May 7,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

Beverly Hills, CA - Thirty-eight students from 22 colleges and universities around the country have been selected as finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 28th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Their films will now be voted upon by Academy members and those students ultimately selected as winners will be flown to Los Angeles to participate in a week of industry-related activities and social events that will culminate June 10 with the awards presentation ceremony at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The finalists are (alphabetical by film title within category):

Alternative Category

"Any Creature," Patrick Daughters, New York University.
"The Beginning of Time," Aina Abiodun, University of California, Los Angeles.
"The Girl from Marseilles," Cathy Crane, San Francisco State University.
"Not Waving but Drowning," Megan Griffiths, Ohio University.
"Pomegranate," Ham Tran, UCLA.
"Smoke Rings," Jason Dickerson and Jorge Serrano, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
"Warmth," Michael Schaerer, School of Visual Arts, New York.

Animation Category

"Boobie Girl," Brooke Keesling, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California.
"Excuses, Excuses," Christopher Timmons, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
"Fear of Frowning," Peter Postma, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
"Hue," Andrew Hodges, Columbia College, Chicago.
"Night Sweats," Dave Lebow, California Institute of the Arts.
"Silhouette," Tonya Noerr and Amber Rudolph, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida.
"That Special Monkey," Sean McBride, University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
"The Yellow Umbrella," Victor Robert and Rodney Hom, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California.

Documentary Category

"Green," Laura Dunn, University of Texas, Austin.
"Homers," Sophie Goodhart, New York University.
"In Between Days," Lori Lovoy-Goran, University of Southern California.
"Losing Your Grip: A Family's Battle with ALS," F. Hatton Littman, Boston University.
"The Playroom," Rafael Del Toro, New York University.
"Undesirables," Marianna Yarovskaya, University of Southern California.
"XXXY," Porter Gale and Laleh Soomekh, Stanford University.

Narrative Category

"Bean Cake," David Greenspan, University of Southern California.
"Chaperone," Victor Buhler, New York University.
"The Confession," Carl Pfirman, UCLA.
"Fair Play," Leo Wong and Joanie Wread, American Film Institute, Los Angeles.
"Finbar Lebowitz," Jennifer Smith and Rona Mark, Columbia University, New York.
"Funky Town," Doug Heder and Matthew Janzen, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
"Lector," Greg Marcks, Florida State University.
"Terry," Thomas Mogle, Southern Illinois University.
"Zen and the Art of Landscaping, "David Kartch, Columbia University.

To reach this stage, students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalist films in each of the four categories. Academy members may now choose to present awards to as many as three films in each of the categories. Along with their trophies, Gold Medal winners in each of the four categories receive $5,000; Silver Medal winners take home $3,000, and Bronze Medal recipients are awarded $2,000. (This year's cash prizes have been increased from the past awards of $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000.) An Honorary Foreign Film Award also will be presented. Finalists for that award this year are individual students from the Netherlands, France, Mexico, Germany and Poland.

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