Front row (left to right): Kennedy Wheatley, Laura Murray, Jessica Lakis, Amy Winfrey. Middle row (left to right): Douglas Scott, Tod Polson, Ben Tomlin. Back row (left to right): Douglas Smith, Florian Gallenberger, Ari Gold, Michael Mullan, Jose Javier Martinez.

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.

Presenter Harold Ramis (left) and Gold Medal winner Ari Gold.

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.

A complete list of 2000 Student Academy Awards Winners may be found here.