​Student Academy Awards Provide ‘Momentum’ for Young Filmmakers

Student Academy Awards Provide ‘Momentum’ for Young Filmmakers

学生学院奖为年轻电影制作人提供“动力”

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　　By Dan Friedell

　　03 February 2024

　　While most people know about the Academy Awards in Hollywood — the awards known as the Oscars — few know about the Student Academy Awards.

　　But to those who know about the industry, they are a big deal.

　　A top-three finish at the Student Academy Awards can lift a young filmmaker's career.

　　Freddy Macdonald knows this.

　　His short movie, Shedding Angels, placed third in the narrative film category in 2022. It was his thesis film after two years of study at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. A thesis is a big project that is needed to complete a study program.

　　Just being selected as a finalist was a dream come true, Macdonald said.

　　"Having that stamp from the Academy helped give me so much momentum to create my first feature film."

　　Macdonald is 23. He said the recognition from the Academy helped launch his career. After the award, he said, investors paid more attention to him, and he was able to create excitement for a full-length movie.

　　That movie is a longer version of another one of his short films called Sew Torn. He directed it when he was 19.

　　Sew Torn, he said, tells the story of a seamstress who gets involved in a violent drug deal.

　　The full-length movie will be shown at film festivals this year and Macdonald hopes it will be shown in theaters sometime in the near future.

　　History of success

　　Macdonald could be one of the more recent filmmakers to go on to a successful career in Hollywood after receiving a student award from the Academy.

　　The awards program celebrated its 50th year in 2023. Some of the past winners include Spike Lee, known for his movies, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, He Got Game and others. Lee won an Oscar in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman.

　　Lee won his student award in 1983 when he was studying at New York University (NYU). His film was Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.

　　Other student winners include Robert Zemeckis, who won an Oscar for directing Forrest Gump in 1994. Pete Docter won a student award, too. He later earned Oscars for his animated films Up, Inside Out and Soul.

　　Kendra Carter is a Vice President at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which runs both awards programs. She said the Academy hopes to open the film industry to people from many different backgrounds and "create a pool of highly skilled, diverse talent."

　　Serious exposure

　　In 2023, 640 members of the Academy voted on the awards, which means the student work was seen by hundreds of people in Hollywood. In addition to the award, many students come away from the event with a business agent who can help them get more work.

　　But that's not all. The gold-medal winners can choose to have their work submitted for the Academy Awards. Last year, an animated short film by a student from Australia, An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It, was considered for an Oscar.

　　"Once your name is tied to a Student Academy Award, it just opens all of these doors," the Academy's Carter said. "It's so transformative for emerging filmmakers."

　　The program is now open to young filmmakers from around the world. Giorgio Ghiotto of Italy is a student at NYU. He won the gold medal in October for his documentary short film Wings of Dust.

　　"Everyone thinks it's impossible to be a documentary filmmaker unless you're rich, or super lucky," Ghiotto said. He called his success "an impossible dream."

　　Macdonald said the opportunity to compete with student filmmakers from around the world was both "extremely daunting and exciting." He said it was a great experience to go to the awards ceremony and meet so many creative people from around the world.

　　School experience

　　He would not have gotten that experience without going to film school. Macdonald said he thought about going to an undergraduate film program first.

　　"And then towards the end of high school, kind of, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, but the big question came what college am I gonna go to? Where should I be applying? And so, I started looking at all the different paths in terms of film school and the American Film Institute always jumped off the page to me...But I didn't think that would be a possibility because it is a graduate program, and I was applying as a high school senior."

　　Macdonald applied and was the youngest person ever accepted into the directing program. He was qualified because by then, he had already made a short film and done other directing jobs. But because he did not have a college degree, AFI gave him a "certificate of completion" at the end.

　　While in school, he learned more about the business side of filmmaking than he expected. He learned how to write a proposal that aimed to make investors excited to finance a film.

　　"And that was really helpful for me to kind of wrap my head around the different ways you can make movies."

　　‘An honor'

　　Before being nominated for a Student Academy Award, Macdonald had everything he needed to enter the film industry. He had strong experience before attending AFI. He learned even more in school. He even got attention from some film studios. But the Student Academy Award experience gave him something more. It gave him the sense that other people believed in what he was doing.

　　"The Academy recognizing it (my film) really gave me belief in myself that the stories that I want to tell are worth telling and that I should keep pursuing them."

　　The lesson, Macdonald added, was that the Academy liked his work and he, in his words, "should keep fighting to make movies."

　　I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Jill Robbins.

　　Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press and his interview with Macdonald.

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　　作者：Dan Friedell

　　2024年2月3日

　　虽然大多数人都知道好莱坞的奥斯卡奖——也就是被称为奥斯卡的学院奖，但很少有人知道学生学院奖。

　　但对于那些了解这个行业的人来说，它们是一件大事。

　　在学生学院奖中获得前三名可以提升一个年轻电影制作人的职业生涯。

　　弗雷迪·麦克唐纳德知道这一点。

　　他的短片《脱落的天使》在2022年的叙事电影类别中获得了第三名。这是他在洛杉矶美国电影学院（AFI）学习两年后的毕业论文电影。毕业论文是完成学习计划所需的大型项目。

　　麦克唐纳德说，仅仅被选为决赛入围者就是梦想成真。

　　"获得学院的认可为我创作第一部故事片提供了巨大的动力。"

