The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced names of finalists for the 41st Student Academy Awards competition.
The medal placements - gold, silver and bronze - in the five award categories will be revealed during the ceremony on June 7, at the DGA Theater in Hollywood. First timers in this year's list include Israel's Tel Aviv University and the United Kingdom's Northern Film School.
"Yamashita" by Hayley Foster of Loyola Marymount University, California, has secured a spot in the animation category. The film is about a girl of Japanese-American descent struggling with identity issues, cultural connect and the legacy of the Japanese-American Internment of World War II.
In addition to being shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards, the animation film is selected for the 2014 Fine Cut: KCET's Annual Festival of Student Films in June. "Yamashita" was conferred with the inaugural Woody Woodpecker Award by the Walter Lantz Foundation in the category of Best Animated Short, and three awards at the recent LMU student film festival, "Film Outside the Frame."
"It's a tremendous honor to have my film included as one of the winners for the Student Academy Awards. I appreciate it as a testament to my hard work and dedication in my senior year, the work of my friends and loved ones who aided me in its production, and all my professors who guided me through the four years I spent at LMU," Foster said, Indiewire reports.
"The film is visually poetic, with so much historical and cultural authenticity," said Tom Klein, Associate Professor and Chair of the Animation Department, School of Film and Television.
Alongside "Yamashita," "Owned" by Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts from Brigham Young University, Utah also features in the list. The film is about a video game expert, Jeff, who faces an unlikely opponent.
The Academy introduced the student awards in 1972 to support, encourage and appreciate excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past winners have secured 46 Oscar nominations and either won or shared eight Academy Awards. The list includes prominent names in the industry including John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
The 2014 winners from five categories:
Alternative
- "Oscillate," Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York
- "Person," Drew Brown, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida
Animation
- "Higher Sky," Teng Cheng, University of Southern California
- "Owned," Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah
- "Yamashita," Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California
Documentary
- "The Apothecary," Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University
- "One Child," Zijian Mu, New York University
- "White Earth," J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University
Narrative
- "Above the Sea," Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York
- "Door God," Yulin Liu, New York University
- "Interstate," Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California
Foreign Film
- "Border Patrol," Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom
- "Nocebo," Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany
- "Paris on the Water," Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
