Medalists Announced for 2024 Student Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tonight honored its student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 51st Student Academy Awards ceremony in London. Gold, Silver and Bronze placements were announced and trophies presented during a ceremony held at the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, in partnership with Rolex.

This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received a total of 2,683 entries from 738 colleges and universities worldwide. With remarks by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang, the night’s category presenters included The Wild Robot writer and director Chris Sanders and Saturday Night co-writer and director, Academy governor Jason Reitman.

The ceremony is available to view here.

The 2024 Student Academy Award placements are:

Animation

GOLD — Au Revoir Mon Monde (Goodbye My World) — MoPA (France)
Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer & Estelle Bonnardel

Synopsis: As the world nears its end, a man stuck in a fish costume races against the clock towards a mysterious tower.

SILVER — Origami — Digital Hollywood University (Japan)
Kei Kanamori

Director Statement: The representation of origami in existing films and other visual media has been lacking realistic elements. Previously artists visually tricked the audience by, for example, swapping the shapes before and after folding to make it look like it was folded.

In this project, I focused on accurately producing the shape of origami and the animation of its transformation in 3D. To achieve this, I developed my own technique in origami modelling and simulation workflow in Maya and Houdini.

Everything that appears in this film is based on skills and techniques used in actual origami art. (From TheRookies.co)

BRONZE — Student Accomplice — Brigham Young University (U.S.)
Spencer Baird

Synopsis: A driving test goes terrible wrong when a nervous teenage girl and her elderly driving examiner are hijacked by a bank robber, who compels the amateur wheeler to serve as getaway driver and outrun the police. Meanwhile, the unruffled examiner continues to assess her skills.

Alternative/Experimental

• Gold: Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers, San Francisco State University
• Silver: Dori Walker, In Living Memory, Brown University
• Bronze: Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India

Documentary

• Gold: Hannah Rafkin, Keeper, School of Visual Arts
• Silver: Aaron Johnson, The 17%, Chapman University
• Bronze: Rishabh Raj Jain, A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness), New York University

Narrative

• Gold: Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, The Compatriot, Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic
• Silver: Jens Kevin Georg, Crust, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
• Bronze: Robin Wang, Neither Donkey nor Horse, University of Southern California

First-time honors go to National Institute of Design (India), Digital Hollywood University (Japan) and Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku (Czech Republic).

All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for the 97th Oscars in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. The 2024 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis. Past winners have gone on to receive 67 Oscar nominations and have won or shared 15 awards.

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