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2027 Oscars | Student Academy Awards Animation Winners Announced
Credit: Cows (ESMA), Gauze (Gobelins), The Panic Inside (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)
This year’s batch of Student Academy Award winners has been announced, with 2,972 entries spanning 894 colleges and universities across the globe. In the animation category, the three winners are…
Cows (ESMA, France) - Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro, and Nicolás Acevedo Ferraté
- Moo Moo the cow isn’t satisfied with her life and decides to escape to the brand-new farm across the road where life isn’t the paradise she thought it would be.
Gauze (Gobelins, France) - Noran Fikri Alezabi, Xinyue Ma, and Yulin Yue
- 14-year-old Zain, a Palestinian swimming champion, faces war and man-made famine. He becomes the sole caregiver to his little brother. When aid drops into the sea, desperate for food, Zain is forced to swim - not for passion, but for survival.
The Panic Inside (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany) - Matthias Strasser
- How does a chronic people-pleaser, who struggles to say no to his friends’ constant requests, finally learn to set boundaries, confidently say no, and reclaim his personal freedom?
These three animated shorts were among seven finalists. The films that didn’t advance to the final round were Fellow (Martha Rivière, Théo Bergougnoux & Romane Casha), Le Jardin Rossini (William Burger, Odelia Laine & Mathilde Vergereau), Send Nudes (David Sick), and Tears of the Mountain (Yehor Bondarenko). Notably, all of this year’s animation finalists were either from France or Germany. Cows, Gauze, and The Panic Inside will be presented at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival inside TIFF Lightbox on September 14. The three winners will be presented with gold, silver, or bronze awards. Whichever they receive, all three are now eligible for Best Animated Short consideration at the 99th Academy Awards.
Last year, Tobias Eckerlin’s A Sparrow’s Song won the Gold prize, while Lucas Ansel took home silver for The 12 Inch Pianist. Bronze went to The Shyness of Trees by Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré & Maud Le Bras. Despite coming in third at the Student Academy Awards, The Shyness of Trees made that year’s shortlist for Best Animated Short, whereas A Sparrow’s Song and The 12 Inch Pianist didn’t. The Shyness of Trees ultimately didn’t advance to the final five nominees. Lachlan Pendragon's An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It was the last Student Academy Award winner that went on to receive a Best Animated Short nomination.
Congrats to the teams behind Cows, Gauze, and The Panic Inside!
Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Available Now!
