Academy Governor and Academy Award nominee Arthur Dong (left) presented the Bronze Medal in the Documentary category to Lindsey Kealy and David Pittock of the University of Nebraska for their film "Cuba: Illogical Temple."

While the U.S. students knew they would each receive an award, the level of that award – gold, silver or bronze – was not known until ceremony. Besides trophies, gold medalists received $5,000, silver medalists were awarded $3,000 and bronze medal recipients were presented with $2,000.

Three-time Academy Award-nominee Pete Docter served as presenter at the ceremony for the alternative and animation categories. Docter, also a past Student Academy Award winner, earned his first nomination in 1995 as one of the writers of "Toy Story." His additional nominations were in the animated feature category for "Monsters, Inc." (2001) and in the animated short category for "Mike's New Car" (2002). Cinematographer Owen Roizman, who has earned five Oscar nominations in his career ("The French Connection," "The Exorcist," "Network," "Tootsie" and "Wyatt Earp"), presented the awards in the narrative category. Arthur Dong, nominated in 1983 for his documentary short "Sewing Woman," served as presenter in the documentary category. Roizman and Dong also are current Academy Governors. Academy President Frank Pierson hosted the evening and presented the Honorary Foreign Student Award.

Academy's President Frank Pierson presented the Honorary Foreign Student Film Award to Laurits Munch-Petersen of Denmark at the 31st annual Student Academy Awards.

The American 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. Academy members then screened the films and voted to select the winners.

The Honorary Foreign Film winner was selected from an original pool of 39 submissions – a record – from 23 countries. This is the fourth time that a student film from Denmark has won this particular award.

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 2004 Student Academy Awards Winners may be found here.