On Sept. 17, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced BYU student animated short film “Student Accomplice” as a Student Academy Award winner and awarded the honor in London on Oct. 14.
The Academy granted the bronze award to “Student Accomplice” during the ceremony. Director Spencer Baird, a senior in the BYU animation program, accepted the award.
“Behind this film, there’s an entire team and a crew that helped make it possible, and I wanted to thank them for that,” Baird said during his acceptance speech. “It’s kind of surreal to me to have an experience — or to have experienced — so much success from an idea that I had, and I was just glad that I could make you laugh.”
According to an Academy press release, winning student films are eligible to compete for Best Animated Short Film, Best Live Action Short Film or Best Documentary Short Film at the 97th Oscars on March 2, 2025.
During the ceremony, Academy CEO Bill Kramer said 67 Student Academy Award winning films have been nominated for an Oscar and 15 have won.
“You always hope that something that you make is going to resonate with people, but it was just kind of proof that it did work for so many people,” Baird said.
Baird thanked the film crew for the work they put into the film, as well as his family and other loved ones for the support they’ve given him throughout his creative pursuits.
“I was the person who got to go to London and I got to stand in front the press and everything like that, but it really wasn't a one man show. It was an entire team,” Baird said. “What is successful about BYU films is that we are collaborative and we treat animation like a collaborative medium.”
Amy Ottinger, animation senior and a lighter for the film, said since the Student Academy Awards has become an international competition in recent years, the BYU animation program has not won the award.
“We won several years ago with ‘Grendel’ and whatnot, and for the past few years, we haven't won an Oscar,” Ottinger said. “It was really cool to see this happen again, that, ‘Okay, we're doing something good.’”
Brandon Beltran, a graduate of the animation program and the art director for the film, said some crew members worked all-nighters for the film, so to be recognized by the Academy and ranked amongst other talented schools and student filmmakers felt validating to him.
“You work on this for so long,” Beltran said. “We watched it hundreds of times, and after a while, you stopped laughing because it just gets old, but it's so refreshing when you show it to a friend or family and they laugh and you're like, ‘Oh, right, this is fun. This is entertaining.’”
Ottinger said a group of around 30-40 students worked on the film for about a year and a half to two years, including storyboarders, character designers, 3D animators, other lighters and more.
Beltran said the process to make the entire short film began with a pitch which Baird contributed.
“I just stick two random things together, like a bank robbery and a driver’s test,” Baird said. “That's where a lot of really good ideas come from is two unrelated things but that somehow work together or shed a new light on both things.”
Then, Beltran said members of the crew created art to explore how the film may look before it is storyboarded, created and 3D modeled the characters and previsualized the film to establish its layout and timing.
After that, the film is animated, shaded, colored, given character effects, given special effects such as explosions and skid marks, lit, rendered, composited and edited, Beltran said. The film also involved other departments at BYU, such as the Commercial Music department in creating the film’s sound.
Beltran said his role on the project involved establishing a consistent art style and maintaining Baird’s vision throughout the film.
“It is arduous and tedious and so much fun,” he said. “It is the hardest thing I ever love to do.”
Regarding her role as a lighter, Ottinger said the lighting helps to establish the mood of the film. She said another lighter even worked around 60 hours a week and continued to work after graduating because of the numerous technical problems that came with animating lighting.
“That's the thing with animation,” Ottinger said. “It's just a bunch of chaos, but we come together and make things look amazing one way or another.”
Baird said he toured film studio Pinewood Studios with the Academy and participated in a dinner with film industry professionals while in London.
Multiple crew members of the film attended the ceremony in London with Baird, including Ottinger and Beltran. Both noted an after-party amongst the other Student Academy Award winners that let them interact with other student filmmakers.
“You're talking with all these other filmmakers from around the world, and it's inspiring, and it's so fun, and everyone is so supportive,” Beltran said.
Student winners will also gain access to networking opportunities within the Academy for their future career advancements, according to the Academy press release.