Academy President Sid Ganis with fellow presenters Nia Vardalos and Kevin Smith.

Thirteen students from nine different colleges and universities were honored June 10 as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition. For several days, they had participated in a slate of industry-related activities and social events culminating with the awards ceremony, which featured actress/writer Nia Vardalos, filmmaker Kevin Smith and Academy President Sid Ganis as presenters, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. One film student from South Africa also was selected to receive this year’s Honorary Foreign Student Film Award.

The winners are:

*
Gold Medal: Perspective, Travis Hatfield and Samuel Day, Ball State University, Indiana
Silver Medal: 6 A.M., Carmen Vidal Balanzat, City College of New York
* Only gold and silver medals were awarded in the Alternative category.

Gold Medal: The Possum, Chris Choy, California Institute of the Arts
Silver Medal: The Dancing Thief, Meng Vue, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
Bronze Medal: Turtles, Thomas Leavitt, Brigham Young University

Gold Medal: Reporter Zero, Carrie Lozano, University of California, Berkeley
Silver Medal: The Women’s Kingdom, Xiaoli Zhou, University of California, Berkeley
Bronze Medal: Three Beauties, Mak Hossain, Purdue University

Gold Medal: Christmas Wish List, Sean Overbeeke, University of North Carolina
Silver Medal: El Viaje (One Day Trip), Cady Abarca-Benavides, Columbia University
Bronze Medal: Pop Foul, Moon Molson and Jennifer Handorf, Columbia University

Elalini, Tristan Holmes, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance

Front row (left to right): Carrie Lozano, Tristan Holmes, Meng Vue, Xiaoli Zhou, Cady Abarca-Benevidas, Chris Choy. Back row (left to right): Thomas Leavitt, Mak Hossain, Travis Hatfield, Samuel Day, Jennifer Handorf, Moon Molson, Sean Overbeeke, Carmen Vidal Balanzat.