Student Academy Award Finalists Announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the finalists for its 2015 Student Academy Awards. Seven shorts were chosen for the animation category.

The gold, silver, and bronze medalists will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on September 17. The awards include respective cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, as well as a trip to Los Angeles.

Here are the animation category nominees:

SOAR
Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University

Hum
Tom Teller, Chapman University

Ram’s Horn
Jenna Hamzawi, Brigham Young University

Wire Cutters
Jack Anderson, Chapman University

The Ballad of Holland Island House
Lynn Tomlinson, Towson University

Taking the Plunge
Nicholas Manfredi, Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of Visual Arts

An Object At Rest
Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts

Two of the 5 films in the Alternative category are also animated projects: Chiaroscuro by Daniel Drummond (Chapman University) and Zoe by ChiHyun Lee (School of Visual Arts):

And finally, in the narrative category, Bennett Lasseter, the son of Pixar and Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter, earned a nod for Stealth, produced at the American Film Institute Conservatory. His father, John, won the Student Academy Award twice, once in 1979 for Lady and the Lamp, and again in 1980 for Nitemare.