The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted 14 students as winners of the 52nd Student Academy Awards® competition. This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received 3,127 entries from 988 colleges and universities worldwide. The 2025 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award® winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.
The presentation ceremony for the annual international student film awards will be held on Monday, October 6, at 6 p.m. ET. It will take place this year at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City during the New York Film Festival, in partnership with Rolex.
The winners are (listed alphabetically by category):
Alternative/Experimental
Mati Granica, “flower_gan,” London College of Communication, United Kingdom
Xindi Zhang, “The Song of Drifters,” University of Southern California
Vega Moltke-Leth, “Without Perfection,” University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Animation
Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré & Maud Le Bras, “The Shyness of Trees,” Gobelins, France
Tobias Eckerlin, “A Sparrow’s Song,” Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Lucas Ansel, “The 12 Inch Pianist,” Rhode Island School of Design
Documentary
Rebeka Bizubová, “Confession,” Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia
Jane Deng, “I Remember,” New York University
Tatiana McCabe, “Tides of Life,” University of the West of England Bristol, United Kingdom
Narrative
Meyer Levinson-Blount, “Butcher’s Stain,” Tel Aviv University, Israel
Jan Saczek, “Dad’s Not Home,” Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, Poland
Zefan Wang, “Kubrick, Like I Love You,” Columbia University
First-time honors go to students from the University of Copenhagen, Gobelins, Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, London College of Communication and University of the West of England Bristol.
Gold, silver and bronze placements in the four award categories will be announced at the ceremony. In addition, winners will have a robust weekend of education programming, networking opportunities and exclusive access to Academy members to support their career advancement.
All Student Academy Award-winning films will be eligible to compete for the 98th Oscars® in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. Past winners have gone on to receive 69 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared 15 awards.
The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work.
