15 BYU students nominated for animated short, commercials at national competition

"Student Accomplice" is a BYU student-created short film about a teenage girl whose driving test goes awry when a bank robber decides to use her as his getaway driver.

"Student Accomplice" is a BYU student-created short film about a teenage girl whose driving test goes awry when a bank robber decides to use her as his getaway driver. (BYU)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • BYU students received the most nominations at the 2025 College Television Awards.
  • Fifteen students were nominated for animation and commercial categories from over 200 entries.
  • Nominees gain access to professional development events and networking opportunities.

PROVO — More than a dozen BYU students made history with most nominations for a university for the 2025 College Television Awards.

The Television Academy Foundation nominated four different BYU student projects for awards — one in animation and three in the commercial, public service announcement or promo category. A total of 15 students were nominated across the four films, which were chosen from more than 200 entries nationwide.

The winners of the awards for excellence will be announced at a red carpet awards ceremony in April in North Hollywood. BYU received the most nominations compared to any other university in the competition this year, a statement from the Television Academy Foundation said.

The animated short "Student Accomplice" — which won a bronze medal at the international film competition Student Academy Awards in October — was nominated in the animation series category. The comedic film depicts a nervous teenager whose driving test goes awry when a bank robber uses her as his getaway driver, leading to a high-speed police chase.

"We had lots of opportunities to be creative with 'Student Accomplice,' which was fun for us," director Spencer Baird said in a BYU release. "There's a lot of hilarity and complexity layered in. It's fast-paced in a very delightful way."

BYU swept all three nominations in the commercial, public service announcement and promo categories. The first nomination went to a body-positivity-themed ad titled "Feel Safe in Your Skin," created for Dove's Self-Esteem Project.

The other two nominations went to Nike ads. "Manumalo (Victory)" highlighted a Samoan fire knife dancer, and "Welcome to the W" focused on the WNBA.

The 15 students who were nominated got to participate in two days of professional development events with industry leaders and attend special screenings of their projects before the April award show. Being a nominee of the competition connects the students "to year-round networking opportunities, events and professional development resources," the foundation's statement said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Cassidy Wixom is an award-winning reporter for KSL.com. She covers Utah County communities and breaking news. Cassidy graduated from BYU before joining KSL in 2022.

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