The Student Academy Awards are going international. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday, September 17 that not only have its members voted on 15 students out of 2,683 entries from 738 colleges and universities worldwide to be the 2024 winners of the annual Student Academy Awards competition, but that this year’s presentation ceremony will be held at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on Monday, October 14, at 7:00 p.m. BST.
Having been held at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California for its first 50 years, the ceremony that has honored such filmmakers as Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen, Robert Zemeckis, and Patricia Cardoso at the start of their careers now moves across the pond in partnership with Rolex, further showing how the Academy continues to be globally minded as it approaches the Academy’s 100th year.
All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for 2025 Oscars in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, or Documentary Short Film category. Past winners have gone on to receive 67 Oscar nominations (most recently, the animated short “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” in 2023) and have won or shared 15 awards.
Gold, silver, and bronze placements in the four Student Academy Awards categories will be announced at the ceremony. In partnership with the BFI London Film Festival, Student Academy Award winners will have access to panels and networking opportunities. In addition, winners will have exclusive access to Academy members to support their career advancement.
The ceremony will be free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required and are available online. See the full list of Student Academy Awards winners below (listed alphabetically by category).
Alternative/Experimental
Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, “A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers,” San Francisco State University
Dori Walker, “In Living Memory,” Brown University
Animation
Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer & Estelle Bonnardel, “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” MoPA 3D Animation School, France
Kei Kanamori, “Origami,” Digital Hollywood University, Japan
Spencer Baird, “Student Accomplice,” Brigham Young University
Documentary
Rishabh Raj Jain, “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness),” New York University
Hannah Rafkin, “Keeper,” School of Visual Arts
Aaron Johnson, “The 17%,” Chapman University
Narrative
Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, “The Compatriot,” Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic
Jens Kevin Georg, “Crust,” Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Robin Wang, “Neither Donkey nor Horse,” University of Southern California
First-time honors go to National Institute of Design, Digital Hollywood University and Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku.
