PLEASE NOTE THE RULE CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR:
• Students who are in certificate programs where a final film is made are now eligible
for the competition.
• The accreditation requirement for schools has been removed.
• Waiver and Film Festival Qualifying have been removed as alternate ways to qualify.
Only capstone, thesis and intermediate level films are eligible for the competition.
STUDENT ELIGIBILITY
The director(s) of a submitted film must be a post-secondary student who was enrolled (full-time or part-time) in a degree- or certificate-granting program when the film was made. High school/secondary students and younger are not eligible to submit.
FILM ELIGIBILITY
1. Only films that are undergraduate intermediate level or capstone films, or graduate school intermediate level or thesis films are eligible for entry. For associate degree and certificate programs, only final film projects are eligible. Students may submit these films directly to the competition.
a. Intermediate level means films completed in your second-to-final year (i.e., a junior-level class) for undergraduate students and second year or later for graduate school students.
2. A film must have been made as part of a student’s coursework or graduation requirement.
3. All films must be no longer than 40 minutes including opening and closing credits.
4. Student directors are only allowed to submit one film per competition year.
5. Films must have been completed and submitted for final credit/grading between
June 2, 2024 and May 18, 2025, and within one year of the student’s graduation date.
6. Do not submit works in progress. Films may not be altered once submitted for
Student Academy Award consideration.
7. Films cannot have been entered in any previous SAA competitions. Making changes to
a film submitted in a previous year, even significant changes, does not make the film
eligible again.
8. Films submitted for the Academy Awards competition (regardless of the outcome) are not eligible for entry into any subsequent SAA competition.
9. Films (including any still images) must not display any festival laurels, or awards won.
10. All films submitted must be in English, subtitled in English, or dubbed in English. All films are encouraged to include closed captioning in English. All films that advance to the finals are required to have closed captioning in English.
11. Music videos, TV and web series episodes, advertising films, promotional films, and films made as works for hire are not eligible.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
1. The SAAs honor up to three credited directors. If your film has more than three directors, please submit the names of up to three who are the most responsible for creative direction of the project. If there are any credit discrepancies or controversies, the Academy will insist that credits be settled before the film may be considered for an award. The Academy will not be bound by any contract or agreement relating to the sharing or giving of credit, and reserves the right to make its own determination of credit for purposes of SAA consideration.
2. Entry forms and films must be submitted digitally via FilmFreeway.com.
3. Upon submission, entries shall be verified for eligibility and category.
4. Films must be viewable on FilmFreeway. They can either be uploaded as a video file or pasted as a URL from Vimeo or YouTube only. If one of the latter, please enable your privacy settings to allow your film to be embedded.
5. You must supply your faculty advisor's name and email when asked. Do not provide your email in lieu of theirs. They will be contacted to verify your film and student status.
6. Each film must be submitted to one category only. If a film is determined to be in an incorrect category, it will be reassigned to the correct category.
7. Films advancing to the semifinal round of judging will be asked for the below additional formats. Preferred media specs can be found by visiting the following page: Technical Specifications. Any hard media provided will be returned to the entrant after the competition ends.
a. VIDEO FILE: Please send a muxed A/V file in adherence to our VIDEO and AUDIO specifications.
b. VTT TIMED TEXT (CC + Subtitles): Every film is required to upload a corresponding English closed caption Web-VTT file, though you may also be asked to submit an English subtitle Web-VTT (depending on the content of your film). Please view THIS CHART to determine the type of VTT you must send with your film. For further information on the Web-VTT format, please click here .
c. DCP: Please send in adherence to our DCP specifications .
d. ENGLISH AUDIO DESCRIPTION: If available, please deliver an audio description file in adherence with our AUDIO DESCRIPTION SPEC .
8. Failure to satisfy all the entry requirements will result in disqualification.
PUBLICITY
1. Student Academy Award participants may only promote their status in the competition within the explicit guidelines provided by the Academy.
