June 11, 2001

Acad toasts 12 with student Oscars
Winners also earn cash prizes
By Jill Feiwell

HOLLYWOOD -- Twelve film students from 10 U.S. universities were awarded prizes Sunday from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences during the 28th annual Student Academy Awards competish.

Columbia U. scholar David Kartch joked: "This is surreal to say the least. I mean I have said the words 'I'd like to thank the Academy' before, but never in front of an audience."

While the winners were previously announced, the level of their award -- gold, silver or bronze -- was not revealed until the kudocast, held at the Acad's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Besides trophies, gold medalists received $5,000, silver medalists nabbed $3,000 and bronze medal recipients took home $2,000.
The following are this year's medalists:

Alternative: gold, "Warmth," Michael Schaerer, School of Visual Arts. (No silver or bronze medals were awarded in this category.)

Animation: gold, "Boobie Girl," Brooke Keesling, Cal Arts; silver, "The Yellow Umbrella," Victor Robert and Rodney Hom, Art Center College of Design; bronze, "That Special Monkey," Sean McBride, U. of the Arts.

Documentary: gold, "XXXY," Porter Gale and Laleh Soomekh, Stanford; silver, "Green," Laura Dunn, U. of Texas, bronze, "Undesirables," Marianna Yarovskaya, UCLA.

Narrative: gold, "Zen and the Art of Landscaping," David Kartch, Columbia; silver "The Confession," Carl Pfirman, UCLA; bronze "Lector," Greg Marcks, Florida State U.

In addition, Mexican film scholar Rodrigo Pla was on hand to receive the honorary foreign film nod for his pic "The Eye on the Nape." Pla is a student of Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica in Mexico City.

Academy secretary-thesp Kathy Bates and Randy Quaid served as presenters.