2024 Student Academy Award Preview

The 2024 Student Academy Awards are scheduled to take place next Monday in London and I thought now would be a good time to give a quick preview of the ceremony and what you can expect if you are interested in checking it out.

The good news is that unlike the traditional Academy Awards held every winter, the Student Academy Awards are available for free via a live stream right on YouTube. You can click on that link right now and then turn on the notification when the event starts to be alerted.

When does it start?

Well, in the past, the Student Academy Awards has been held in Los Angeles, but this year they are doing something different and the event will take place at the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square in London. So this year the awards start at 7 PM BST on Monday October 14th. That’s going to be 2 PM EST on Monday, 11 AM PST, or sadly between 2 and 5 AM Tuesday morning for our friends in Australia.

Who will be there?

There are four categories for this ceremony, Alternative/Experimental, Animation, Documentary, and Narrative. Unlike the Academy Awards, the Student version announces winners ahead of time, so everyone listed below is officially a winner. They will be awarded a gold, silver, or bronze in each category, so there is still a little mystery in terms of final placement, but here are your winners for 2024!

Alternative/Experimental

• Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India

• Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, “A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers,” San Francisco State University

• Dori Walker, “In Living Memory,” Brown University

Animation

• Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer & Estelle Bonnardel, “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” MoPA 3D Animation School, France

• Kei Kanamori, “Origami,” Digital Hollywood University, Japan

• Spencer Baird, “Student Accomplice,” Brigham Young University

Documentary

• Rishabh Raj Jain, “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness),” New York University

• Hannah Rafkin, “Keeper,” School of Visual Arts

• Aaron Johnson, “The 17%,” Chapman University

Narrative

• Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, “The Compatriot,” Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic

• Jens Kevin Georg, “Crust,” Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany

• Robin Wang, “Neither Donkey nor Horse,” University of Southern California

The National Institute of Design, Digital Hollywood University, and Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku are all being recognized at the ceremony for the first time in over 50 years!

What does this mean?

Not only does this nomination bring more awareness of their films, but every one of these winners is now automatically eligible for the 97th Academy Awards in their respective short film categories. Unfortunately, last year’s winners did not go on to receive any nominations, but 67 past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive nominations at the Academy Awards and 15 have won the Oscar! So it is possible, and I would love nothing more than to see some of these creators at the Oscars next March.

Where to Learn More

Obviously, most of these films are making the circuit at festivals, so if you don’t live near one of the festivals they’re playing at, you might not get to see them. But I have a way you can learn about some of these wonderful films, and that’s my podcast! I have interviews with Birdy Wei-Ting Hung (just posted yesterday) and Robin Wang, two of the winning directors and I have interviews scheduled with several of the other winners including Rishabh Raj Jain and Hannah Rafkin from the documentary category and Jens Kevin Georg and Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák from the narrative category. I would also encourage you to follow these wonderful creators on Instagram where I’m sure they will be posting updates about their time in London over the next week.

And make sure you’re subscribed to that podcast because my Friday episode next week will be a recap of the award ceremony.