April 19,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - Five film students have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Student Academy Awards Honorary Foreign Film category. The winning student filmmaker, along with the winning film students from the United States, will be flown to Los Angeles to participate in a week of film industry-related activities and social events, culminating in the Student Academy Awards Presentation ceremony on June 10 in Beverly Hills.

The Honorary Foreign Film Award finalists are (alphabetically by film title):

• "Achmed Was Here," Hanro Smitsman, Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academie, the Netherlands;
• "The All-New Adventures of Chastity Blade," Magnat Julien, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Metiers de L'Image et du Son, France;
• "The Eye on the Nape," Rodrigo Pla, Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica, Mexico;
• "Hessi James," Yohannes Weiland, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany;
• "A Man Thing," Slawomir Fabicki, Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Filmowa, Telewizyjna I Teatralna, Poland.

The five finalists were selected from a pool of 27 submissions from 23 countries. This will be the 21st time the Academy has presented an award to a foreign student as part of the Student Academy Awards program (which is now in its 28th year). Two previous winners, Jan Sverak, who was a student in the former Czechoslovakia, and Mike Van Diem of the Netherlands, have gone on to win Oscar^® statuettes in the Foreign Language Film category for subsequent works. Last year's winning Foreign Student film, "Quiero Ser" by Florian Gallenberger of Germany, won the Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category at the most recent Academy Awards. The winning Foreign Student film of 1999, "Kleingeld," by Marc-Andreas Bochert of Germany, received a nomination in the Live Action Short Film category at the 72nd Academy Awards.

This year's finalist films will now be screened and voted upon by members of the Academy. The winner will be announced in May.