BYU students Wesley Tippetts and Daniel Clark received the Gold Medal for animation at the Student Academy Awards in Hollywood last weekend for their film, Owned.
These awards are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the same organization that awards the Oscars each year. Owned already took first place in animation at the College Television Awards (Student Emmys) in April. The short film tells the story of an online video game champion who meets a skilled opponent, who turns out to be an infant.
Tippetts and Clark expressed their appreciation in their acceptance speech at the award ceremony for all who contributed to Owned.
“Thank you to everyone at Brigham Young University who worked on this film,” Tippetts said. “All the all-nighters, the stress–thank you to the faculty. Thank you to Cynthia Hogan for helping us understand the crazy, bizarre, yet wonderful art of animation, even though she was having health problems.”
Tippetts mentioned in the speech how Clark was steady as a rock throughout the whole project, while he felt a little more unstable. But Clark shared his gratitude for Tippetts’ contributions.
“I have to thank Wesley for being that heart and soul of the project, because without him our film would have been... flat and boring,” Clark said.
To learn more about Owned, click here.