Left to right: Thorsten Schmidt, Aaron Lubarsky, Matthias Visser, Joel Moffett, Greg Pak, Suzanne Lee Twining, Dana H. Glazer, Yuriko Gamo Romer, Neal Nellans, Bill Platt, Robin Larsen, Kyle Clark and Peter Choe.

Twelve film students from the United States and one from Germany received their trophies and prize money Sunday, June 14, as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 25th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Though the students all knew they had succeeded in the competition, the level of each filmmaker's award - gold, silver or bronze - had not been known until the gala ceremony in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater at which a capacity crowd of over 1,000 people were present.

This year's winners are:

Gold Medal: "Sombra," Robin Larsen, University of California, Los Angeles

Gold Medal: "Jataka," Peter Choe and Neal Nellans, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
Silver Medal: "Switchback," Kyle Clark, University of Southern California
Bronze Medal: Put On A Happy Face, Suzanne Lee Twining, theUniversity of the Arts, Philadelphia

Gold Meda (tie): "Fighting Grandpa," Greg Pak, New York University and
"Occidental Encounters," Yuriko Gamo Romer, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Bronze Medal: "Wayne Freedman'S Notebook," Aaron Lubarsky, Stanford University

Gold Medal: "Bleach," Bill Platt, New York University
Silver Medal: "My Body," Joel Moffett and Matthias Visser, American Film Institute, Los Angeles
Bronze Medal: "Intermezzo," Dana H. Glazer, New York University

"Rochade," Thorsten Schmidt, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany

Twelve film students from the United States and one from Germany received their trophies and prize money Sunday, June 14, as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 25th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Though the students all knew they had succeeded in the competition, the level of each filmmaker's award - gold, silver or bronze - had not been known until the gala ceremony in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater at which a capacity crowd of over 1,000 people were present.

NYU's Bill Platt also won the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award for BLEACH, which includes a $1,000 cash grant and an opportunity to observe filming for up to six months with a member of the Directors Guild.

Actor David Paymer, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1992 for his performance in MR. SATURDAY NIGHT, presented the documentary and alternative category awards. Writer-producer Paul Mazursky, who has earned five Academy Award nominations, presented the dramatic category medals. The animation awards and the Honorary Foreign Student Award were presented by Academy Governors June Foray and Fay Kanin, respectively. Kanin is also a past president of the Academy.

Besides trophies, gold medalists received $2,000, silver medalists were awarded $1,500 and bronze medal recipients were presented with $1,000. Platt was also named recipient of the Directors Guild of America Student Award.

Student Academy Award entrants first participate in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions may then send as many as three finalists in each of the four categories to the Academy for final judging by Academy members.

The Honorary Foreign Award recipient was selected from a field of 34 entries from 23 foreign countries. These films do not compete against the U. S. productions. This is the 18th time the Academy has presented an award to a foreign student as part of the Student Academy Awards program. 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.

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

A complete list of 1998 Student Academy Awards Winners may be found here.