50th Student Academy Awards unveils winners

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted 14 students as winners of the 50th Student Academy Awards competition. This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received a total of 2,443 entries from 720 colleges and universities around the world. The 2023 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by category):

Alternative/Experimental
Leo Behrens, Skin, American Film Institute

Animation
Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier & Yannick Jacquin, Boom, École des Nouvelles Images, France
César Luton, Achille Pasquier & Clémence Bailly, Diplomatie de l’Éclipse, MoPA 3D Animation School, France
Lisa Kenney, Mum’s Spaghetti, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom

Documentary
Lyuwei Chen, Duet, New York University
Jean Chapiro, Hasta Encontrarlos (Till We Find Them), Columbia University
Giorgio Ghiotto, Wings of Dust, New York University

Narrative
Mark Gerstorfer, Invisible Border, Filmakademie Wien, Austria
Iain Aigin Stronach Forbes, Revisited, Den Norske Filmskolen, Norway
Tamara Denić, Istina (Truth), Hamburg Media School, Germany

First-time honours go to École des Nouvelles Images (France).

All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for 2023 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 and have won or shared 12 awards.

Students will participate in an in-person award ceremony on Tuesday 24 October, at 7:30 p.m., at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the four award categories will be announced at the ceremony.

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.