The Brigham Young University Center for Animation extended its award-winning tradition by earning two of the tree Emmys at the College Television Awards this year and then followed two student Academy Awards at a gala in Los Angeles.
“Pajama Gladiator” took first place and “Kites” third in the animation category awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Emmys, by contrast, are given by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
“Student Academy Awards and student Emmys are arguably the two highest awards that can be given to a student film,” said R. Brent Adams, director of BYU’s Center for Animation. “It is rare for a film to win both, and that both films did is a testament to the quality of students that we have here at BYU and the support we get from donors and the administration.”
The order of finish somewhat evened the score inside the BYU program – in the student Emmys, Kites had bested its sister entry.
For “Kites”, the BYU students chose a poignant feel. The film tells the bittersweet story of a boy and his grandfather using their shared love of kite flying to deal with a major change in their lives.
“Pajama Gladiator”, which premiered last year is the comic story of a little boy who doesn’t want to go to bed. Five BYU students who worked on it went on to help produce Pixar's blockbuster Up, currently in theaters.
"In this industry, experience is everything, and this was absolutely the best thing I could be doing right now to prepare for my career," said BYU junior James L. Jackson, who co-produced Kites.
Adams said that he was proud of the way the student directors – now both graduates of the program – represented the university during their acceptance speeches. Glenn Harmon and Jed Henry recognized the university, their fellow students and their wives for their contributions to the awards.
The latest honors bring the BYU program’s totals to four student Academy Awards and nine student Emmys.
A newlywed as of last weekend, Jackson and his wife are working the award ceremony into their honeymoon itinerary.
Jordan Pack, the other co-producer, has graduated and works for Disney Interactive in Salt Lake City.
"Animation is a ridiculously collaborative effort - a single production crew will have people from math, art, film, computer science and animation backgrounds," said senior Jed Henry, who directed Kites. "My greatest source of satisfaction came from seeing all these differently skilled people working towards one artistic goal."
Center for Animation Director R. Brent Adams highlighted that collaboration - both among different students majoring in different fields and even among university administrators - as a reason for the BYU program's success.
"The support of administrators from three colleges and at the university level allows us to give more students more experiences than they can get anywhere else," Adams said. "That's why we have professionals from Pixar and all the top animation studios visiting campus every semester to mentor and recruit our students."
Kelly Loosli, Ryan Woodward and Cynthia Overman were other faculty mentors on the films.
Ed Catmull, president of Pixar, declared BYU students "the best in the industry" at a press conference on campus last year.
"Over the years, Pixar has worked with a lot of different universities around the country and hired people," Catmull said then. "One of the interesting things is, all of a sudden, in the last few years, we found that BYU has risen to the top. BYU has an extraordinary program here."