2. Promoting any film entered into the SAA competition to Academy members (either by the filmmaker or by a third party, sometimes referred to as campaigning) while the SAA competition is active is not allowed, and will be considered cause for disqualification.
MISCELLANEOUS
1. Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible for entry into the following year's Academy Awards competition, provided the films satisfy all criteria for the Academy Award category for which they are entered.
2. If the eligibility and/or category of any entry is questioned, the Academy reserves the right to make a determination as the SAA Executive Committee may deem appropriate at its discretion.
3. The Academy reserves the right to amend or modify any procedure, process, or rule, as may be considered necessary by the SAA Executive Committee for the proper conduct of the Student Academy Awards or to adhere to any standards set forth by the Academy.
4. While there currently aren’t any rules against using AI, if you use AI in your film it should be to enhance the project and not to replace any human creativity.
5. The Academy is not responsible for late or missing entries.
6. The decisions of the Academy regarding any matter relating to the SAA will be final and binding in all respects.
AWARDS CATEGORIES
ANIMATION - Animated films may present an original narrative story, an existing story or fable, or an exploration of a mood or thought. Either comical or serious, they usually fall into one of two general fields -- character animation or abstract animation. Various techniques include cel animation, computer animation, clay animation, stop-motion, pixilation, cut-out pins, camera multiple-pass imagery, kaleidoscope effects, and drawing on the film frame itself. Winning Animation films are chosen by judging the product as a whole, as well as the artistic and technical skill of the filmmaker in whatever motif or animation technique the student has chosen.
DOCUMENTARY - Documentary films are nonfiction visual essays that seek to present historical subjects, current social or political issues, or specific human experiences in such a way as to have a dramatic impact upon the viewing audience. Documentaries may be filmed in the cinéma vérité style where camera and microphone merely record the event without injecting the comments or subjective conclusions of the filmmaker, or may be a reenactment. In the latter case, the distinction between dramatic and documentary film lies in the fact that while dramatic film is fictional, documentary film deals with factual situations and circumstances. Winning films in this category are chosen on the basis of artistic technique, as well as the ability of the documentarian to fashion reality into a film essay which leaves the audience better informed and/or moved.
NARRATIVE - Narrative films strive to portray life, a character or a narrative story much the same way a novel does, but within the context of an audiovisual medium. Past narrative films by students have included, but were not limited to, dramas, comedies, musicals, and many other story oriented genres. Winning entries in this and all other categories reflect the merit of the film when viewed as a whole, as well as the professional execution of its component parts, such as script, dialogue, direction, cinematography, lighting, acting, editing and scoring. Narrative category films may be adaptations of existing pieces of literature or original stories written by the student filmmaker.
ALTERNATIVE/EXPERIMENTAL – Alternative/Experimental films challenge traditional cinematic boundaries and conventions of expression. They employ unusual or groundbreaking aesthetic and technical elements. Generally, they do not follow conventional or predictable narrative form. They allow for ambiguity and complexity of thought, and use abstraction or lyricism in their execution. Alternative/Experimental films often expand the language of cinema.
Note to entrants: This category is not meant to be a “catch all” category for films that have unusual narratives or structure.
JUDGING
1. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shall judge entries on the basis of originality, entertainment, and production quality without regard to cost of production or subject matter. Entries shall be judged only within their respective category.
2. All stages of judging, including Preliminary, Semifinal, and Final rounds, shall be overseen by the members of the Academy.
3. Preliminary entries will be judged via their online digital submission. At this stage, the Academy has the option to re-categorize the entry into a more suitable category.
Filmmakers will be notified of advancement to the semifinals in July.
4. Semifinalist entries shall be judged online only. Filmmakers will be notified of advancement to the finals in August.
5. Finalist entries shall be judged online only. Final ballots will be tabulated by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and filmmakers in each category will be notified of their final status in September.
6. Presentation of the Gold, Silver and Bronze award winners in each category will be made at the Student Academy Awards Ceremony on October 6, 2025.
