Film schools from outside the United States dominated the 2026 Student Academy Awards, which announced its list of winners on Wednesday. Schools from Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom won nine of the 12 awards, with the U.S. schools that once won the lion’s share of awards earning two wins in the documentary category and one in alternative-experimental.
International schools swept two of the four categories, winning all three awards in animation and narrative.
This is the most Student Academy Awards ever won by international schools. Since domestic and international schools were moved into the same categories in 2022, schools from outside the U.S. have won almost 60% of the awards, with the previous high being eight out of 12 last year.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the names of the three winning films in each of the four categories, but did not reveal the gold, silver and bronze medal placements. Those will be announced at the Student Academy Awards ceremony, which this year will take place at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 14, in partnership with Rolex.
While this year’s winners included some schools that have won numerous Student Oscars in the past, including USC and NYU in the U.S., the National Film and Television School in the U.K. and Gobelins in France, half of the awards went to film students from schools that had never before won.
The first-time winners were Concordia University in Canada, Duke University in the U.S., École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (ESMA) in France, Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC) in Spain, St. Joost School of Art and Design in the Netherlands and Warsaw Film School in Poland.
The winning films are chosen by members of the Academy who opt to screen and vote on the Student Oscars. All of the winning films qualify for the Academy Awards in the Live Action Short, Animated Short and Documentary Short categories.
Here is the list of winners:
Alternative/Experimental
Lei He, “Drifting,” Duke University, United States
Viktorie Štěpánová, “Volklore,” Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění v Praze (FAMU), Czech Republic
Nina Broers, “Where Is My Sex Drive?” St. Joost School of Art & Design, Netherlands
Animation
Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro & Nicolás Acevedo Ferraté, “COWS,” École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (ESMA), France
Noran Fikri Alezabi, Xinyue Ma & Yulin Yue, “Gauze,” Gobelins, France
Matthias Strasser, “The Panic Inside,” Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Documentary
Arjun Fischer, “Artificial Love,” University of Southern California, United States
Jason Elliott, “I Want to Live,” National Film and Television School, United Kingdom
Lara Dihmis, “The Last People of Petra,” New York University, United States
Narrative
Stanzin Jigmet, “The Dragon Letter,” Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC), Spain
Leon Korzyński, “Kamathipura Express,” Warsaw Film School, Pola
Antoine Boulanger, “The Pichenotte,” Concordia Univers
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