Student Academy Awards

The Student Academy Awards are awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to filmmakers at the undergraduate and graduate levels, primarily in the United States. The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first presented in 1973. Since 1975, the awards have been given annually, usually in June. The current name was adopted effective in 1991.

The Student Academy Awards currently offer prizes in four genres: alternative (experimental film), animation, documentary, and narrative. Gold, silver, and bronze awards may be given in each genre, with accompanying cash grants of $5,000, $3,000, and $2,000 respectively as of 2005. Since 1981, a separate award has been given annually to a student filmmaker from outside the United States.

Several Student Academy Award winners have gone on to significant achievement as filmmakers, including Robert Zemeckis, Bob Saget, Spike Lee, Trey Parker, and John Lasseter. Some of the award-winning student films have themselves been nominated for Oscars in the short film categories, including "Chicks in White Satin" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106555/ IMDb] ), "The Janitor" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110183/ IMDb] ), "Karl Hess: Toward Liberty" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080987/ IMDb] ), "The Lunch Date" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100076/ IMDb] ), "9" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443424/ IMDb] ), "Quiero ser (I Want to Be…)" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216131/ IMDb] ), and "The Red Jacket" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323844/ IMDb] ).

Through 2005, New York University leads all institutions in producing Student Academy Award-winning films, followed by the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, Stanford University, and UCLA.

External links

* [http://www.oscars.org/saa/index.html Student Academy Awards official site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Student_Academy_Awards_USA/ Student Academy Awards] at The Internet Movie Database
* [http://www.oscars.org/saa/winners/winners.pdf Winners of the Award]