Student Oscars in Animation: ESMA's Cows Takes Gold as European Schools Sweep All Three Medals

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has presented the medals in the animation category of the Student Academy Awards. Gold went to Cows from the French school ESMA. Silver went to The Panic Inside from Germany's Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and bronze to Gauze from the French school Gobelins. All three animation medals went to European schools, two of them French.

All of the winning films are eligible to compete for nominations at the 99th Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film and Documentary Short Film categories. Past winners of the competition have received a total of 70 Oscar nominations.

Placements revealed only at the Toronto ceremony

The Academy announced the winners back in August but kept the medal placements secret until the ceremony. The 53rd ceremony was held at TIFF Lightbox at Reitman Square during the Toronto International Film Festival. The competition received 2,972 entries from 894 colleges and universities around the world.

In total, the Academy awarded 12 medals in four categories, and nine of them went to schools outside the US. American universities received three medals in other categories: Duke University and New York University took gold, and University of Southern California took bronze.

Cows: gold for ESMA

The gold medal in animation went to Cows from École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (ESMA). In its list of winners, the Academy names the film's creators as Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro and Nicolás Acevedo Ferraté.

The Panic Inside: silver for Filmakademie

The silver medal went to The Panic Inside by Matthias Strasser from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany).

Gauze: bronze for Gobelins

The bronze medal went to Gobelins for Gauze. The Academy's list of winners names Noran Fikri Alezabi, Xinyue Ma and Yulin Yue.

What the results say about the industry

This year's results look much like those of past seasons. French schools performed strongly once again, and European animation schools compete with American film schools on equal terms. At schools like these, a graduation film is usually made by a team that works like a small studio. This model probably gives students good preparation for real production work. For ESMA, Gobelins and Filmakademie, an Academy medal may become a strong selling point for prospective students and for employers who hire graduates.

Holding the ceremony at TIFF is apparently meant to make student work more visible to producers and distributors who attend the festival. If this link continues, medalists will probably have better chances of festival distribution. When competing for nominations at the 99th Oscars, they will face professional studios on equal terms.