Hollywood
41st Student Oscar winners announced
MUMBAI: 15 students have been selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 41st Student Academy Awards competition. They will arrive in Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, 7 June at 6 p.m. at the DGA Theater in Hollywood. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony.
For the alternative category, the winners are “Oscillate,” Daniel Sierra, School of Visual Arts, New York and “Person,” Drew Brown, The Art Institute of Jacksonville, Florida. For the animation category, the winners include “Higher Sky,” Teng Cheng, University of Southern California; “Owned,” Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippetts, Brigham Young University, Utah and “Yamashita,” Hayley Foster, Loyola Marymount University, California.
In the documentary category, the winners are “The Apothecary,” Helen Hood Scheer, Stanford University; “One Child,” Zijian Mu, New York University and “White Earth,” J. Christian Jensen, Stanford University.
The winners in the narrative category include “Above the Sea,” Keola Racela, Columbia University, New York; “Door God,” Yulin Liu, New York University and “Interstate,” Camille Stochitch, American Film Institute, California. The winners who took home the coveted prize in the foreign category include “Border Patrol,” Peter Baumann, The Northern Film School, United Kingdom; “Nocebo,” Lennart Ruff, University of Television and Film Munich, Germany and “Paris on the Water,” Hadas Ayalon, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
This year saw first-time honours go to Tel Aviv University, Israel, and The Northern Film School, United Kingdom, in the foreign competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 49 finalists, announced earlier this month. The Academy established the Student Academy Awards in 1972 to support and encourage excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level. The previous Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis, Trey Parker and Spike Lee.
Hollywood
Paramount responds to Warner Bros’ seven-day negotiation offer
$30 all-cash bid battles Netflix pact as board sets March vote
NEW YORK: The streaming wars have taken a corporate twist, with Paramount Skydance sharpening its pitch just as Warner Bros. Discovery doubles down on its planned tie-up with Netflix.
In a pointed statement, Paramount said WBD’s board has granted it a seven-day window to negotiate, but stopped short of formally declaring the $30-per-share all-cash offer a superior proposal. Such a determination would normally open the door to talks without a ticking clock.
Instead, the WBD board is pressing ahead with its special shareholder meeting on 20 March to seek approval for the Netflix merger. Proxy materials already sent to investors put the deal’s value in a range between $21.23 and $27.75 per share.
Paramount’s counter, by contrast, is simpler and sweeter. It offers $30 per share in cash, plus a quarterly ticking fee of $0.25 per share until the transaction closes, promising what it calls a faster and more certain route to completion.
While it described the board’s approach as unusual, Paramount said it is ready to engage in good-faith discussions during the short negotiating window. At the same time, it is not putting all its chips on the table. The company plans to continue its tender offer, campaign against the Netflix merger, and push ahead with plans to nominate its own slate of directors at WBD’s upcoming annual meeting.
For investors, it now reads like a three-act drama: a richer cash bid on one side, a strategic streaming partner on the other, and a board trying to keep both suitors in the wings, at least for a week.
