We are happy to announce that SFTV alumna Hayley Foster (Animation – B.A. ’13) has won a Student Academy Award in the Animation category for her short film Yamashita.
Yamashita is the story of a young Japanese-American girl who struggles with discovering her identity, heritage, and the loss of her connection to her past in the context of the Japanese-American Internment of World War II. In addition to winning a Student Academy Award, Yamashita has been selected for inclusion in 2014 Fine Cut: KCET’s Annual Festival of Student Films this summer and will air on the station as part of the four-week series that showcases some of the finest documentaries, comedic, dramatic and animated shorts by students. Yamashita also received the inaugural Woody Woodpecker Award from the Walter Lantz Foundation and three awards at last year’s student film festival, Film Outside the Frame.
Foster said, “It’s a tremendous honor to win a Student Academy Award for Yamashita. I appreciate it as a testament to my hard work and dedication in my senior year, the work of my friends and loved ones who aided me in its production, and all my professors who guided me through the four years I spent at LMU.”
“We’re all incredibly proud of Hayley. Her film is visually poetic, with so much historical and cultural authenticity. Then, for the Academy to give her a student Oscar is the perfect Hollywood ending,” said Tom Klein, Associate Professor and Chair of the Animation Department, School of Film and Television.
The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Past Student Academy Award® winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
Three winners in each of the Student Academy’s five categories were revealed this morning. The winning students will be brought to Los Angeles for a week of industry events that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 7, at 6 p.m., at the DGA Theater in Hollywood, at which time the gold, silver and bronze medalists will be revealed.
