Medalists revealed at 2023 Student Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoured its student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 50th Student Academy Awards ceremony.

The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards were announced and presented during an in-person ceremony held at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received a total of 2,443 entries from 720 colleges and universities around the world.  With welcome remarks by Patricia Cardoso, the night’s category presenters included The Super Mario Bros. Movie directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, SAA committee chair Peggy Rajski and past winners Brad Bailey, Sujin Kim, Ken Kwapis, Freddy Macdonald, Olivia Peace and Kevin Wilson Jr.

The 2023 Student Academy Award medalists are:

Alternative/Experimental

Gold: “Skin,” Leo Behrens, American Film Institute

Animation

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

Documentary

Gold: “Wings of Dust,” Giorgio Ghiotto, New York University
Silver: “Duet,” Lyuwei Chen, New York University
Bronze: “Hasta Encontrarlos (Till We Find Them),” Jean Chapiro, Columbia University

Narrative 

Gold: “Invisible Border,” Mark Gerstorfer, Filmakademie Wien, Austria
Silver: “Revisited,” Iain Aigin Stronach Forbes, Den Norske Filmskolen, Norway
Bronze: “Istina (Truth),” Tamara Denić, Hamburg Media School, Germany

First-time honors 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.  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.  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.