All you need to know: 2015 Student Academy Awards (updated)

It is one of the most popular events of the year for the Academy, outside of the Oscars, of course. It's the 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards. Here's all you need to know.

It is one of the most popular events of the year for the Academy — outside of the Oscars, of course.

It's the 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards.

Held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at Academy HQ, the ceremony honors outstanding student filmmakers domestically and internationally. Awards are presented in five categories: alternative, animation, documentary, foreign and narrative.

Tickets for the ceremony are free and open to the public; find event details here. (UPDATE 9/17: Online tickets are sold out. Any remaining tickets will be made available at the door on the evening of the event.)

If you can’t make it to Thursday’s ceremony, The Gold Knight has you covered. Here is everything you need to know about the Student Oscars.

Honorees
Student Academy Awards winners arrive a few days early. The Academy hosts industry-related activities and social events, including a dinner in Beverly Hills, where winners will hobnob with members of the Board of Governors. The ceremony, held Thursday, Sept. 17, fêtes 12 domestic winners and three foreign winners.

Follow along as we post highlights from the Student Academy Awards Week.https://www.oscars.org/saa
Posted by The Academy on Tuesday, September 15, 2015

First-time honors go to Chapman University in the Alternative category and Filmakademie Wien in the Foreign Film competition.

While the Academy has announced the winners, it will reveal the placement of the winners — Gold, Silver or Bronze — at the ceremony Thursday night (updated). Academy members who attended special screenings have determined the placements. Gold Medal award winners receive cash grants of $5,000; Silver Medal award winners receive $3,000; and Bronze Medal award winners receive $2,000.

Here is the list of winners (listed alphabetically by film title):

Alternative
“Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California  Gold Medal
“Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York Silver Medal

Animation
“An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts Silver Medal
“Soar,” Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco  Gold Medal
“Taking the Plunge,” Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of Visual Arts Bronze Medal

Documentary
“Boxeadora,” Meg Smaker, Stanford University Bronze Medal
“I Married My Family’s Killer,” Emily Kassie, Brown University Silver Medal
“Looking at the Stars,” Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California Gold Medal

Narrative
“Day One,” Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California Gold Medal
“Stealth,” Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute Bronze Medal
“This Way Up,” Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute Silver Medal

Foreign Film
“Everything Will Be Okay…,” Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria Bronze Medal
“Fidelity,” Ilker Catak, Hamburg Media School, Germany Gold Medal
“The Last Will,” Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany Silver Medal


The process
There were a record number of entries for the competition this year — 1,686 films from 282 domestic and 93 international colleges and universities.

Students were able to submit their films online for the first time using FilmFreeway, a popular festival and competition platform.

The entry deadline was moved to June 1, along with the ceremony date has been changed from June to September, "to better align the competition with the academic calendar," according to the Academy.

In July, 28 students from more than 15 U.S. colleges and universities were named finalists in the domestic competition. Seven finalists advanced in the foreign competition. The students hailed from the around Europe and there was one from Mexico. Academy members voted and narrowed down the finalists to the 15 winners.


Presenters
Presenters for the 42nd Student Academy Awards were announced on Sept. 14 and will be actress Michelle Rodriguez, actor Jason Mitchell, Oscar-winning director John Lasseter and Roy Conli, Don Hall and Chris Williams, the producing and directing team of "Big Hero 6," the Animated Feature Oscar winner.


History
The Student Academy Awards support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.

The beginnings of the awards came from a proposal by Herbert Klynn on Sept. 26, 1972, at a meeting of the Short Subjects Branch Executive Committee. An ad hoc committee was formed to "define" the awards. Months later, on July 9, 1973, the committee presented its recommendations. On Sept. 4, the rules for the first Student Film Awards competition were presented and approved by the Academy's Board of Governors.

The first Student Film Award winners were announced on Dec. 20, 1973. Academy member Jack Lemmon hosted a ceremony at the Academy Award Theater on Melrose Avenue. Each of the winners received "a share of the $5,000 in prize money from the National Association of Theater Owners and an engraved trophy designed by Academy member Saul Bass," according to Academy's website.

It was not until 1991, however, that "The Student Academy Awards" got its name, after being approved by the Board of Governors.


The Oscars
Since the program's inception, Student Academy Award winners have gone on to earn 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight Academy Awards.

This year (for the 87th Academy Awards), J. Christian Jensen, a 2014 Silver Medal winner, received an Oscar nomination for Documentary Short for “White Earth,” and Talkhon Hamzavi, a 2013 Silver Medal winner, received a nomination (with Stefan Eichenberger) for Live Action Short for “Parvaneh.”

In February 2012, at the 84th Academy Awards, 2011 Student Academy Award winners Hallvar Witzø and Max Zähle were nominated in the Live Action Short Film category for "Tuba Atlantic" and "Raju," respectively. James Spione, a Student Academy Award winner in 1987, earned a nomination in the Documentary Short Subject category for "Incident in New Baghdad." At the 83rd Academy Awards, 2010 Student Academy Award winner Luke Matheny took home the Oscar for Live Action Short Film for "God of Love." Tanel Toom, the 2010 Honorary Foreign Film winner, was also nominated for Live Action Short Film for "The Confession." John Lasseter, a Student Academy Award winner in 1979 and 1980, was nominated for Adapted Screenplay for “Toy Story 3.”

Take a look at a video featuring 2011 Student Academy Award winner Julian Higgins, who won the Narrative Gold Medal for his film "Thief," and what he did in the year following his win:



Check out the official website for the Student Academy Awards.

Stay tuned to The Gold Knight for full coverage of the 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards. 

The 88th Academy Awards, for outstanding film achievements of 2015, will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries worldwide.