It was already a big success for Germany's up-and-coming filmmakers to be represented by three directors from Germany amongst the seven finalists in the category of Best Foreign Film at the 42nd Student Academy Awards, but what a triumph it was when it was announced, at the awards ceremony held in Los Angeles last Thursday (17 September), that the three German-(co-)produced nominees, Ilker Çatak's Fidelity, Dustin Loose's The Last Will, and Patrick Vollrath's Austrian-German drama Everything Will be Okay, won the gold, the silver and the bronze, respectively. 

Ilker Çatak, already a finalist at the 2014 Student Oscars with Where We Are, represents the Hamburg Media School. Fidelity, in which a young Turkish female radiographer's assistant helps a demonstrator in Istanbul to escape from the police and subsequently comes into the sights of the authorities herself, is his graduation film, produced by Alexandra Staib. It won, amongst others, the award for Best Short at the Max Ophüls Prize and the Studio Hamburg New Talent Award. It was selected, for instance, at Palm Springs and Valencia. 

Dustin Loose, from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, adapts in The Last Will Hakan Nesser's eponymous short story. This short, Christopher Zwickler and Julia Moya (Von Fiessbach Film), was screened at the Hof Film Days 2014, the Kinofest Lünen 2014 (Audience Award), the Max Ophüls Prize Festival 2015, the Worldfest Houston 2015 (Special Jury Award), Motovun 2015, the Zanzibar Film Festival 2015, and Off-Courts Trouville 2015. 

Patrick Vollrath (Vienna Film Academy) unveiled his film to the world in May, within the ambit of the Cannes Critics' Week. Everything Will be Okay, awarded at the Max Ophüls Prize Festival (Best Medium-Length Film), in Huesca, Yerevan, Manchester, and Melbourne, amongst others, tells about a weekend father who goes on a fateful journey with his eight-year-old daughter.

German films have regularly been very successful at the Student Oscars, presented every year since 1972 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in five categories (the prize-winners of which include Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee or John Lasseter). All three directors were able to travel to Los Angeles, with the support of German Films, to accept their medals in person as well as take part in various networking activities organised by the Academy ahead of the ceremony. 

The three winners of the Student Oscars also qualify for the pre-selection for the Oscars, in the Best Live Action Short Film category.