38th Annual Student Academy Awards

575 films are are in competition for the 2011 Student Academy Awards.  The competition - now in its 38th year - will culminate in the awards presentation, which will include screenings of the winning films on Saturday, June 11 in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.  The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level.  Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards and corresponding cash grants may be presented in each of four categories: Animation, Narrative, Documentary and Alternative.  This year, for the first time, up to three films may also be honored with medals and cash grants in the Foreign Student Film category, the same as in the individual U.S. categories.  In February, at the 83rd Academy Awards, 2010 Student Academy Award® winner Luke Matheny took home the Oscar® for Live Action Short Film for God of Love.  Tanel Toom, the 2010 Honorary Foreign Film winner, was also nominated in the Live Action Short Film category for The Confession, and John Lasseter, a Student Academy Award winner in 1979 and 1980, was nominated for the Adapted screenplay for Toy Story 3.  Since the program's inception, Student Academy Award winners have gone on to earn 43 Oscar nominations and have won 8 Academy Awards.  The June 11th ceremony  is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required.  Tickets are available beginning on May 2.  Tickets may be obtained online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office or by mail.