BAFTA unveils 2025 BAFTA Student Awards winners

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the winners of the 2025 BAFTA Student Awards which took place on 13 June 2025 in Los Angeles. The awards are an international celebration of the next generation of creative talent in film, games, and immersive storytelling. The winners were selected from more than 1,000 submissions representing 154 schools across 39 countries. 

This competition, now in its 21st year, has become a global platform for recognising emerging voices poised to shape the future of the screen industries. This year’s awards put a spotlight on outstanding work across six major categories which were the BAFTA Student Film Award for animation, documentary, and live action, along with the BAFTA Student Award for games, immersive, and the special jury prize.

The 2025 ceremony was hosted by television host Elle Osili-Wood known for BAFTA breakthroughs for her work with BBC, ITV, and BAFTA, where she regularly covers the intersection of arts, gaming, and culture. Awards were presented by creative industry voices like The Pitt actress Tracy Ifeachor, she presented the live action award, Danimatio Entertainment CEO and Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum US producer Dani Bowman, she presented the animation award, Liquor Store Dreams (Tribeca Film Festival) director and filmmaker So Yun Um presented the documentary award. Lucasfilm Games producer Carmen Askerneese and Black Girl Gamers CEO and founder Jay-Ann Lopez co-presented the games award and director Ethan Shaftel presented the immersive award.

The special jury for this year’s competition included a group of storytellers and creatives like Vivo production designer Carlos Zaragoza, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse director Joaquim Dos Santos, award-winning composer for Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am Kathryn Bostic, Shrinking actor Luke Tennie and The Life List actress Sofia Carson. 

BAFTA North America executive director Courtney LaBarge Bell said, “We are thrilled to once again celebrate some of the most promising and original work coming from student creators around the world. This year’s winners exemplify the global nature of storytelling today—and reflect the kind of artistry that is reshaping our industry. We’re especially excited about the expanded programming we’ve introduced for students this year, which we hope will serve as a valuable tool for learning, connection, and launching meaningful careers in the screen industries.”

The event is part of BAFTA’s year-round Learning, Inclusion and Talent program, which supports emerging talent from all backgrounds and aims to build an inclusive and representative screen industry through initiatives in mentorship, education, and community development. Through its partnership with Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic, BAFTA North America brought 30 lead creatives behind the 15 finalist projects to Los Angeles from the US, UK, Germany, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Austria for a weeklong program designed to deepen their understanding of the film and games industries. 

Throughout the week, participants engaged in curated sessions aimed at expanding their networks and connecting them with industry leaders—including private tours of The Walt Disney Company, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Insomniac Games, a masterclass with BAFTA-winning sound engineer Andy Nelson, a session on colour correction at Company 3, a screening of their work at Fox Studios, and a roundtable conversation with development executives from Monkeypaw Productions and Lord Miller held at Universal.

The list of the winners is as follows:

Special Jury Prize:
Extremist – Alexander Molochnikov, Columbia University, United States

For Animation:
Trash – Gregory Bouzid, Maxime Crançon, Robin Delaporte, Mattéo Durand, Romain Fleischer, Alexis Le Ral, Margaux Lutz, Fanny Vecchie, École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques, France

The winner received a cash prize of US$2,500 in honour of dedicated BAFTA board member Linda Kahn, courtesy of King Features.

For Documentary:
One Last Farm – Nikki Dodd, University of the West of England, United Kingdom

For Live Action:
Extremist – Alexander Molochnikov, Columbia University, United States

For Games (tie):
Atan – Tom Baas, Jakub Petr, Stefan Pijnacker, Ketlin Riks, Lisette Van Den Dolder, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Free Will – Celine Tang, University of Southern California, United States

For Immersive:
Pieces – Noam Karutchi, The Steve Tisch School of Film & TV Tel Aviv University, Israel

This year’s program was made possible through the support from the BAFTA partners, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic, Peroni, Backstage, Whitewall, Tanqueray, Voss, and the Maybourne Beverly Hills.

(Photo credits: Getty Images for BAFTA)