‘Day One’, a film made by a team of students graduating from the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2014 and edited by Odisha girl Anisha Acharya, has won the prestigious 2015 Annual Student Academy Awards, also known as the Student Oscar.
Anisha is the granddaughter of freedom-fighters – the late Kirtan Bihari Acharya and Taramani Acharya – and the daughter of social development professional Dr Jagabandhu Acharya.
‘Avatar’ star Michelle Rodriguez presented the gold award to the film, directed by Henry Hughes, at a glittering ceremony at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on Thursday.
The Student Academy Awards, consisting of gold, silver and bronze, were instituted in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work. The awards are presented every year in five categories: alternative, animation, documentary, foreign and narrative.
This year, there were a record number of entries — 1,686 films from 282 US and 93 non-US colleges and universities.
Besides the Student Oscar, the film “Day One” has already won the prestigious BAFTA US Student Award and the Student Emmy Award, and a number of awards in various film festivals.
After completing her graduation in product and graphic design at NIFT Bangalore, she joined the Master’s course in Film Editing at the American Film Institute (AFI) at Los Angeles in 2012. Anisha “loves storytelling for its power to excite, hearten and uplift the soul. Making stories come to life on the big screen is her driving passion.”
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