　　麦克唐纳德现年23岁。他说，学院的认可帮助他启动了他的职业生涯。他说，获奖后，投资者更加关注他，他能够为一部全长电影创造兴奋点。

　　那部电影是他的另一部短片《撕裂》的长版。他在19岁时导演了这部电影。

　　他说，《撕裂》讲述了一个裁缝卷入一场暴力的毒品交易的故事。

　　这部全长电影将在今年的电影节上展映，麦克唐纳德希望它在不久的将来能在影院上映。

　　成功的历史

　　麦克唐纳德可能是最近一批在获得学院的学生奖后在好莱坞取得成功的电影制作人之一。

　　这个奖项计划在2023年庆祝了其50周年。一些过去的获奖者包括斯派克·李，他以他的电影《做正确的事》、《马尔科姆·X》、《他有游戏》等而闻名。李在2019年凭借《黑色克兰斯曼》赢得了奥斯卡奖。

　　李在1983年赢得了他的学生奖，当时他正在纽约大学（NYU）学习。他的电影是《乔的贝德-斯图伊理发店：我们剪头发》。

　　其他学生获奖者包括罗伯特·泽米吉斯，他在1994年凭借导演《阿甘正传》赢得了奥斯卡奖。皮特·道克特也赢得了学生奖。他后来凭借他的动画电影《飞屋环游记》、《头脑特工队》和《心灵奇旅》赢得了奥斯卡奖。

　　肯德拉·卡特是运营这两个奖项计划的电影艺术和科学学院的副主席。她说，学院希望向来自许多不同背景的人开放电影行业，并"创造一批高技能、多元化的人才库"。

　　严肃的曝光

　　在2023年，640名学院的成员对奖项进行了投票，这意味着学生的作品被好莱坞的数百人看到。除了奖项，许多学生从这个活动中带走了一位商业代理人，他们可以帮助他们获得更多的工作。

　　但这还不是全部。金牌获奖者可以选择将他们的作品提交给奥斯卡奖。去年，一部由澳大利亚学生制作的动画短片《一只鸵鸟告诉我世界是假的，我想我相信了》被考虑为奥斯卡奖的候选。

　　"一旦你的名字与学生奥斯卡奖联系在一起，它就会打开所有这些门，"学院的卡特说。"这对新兴电影制作人来说是如此的改变生活。"

　　这个项目现在对来自世界各地的年轻电影制作人开放。意大利的乔治奥·吉奥托是纽约大学的一名学生。他在10月份凭借他的纪录片短片《尘土之翼》赢得了金牌。

　　"每个人都认为，除非你很富有，或者非常幸运，否则你不可能成为一名纪录片制作人，"吉奥托说。他称他的成功为"一个不可能的梦想"。

　　麦克唐纳德说，有机会与来自世界各地的学生电影制作人竞争既"极其令人生畏又令人兴奋"。他说，去参加颁奖典礼并见到来自世界各地的这么多创新人士是一次很好的经历。

　　学校经历

　　如果没有去电影学校，他就不会有这样的经历。麦克唐纳德说，他曾经考虑过首先去读一个本科电影课程。

　　"然后在高中快结束的时候，我知道我想成为一名电影制作人，但是大问题来了，我应该去哪所大学？我应该申请哪里？所以，我开始查看所有关于电影学校的不同路径，美国电影学院总是给我留下深刻的印象...但我认为这不可能，因为它是一个研究生课程，而我是作为一个高中毕业生申请的。"

　　麦克唐纳德申请了，并成为了被录取到导演课程的最年轻的人。他有资格，因为到那时，他已经制作了一部短片并做了其他的导演工作。但是因为他没有大学学位，所以AFI在结束时给了他一个"完成证书"。

　　在学校期间，他比预期中学到了更多关于电影制作的商业方面的知识。他学会了如何写一个旨在让投资者兴奋地投资电影的提案。

　　"这对我来说真的很有帮助，让我理解了你可以制作电影的不同方式。"

　　‘一种荣誉'

　　在被提名为学生奥斯卡奖之前，麦克唐纳德已经拥有了进入电影行业所需的一切。他在进入AFI之前就有了丰富的经验。他在学校里学到了更多。他甚至引起了一些电影工作室的注意。但是学生奥斯卡奖的经历给了他更多。它让他感到其他人相信他正在做的事情。

　　"学院对它（我的电影）的认可真的让我对自己有了信心，我想要讲述的故事是值得讲述的，我应该继续追求它们。"

　　麦克唐纳德补充说，这个教训是，学院喜欢他的作品，他用他的话说，"应该继续努力制作电影。"

　　我是丹·弗里德尔。我是吉尔·罗宾斯。

　　丹·弗里德尔根据美联社的报道和他与麦克唐纳德的采访为学习英语写了这个故事。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　career –n.一个人长期从事的工作或职业

　　narrative –adj. 讲述故事的

　　stamp –n. 批准的标记

　　momentum –n.一个推动未来持续运动的力量

　　seamstress –n.一个缝制或修补衣物的女人

　　animated –adj. 涉及动画片或卡通，而不是真人动作电影

　　diverse –adj. 涉及许多不同的事物的例子

　　transformative –adj. 导致完全改变的

　　emerging –adj. 刚开始发展成为完全的东西

　　pursue –v. 追逐，跟随或简单地继续做某事