The Academy will hold its first awards ceremony outside the US next month, presenting its prestigious annual student awards in London.
The gala, which will be held in the British capital’s Leicester Square on October 14, will be an international first for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has seen its international membership expand rapidly in recent years.
Winners to be announced this week include the French animation “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” in which a man trapped in a giant fish costume tries to run through a city as a mysterious meteor shower brings about the end of the world.
Other titles include an experimental film about the sexual awakening of a Taiwanese teenager, a short film set during the 1910 plague epidemic in China, and a documentary from the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Gold, silver and bronze winners will be announced at the ceremony, and all winning works will be eligible to compete in the main Academy Awards to be held in March next year.
The 51st Student Academy Awards will be the first completely live awards ceremony to be held overseas, although previous Academy Awards ceremonies have been partially televised from overseas.
Diana Ross performed from Amsterdam in 1976, Michael Caine introduced the 1991 Oscars from a historic Paris cafe, and the following year’s ceremony even featured a live presentation honoring Star Wars creator George Lucas aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
One-fifth of the Academy’s current members are from outside the United States, and more than half of the new members invited this year are also from overseas, including “Anatomy of a Fall” director Justin Triet and the film’s star Sandra Hüller.
Previous winners of the Academy Student Award include a young Spike Lee, Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis and James Bond director Cary Fukunaga.
The Academy Awards are an invitation-only organization whose members vote for the Oscar winners each year based on outstanding achievements in their fields, from acting and directing to costume design and make-up.