2016 Student Academy Award Winners List Is Full of New Schools, More Geographically Diverse

DePaul University and Michigan State University were among four first-time honorees

Student Academy Awards
L to R: Daniel Drummond, Alexandre Peralta, Alyce Tzue, Henry Hughes and Ilker Catak; Todd Wawrychuk/AMPAS

The Academy revealed the 17 winners of its 43rd Student Academy Awards Tuesday, and unlike last year, when California schools accounted for eight of the 11 U.S. winners, this year’s crop is much more geographically diverse.

California still led with five winners — two from Chapman University and one each from USC, UC Berkeley and the American Film Institute — but Illinois’ DePaul University, Michigan State University and Iowa’s Maharishi University of Management were also represented for the first time.

Germany dominated the foreign film categories, taking three of the five honoree slots, with the Polish National Film, Television and Theater School also making its debut. Israel’s Tel Aviv University was home to the remaining winner.

Monday’s announcement named the winners but did not indicate which award — gold, silver or bronze — each filmmaker received. That will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m., at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, which comes at the end of an activity-filled week for the filmmakers.

The Academy received a record number of entries for this year’s awards, which included 1,749 films from 286 domestic and 95 international colleges and universities.

All 17 winners are now eligible for the short-film categories at next year’s Academy Awards. Past winners have gone on to receive 49 Oscar nominations.

See the full list below.

Alternative
“All These Voices,” David Henry Gerson, American Film Institute
“Cloud Kumo,” Yvonne Ng, City College of New York
“The Swan Girl,” Johnny Coffeen, Maharishi University of Management

Animation
“Die Flucht,” Carter Boyce, DePaul University
“Once upon a Line,” Alicja Jasina, USC
“The Wishgranter,” Echo Wu, Ringling College of Art and Design

Documentary
“Fairy Tales,” Rongfei Guo, New York University
“4.1 Miles,” Daphne Matziaraki, University of California, Berkeley
“From Flint: Voices of a Poisoned City,” Elise Conklin, Michigan State University

Narrative
“It’s Just a Gun,” Brian Robau, Chapman University
“Nocturne in Black,” Jimmy Keyrouz, Columbia University
“Rocket,” Brenna Malloy, Chapman University

Foreign Narrative
“Invention of Trust,” Alex Schaad, University of Television and Film Munich (Germany)
“Tenants,” Klara Kochanska, The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School (Poland)
“Where the Woods End,” Felix Ahrens, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF (Germany)

Foreign Animation
“Ayny,” Ahmad Saleh, Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Germany)

Foreign Documentary
“The Most Beautiful Woman,” Maya Sarfaty, Tel Aviv University (Israel)

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