The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in film making at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee. 500 college and university film students from all over the United States compete for the award categories of animation, documentary, narrative and alternative.
The winners of the 44th Student Academy Awards have been announced with 17 students being honored for their work. This year, 1,587 entries were received for the competition and out of those, 267 were from domestic college and universities while 89 were international. The entries were voted on by a record number of Academy members.
The Animated Film Industry 