History

The Academy adds the Honorary Foreign Film award to the competition. Jaco Van Dormael, a student at the Institut National Supérieur in Belgium, becomes the first recipient of the honor for his film "Maedeli-La-Breche."

Ken Kwapis, a student at the University of Southern California, receives the Dramatic Achievement award for "For Heaven's Sake." Kwapis would go onto become an accomplished television director, working on such shows as "The Office," "The Bernie Mac Show" and "Malcolm in the Middle." He also would direct several feature films including "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (2005) and "License to Wed" (2007).

New York University's Spike Lee takes home the Dramatic Merit award for his film "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads." Lee would go on to earn two Academy Award nominations, one for the original screenplay for "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and one for the documentary feature "4 Little Girls" (1997), with Sam Pollard.

June 8 Stanford University's Lauren Lazin receives a Documentary Merit award for her film "The Flapper Story." Lazin would go on to earn a nomination at the 77th Academy Awards for the documentary feature "Tupac: Resurrection," with Karolyn Ali. Todd Holland from the University of California, Los Angeles, receives of a Dramatic Merit award for his film "Chicken Thing." Holland would go on to have a successful career as a television director and producer working on "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Malcolm in the Middle."

June 7 At the 14th Student Film Awards, James Spione wins a Merit Award for his film "Prelude," in the dramatic category. At the 84th Academy Awards for achievements in 2011, he is nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category for his film "Incident in Baghdad."

The Colgate-Palmolive Company serves as national sponsor of the Student Film Awards.

The Directors Guild of America joins with the Academy to sponsor an additional Student Film Award for directing. The decade's winners are Adam Davidson, Steve Pearl, Christian M. Taylor, Graham Justice, Matt Danciger, David Riker, Patricia Cardoso, Charles R. Uy, Bill Platt, Marni Banack and Joan L. Stein.

The Academy's Board or Governors officially renames the program "The Student Academy Awards."

June 14 Peter H. Docter, a student at the California Institute of the Arts, receives the Animation Gold Medal award for his film "Next Door." Docter would go on to collaborate with fellow Student Academy Award winner John Lasseter at Pixar Animation Studios, for many years. A collaboration that would result in two Academy Award nominations: in 1995 for the original screenplay of "Toy Story" (with Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Joe Ranft) and in 2001 for the animated feature "Monsters, Inc." In 2002 Docter, along with Roger Gould, would earn a third nomination for the animated short film "Mike's New Car." In 2009, he was nominated for the screenplay and won the Oscars for his Best Animated Feature film, "Up."

June 13 Trey Parker and Chris Graves, students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, receive the Animation Silver Medal award for their film "American History," which hints at what would develop into Parker's signature animation style in the animated television series "South Park." Parker would go on to earn an Oscar nomination, with Marc Shaiman, for the original song "Blame Canada" from "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut."