June 12, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                        lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - Students from New York University, California Institute of the Arts, University of Southern California and Columbia University took home Gold Medals from last night's (6/11) 27th annual Student Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In all, twelve film students from eight U.S. universities, as well as a German film school student, were honored by the Academy.

Following are this year's winners:

Alternative Category

• Gold Medal: "Helicopter," Ari Gold, New York University.
• Silver Medal: "Dear Sir: Letters to a Union Soldier," Michael Mullan and Jessica Lakis, University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

(Note: No Bronze Medal was awarded in this category.)

Animation Category

• Gold Medal: "Al Tudi Tuhak" ("Long, Long Ago"), Tod Polson, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California.
• Silver Medal (Tie): "The Bad Plant," Amy Winfrey, University of California, Los Angeles and "Luz," Jose Javier Martinez, University of California, Los Angeles.

Documentary Category

• Gold Medal: "Iron Ladies," Kennedy Wheatley, University of Southern California.
• Silver Medal: "Slender Existence," Laura C. Murray, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
• Bronze Medal: "Between Two Fires," Douglas Noel Smith, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Narrative Category

• Gold Medal: "One Day Crossing," Joan L. Stein, Columbia University, New York.
• Silver Medal: "Homeland," Doug Scott, New York University.
• Bronze Medal: "6 Miles of 8 Feet," Ben Tomlin, New York University.

Honorary Foreign Film

• "Quiero ser" Florian Gallenberger, Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, Munich, Germany.

Narrative category Gold Medal winner Stein, who was unable to attend the ceremonies, also received the Directors Guild of America's Student Film Award at the ceremony.

Besides trophies, gold medalists received $2,000, silver medalists were awarded $1,500 and bronze medal recipients were presented with $1,000.

The winners participated in a week of industry-related activities and social events, culminating with the Awards ceremony last night .

Writer-director-actor Harold Ramis ("Analyze This," "Groundhog Day," "Ghostbusters"), Academy Award-nominated actress Alfre Woodard ("Cross Creek"), cinematographer John Bailey ("Michael Jordan to the Max," "As Good As It Gets," "The Accidental Tourist") and June Foray, best known for her numerous voice characterizations including that of Grandmother Fa in "Mulan" and Rocky the Squirrel, served as presenters for the event.

Students first competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to send to the Academy as many as three films in each of the four categories as finalists. Thirty-one finalist films were submitted and were screened by members of the Academy who voted to select the winners.

The Honorary Foreign Film winner was selected from an original pool of 26 submissions from 19 countries. This is the fourth year in a row and the sixth time overall that a German student film has won the Honorary Foreign Student Award, although only one other winner was a student of the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich (Katja von Garnier, 1994). Germany now holds the record for the number of times a student has won the award, followed by England, which has been represented four times.

The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.

Note: Downloadable photos of the 27th Annual Student Academy Award winners are available at www.longphoto.com/ampas.