All Of This Year’s Student Academy Award Animation Finalists Came From France Or Germany

The Academy has announced the finalists for the 2026 Student Academy Awards, with seven animated student films advancing to the final round of competition, each from either France or Germany, and all but two from Gobelins or Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. The remaining contenders come from fellow French institutions ESMA and Rubika.

Now in its 53rd year, the Student Academy Awards recognize outstanding student filmmaking from colleges and universities around the world across four competitive categories: Animation, Documentary, Live Action Narrative, and Alternative/Experimental, the latter of which also boasts a fair bit of animation. The program has long served as a launching pad for emerging filmmakers, with alumni including Pete Docter and Robert Zemeckis. Former winners have earned a combined 70 Academy Award nominations and 15 wins.

The 2026 Student Academy Awards ceremony, presented in partnership with Rolex, will take place on Monday, September 14, at TIFF Lightbox during the Toronto International Film Festival.

2026 Student Academy Awards Animation Finalists

Animation

• Jonathan Lally, Elio Molinaro & Nicolas Acevedo Ferrate, COWS, École Supérieure de Métiers Artistiques (France)
• Martha Rivière, Théo Bergougnoux & Romane Casha, Fellow, RUBIKA (France)
• Noran Fikri Alezabi, Xinyue Ma & Yulin Yue, Gauze, Gobelins (France)
• William Burger, Odelia Laine & Mathilde Vergereau, Le Jardin Rossini, Gobelins (France)
• Matthias Strasser, The Panic Inside, Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
• David Sick, Send Nudes, Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
• Yehor Bondarenko, Alp Kurdoglu & Ange Yajima, Tears of the Mountain, Gobelins (France)

Alternative/Experimental

• Lei He, Drifting, Duke University (United States)
• Sinned Raun, Everyone Always Experience Everything Equally, VIA Film and Transmedia (Denmark)
• Zsófia Pethő, Inlands, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Hungary)
• Sara Khani, Neither Reality, Nor Fiction, Pars University of Architecture and Art (Iran)
• Raghad Albakheet, A subconscious dive, Jordan Cinema Academy (Jordan)
• Viktorie Štěpánová, Volklore, Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění v Praze (Czech Republic)
• Nina Broers, Where Is My Sex Drive? St. Joost School of Art & Design (Netherlands)