Hayley Foster (Animation – B.A. ’13) and Brendan Calder (Production – B.A. ’14) are finalists in this year’s Student Academy Awards competition. Foster’s film Yamashita, about a Japanese girl in a WWII internment camp, will compete in the animation category, while Calder’s film Learning to Float, about a young man turning his life around with the help of a surfing mentor, will compete in the documentary category.
The Student Academy Awards is a national student film competition conducted by the Academy and the Academy Foundation. Screenings will take place on April 22 in Portland, Oregon and three films from each category will move on to the national finals taking place in Los Angeles in May.
Last year, Yamashita was awarded the Woody Woodpecker Award for Best Student Animated Short Film. The prize, which included a $2500 check and a statuette of the cartoon character, was presented to Foster by Edward Landry of the Walter Lantz Foundation on May 8, 2013 at the Walter and Grace Lantz Animation Lab dedication ceremony. Learning to Float recently won best short documentary at the 2014 San Luis Obispo Film Festival and has also been accepted to the San Diego Surf Film Festival. Both films were also winners at Film Outside the Frame 2013.
Congratulations to Foster and Calder as they continue to represent SFTV with their outstanding work!
A still from Hayley Foster’s film “Yamashita.”
A still from Brendan Calder’s documentary “Learning to Float.”
