Finalists selected from 51 entries include student work from Australia, the UK and Germany

Five finalists, selected from 51 entries representing 29 countries, will advance in the foreign film category in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards competition, it was announced on April 23. 

Up to three winners will be selected from this group and brought to Los Angeles to join US-based Student Academy Award winners for a week of industry activities and social events, culminating in an awards ceremony on June 9 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The 2012 foreign film finalists are Emily by Benjamin Mathews from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, For Elsie by David Winstone from the UK’s University of Westminster, Of Dogs And Horses by Thomas Stuber from Germany’s Film Academy Baden-Wüerttemberg, Skyborn (pictured) by Jamie Stone from the UK’s National Film and Television School and The Swing Of The Coffin Maker by Elmar Imanov from Germany’s The International Film School Cologne, Germany.

Several past winners in the foreign film competition have gone on to earn further recognition from the Academy. 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. The 2010 foreign film award winner, Tanel Toom, was a nominee at the 83rd Academy Awards in the live action short film category for The Confession. 

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