For the sixth time since 2004, the BYU Center for Animation has received the prestigious distinction as a winner of the Student Academy Awards (SAA), an annual competition recognizing the most promising student filmmakers around the world. Out of 1,615 entries from 360 domestic and international institutions, the SAA recognized BYU’s short film Grendel as one of only 16 winners across all categories for 2019.
In an awards ceremony on October 17, the SAA will announce the medal placement for each of the seven competition categories. Grendel, one of three winners in the animation category for domestic schools, is slated to earn either a gold, silver, or bronze medal. Regardless of the final ranking, Grendel and its fellow SAA winners are eligible to compete in the 2019 Oscars. The announcement of the 2019 Student Academy awards can be found here.
BYU’s Center for Animation has a long history of receiving prestigious awards for their short films. The program’s films have won 15 awards at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, College Television Awards (colloquially known as Student Emmys), and many awards at other distinguished film festivals such Cannes and ACM SIGGRAPH. The Center also won first place at last year’s E3’s College Game Competition, the preeminent game competition for college students. The BYU team has emerged as a finalist or first-place finisher in the CGC for four out of the last six years.