These three directors from Germany were selected among a record number of submissions, coming from 93 foreign film schools. The winner of the Best Foreign Film directed his movie amidst clashes and tear gas in Turkey.
These three Germans knew they would be sweeping the prizes in the category Best Foreign Film, as the nominations were made in August, but they had to wait a whole month to find out who would win the gold, silver and bronze medals. The 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday (17.09.2015).
Ilker Çatak (pictured left) won the top spot with “Fidelity,” his graduate thesis film for the Hamburg Media School. Born in Berlin, the filmmaker with Turkish roots filmed “Sadakat” – the original title is in Turkish – right in the middle of the 2014 protests on Taksim Square in Istanbul.
Dustin Loose (right) of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg took second place with “The Last Will,” and Patrick Vollrath got the bronze medal for “Everything Will Be Okay.” The young filmmaker is from the German state of Lower Saxony, but directed this film while studying at the Filmakademie Wien in Austria.
Awards were also given out in four other categories, honoring the best alternative, animation, documentary and narrative films produced by students in the US.
According to the Academy, winners of the Student Academy Awards have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations. Among them are Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump”), Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing”) and Pete Docter (“Up,” “Monsters Inc”).
eg/kbm (dpa, AP)
