Fifty-one entries from 29 countries, along with 518 entries from students representing 105 U.S. colleges and universities, are in competition for the 2012 Student Academy Awards. The competition – now in its 39th year – will culminate in the awards presentation, on Saturday, June 9, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The presentation will include screenings of the winning films.

The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards and corresponding cash prizes may be presented in each of five categories: Alternative, Animation, Documentary, Narrative and Foreign Student Film.

Past Student Academy Award® winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. At the 84th Academy Awards earlier this year, 2011 Student Academy Award winners Hallvar Witzø and Max Zähle were nominated in the Live Action Short Film category for “Tuba Atlantic” and “Raju,” respectively. James Spione, a Student Academy Award winner in 1987, earned a nomination in the Documentary Short Subject category for “Incident in New Baghdad.”

via press release AMPAS