Pedal to the medal: BYU animated short film races to Student Academy Award

In a Thrilling Ride of Creativity, BYU Animation Students Blend Humor and Storytelling in an Animated Film that Won a Student Academy Award and an International Audio Engineering Society Award

A short film created by BYU animation students was recently recognized as a Student Academy Award (SAA) bronze winner at an event held in London. BYU was the only U.S. university to receive recognition in the animation category. BYU has won six SAAs in the past. However, this is the first win since the Academy merged their domestic and international categories into one global competition. BYU emerged in the top three amidst competition with premier global animation programs.

The film, “Student Accomplice,” depicts a nervous teenage girl taking her driving test with an old, placid driving instructor. The test goes awry when a bank robber hijacks the car to elude the police.

A still image of a car flying through the air, from the student animation "Student Accomplice." — A Still Shot from the BYU Center for Animation's Video "Student Accomplice"

Viewers enjoy the ride-along view inside the car as the flustered robber urges the girl to leave the police behind while the perplexed instructor looks on. Directed by BYU animation student Spencer Baird and produced by Brielle Hansen, the film is full of sharp twists of laughter and suspense.

More than 30 students contributed to the film — skills from animation, design, commercial music and computer science played crucial roles to bring more than 7,000 individual images together in a cohesive animation.

BYU commercial music students won the gold award at the International Audio Engineering Society (AES) in New York for their audio work on the film.

“Everything from the design of things, the lighting and texture and the effects that are in the film comes together in a beautiful way that’s pushed boundaries for what our student films have done,” said BYU animation professor Nathan Lindsay. “I think it catches the eye of the industry because we’re doing things that take a big team to accomplish, and it’s not normal for students to pull off something of this caliber.”

Because it is still under consideration for other awards, "Student Accomplice" is not yet released to the public.

Read the full Y News article by Tyler Stahle here.