)

Annual Student Academy Awards®

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted 16 students as winners of the 53rd Student Academy Awards® competition. This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received 2,972 entries from 894 colleges and universities worldwide. The 2026 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award® winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.

The presentation ceremony for the annual international student film awards will be held at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) inside TIFF Lightbox at Reitman Square on Monday, September 14, 2026, at 6pm ET, in partnership with Rolex. 

The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title:

Alternative/Experimental
Lei He, “Drifting,” Duke University, United States
Viktorie Štěpánová, “Volklore,” Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění v Praze (FAMU), Czech Republic
Nina Broers, “Where Is My Sex Drive?” St. Joost School of Art & Design, Netherlands

Animation
Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro & Nicolás Acevedo Ferraté, “COWS,” École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (ESMA), France
Noran Fikri Alezabi, Xinyue Ma & Yulin Yue, “Gauze,” Gobelins, France
Matthias Strasser, “The Panic Inside,” Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Documentary
Arjun Fischer, “Artificial Love,” University of Southern California, United States 
Jason Elliott, “I Want to Live,” National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
Lara Dihmis, “The Last People of Petra,” New York University, United States 

Narrative
Stanzin Jigmet, “The Dragon Letter,” Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC), Spain
Leon Korzyński, “Kamathipura Express,” Warsaw Film School, Poland
Antoine Boulanger, “The Pichenotte,” Concordia University, Canada

First-time honors go to students from Concordia University, Duke University, École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (ESMA), Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC), St. Joost School of Art and Design and Warsaw Film School.

Gold, silver and bronze placements in the four award categories will be announced at the ceremony. In addition, winners will have a robust weekend of education programing, networking opportunities and exclusive access to Academy members to support their career advancement.

All Student Academy Award-winning films will be eligible to compete for the 99th Oscars® in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 70 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared 15 awards.

Rolex is supporting the Student Academy Awards through its partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, reflecting its ongoing commitment to fostering excellence, achievement and the transfer of cinematic knowledge to the next generation.

The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the film industry to showcase their work.

575 Films In Competition For 2011 Student Academy Awards(R)

Beverly Hills, CA – 52 entries from 32 countries, along with 523 entries from students representing 136 U.S. colleges and universities, are in competition for the 2011 Student Academy Awards. The competition – now in its 38th year – will culminate in the awards presentation, which will include screenings of the winning films, on Saturday, June 11, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards and corresponding cash grants may be presented in each of four categories: Animation, Narrative, Documentary and Alternative. 

This year, for the first time, up to three films may also be honored with medals and cash grants in the Foreign Student Film category, the same as in the individual U.S. categories.


credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.

In February, at the 83rd Academy Awards, 2010 Student Academy Award® winner Luke Matheny took home the Oscar® for Live Action Short Film for “God of Love.” Tanel Toom, the 2010 Honorary Foreign Film winner, was also nominated in the Live Action Short Film category for “The Confession,” and John Lasseter, a Student Academy Award winner in 1979 and 1980, was nominated for the Adapted screenplay for “Toy Story 3.” Since the program’s inception, Student Academy Award winners have gone on to earn 43 Oscar nominations and have won 8 Academy Awards.

A complete list of schools and countries represented in the competition is available at http://www.oscars.org/awards/saa/entrants.html.

The 38th Annual Student Academy Awards ceremony on June 11 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required. Tickets will be available beginning on May 2. Tickets may be obtained online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office or by mail. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information, call (310) 247-3600.

ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards – in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners – the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.

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