U.S. Winners for 2012 Student Academy Awards

Academy Announces U.S. Winners for 2012 Student Academy Awards®

Beverly Hills, CA (May 15, 2012) – Ten students from nine U.S. colleges and universities have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Winners will be brought to Los Angeles to join the international student winners in the Foreign Film category for a week of industry activities. The festivities will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 9, at 6 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where the placements in each category will be announced.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title in each category):

Alternative
"The Reality Clock," Amanda Tasse, University of Southern California*
*Only one winner was selected in this category.

Animation
"Eyrie," David Wolter, California Institute of the Arts
"The Jockstrap Raiders," Mark Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles
"My Little Friend," Eric Prah, Ringling College of Art and Design

Documentary
"Dying Green," Ellen Tripler, American University
"Hiro: A Story of Japanese Internment," Keiko Wright, New York University
"Lost Country," Heather Burky, Art Institute of Jacksonville

Narrative
"Nani," Justin Tipping, American Film Institute
"Narcocorrido," Ryan Prows, American Film Institute
"Under," Mark Raso, Columbia University

This is the first time that a student from the Art Institute of Jacksonville has won a Student Academy Award. To reach this stage, U.S. students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each region is permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalists in each of the four categories. Academy members earlier selected students from Germany and the United Kingdom as finalists in the Foreign Film category. To follow the journeys of the 2012 Student Academy Award winners, visit Studentacademyawards.tumblr.com.

The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award® winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. At the 84th Academy Awards earlier this year, 2011 Student Academy Award winners Hallvar Witzø and Max Zähle were nominated in the Live Action Short Film category for "Tuba Atlantic" and "Raju," respectively. James Spione, a Student Academy Award winner in 1987, earned a nomination in the Documentary Short Subject category for "Incident in New Baghdad."

The 39th Annual Student Academy Awards ceremony on June 9 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required. Tickets are available 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.