^{Credit: A Sparrow’s Song (Film Academy Baden-Württemberg)}

This past August, The Shyness of Trees from Gobelins Paris, A Sparrow’s Song from Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, and The 12 Inch Pianist from Rhode Island School of Design won Student Academy Awards in the animation category. On October 6, former Pixar animator and In Your Dreams director Alex Woo presented gold, silver, and bronze prizes to the three finalists. A Sparrow’s Song was named the recipient of the gold Student Academy Award. Silver went to The 12 Inch Pianist while The Shyness of Trees took bronze.

Tobias Eckerlin directed A Sparrow’s Song, a World War II-set short inspired by a true story. It follows a grieving widow who tries to save a dying bird, finding hope against a bleak backdrop. Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré, and Maud Le Bras directed Shyness of Trees, in which a woman’s love for her aging mother and the phenomenon of Mother Nature collide. Lucas Ansel directed The 12 Inch Pianist, a fresh spin on a “guy walks into a bar” joke adapted from a New Yorker short story.

These three animated shorts were among seven finalists for Student Academy Awards consideration. The other four were Beautify (Elizaveta Makarenko), The Song of the Sheep (Jules Marcel, Juliette Bigo, Anaïs Ledoux), The Undying Pain of Existence (Oscar Jacobson), and Wolfie (Philippe Kastner). By making the top three, A Sparrow’s Song, The 12 Inch Pianist, and The Shyness of Trees all automatically qualify for Best Academy Short consideration at the 98^th Academy Awards. This is one of a few routes to Oscar eligibility for animated shorts. Another is to win a prize at an Oscar-qualifying film festival. You can also have your short publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial theater in a qualifying U.S. metro area for one week with at least one daily screening.

Since 2016, just two Student Academy Award winners have gone on to be nominated for Best Animated Short: Daughter (Daria Kashcheeva) and An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It (Lachlan Pendragon). Daughter lost to Hair Love while Ostrich lost to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Gold Student Academy Award recipients Once Upon a Line (Alicja Jasina), In a Heartbeat (Esteban Bravo, Beth David), Life Smartphone (Chenglin Xie), Boom (Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, Charles Di Cicco), and Au Revoir Mon Monde (Estelle Bonnardel, Quentin Devred, Baptiste Duchamps) went on to make the Oscar shortlist, but they didn’t advance to the final round of voting. Cradle (Devon Manney) and Origami (Kei Kanamori) are the only silver recipients from the past decade to warrant a spot on the Oscar shortlist. None of the decade’s bronze recipients have been shortlisted for the Oscar.

A Student Academy Award winner rarely goes on to make the Oscar five. We’ve yet to see an animated short win a Student Academy Award and the Best Animated Short Oscar back-to-back. Many successful filmmakers have launched their careers Student Academy Awards, however. Just ask Shane Acker, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Murray, Trey Parker, and Robert Zemeckis, to name a few. We’ll find out if A Sparrow’s Song, The 12 Inch Pianist, or The Shyness of Trees takes the next step towards Oscar gold when the shortlist is announced in December.

On a side note, Xindi Zhang's The Song of Drifters won gold in the Student Academy Award's alternative/experimental category. Vega Moltke-Leth's Without Perfection won silver, and bronze went to Mati Granica's flower_gan. 

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1 and 2. Available Now!