'Kubrick, Like I Love You' wins at the 2025 Student Academy Awards

After receiving 3,127 entries from 988 colleges and universities all over the world, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected 14 students as winners of the 52nd Student Academy Awards competition. Making Columbia proud is Film student Zefan Wang, with his short film Kubrick, Like I Love You, co-produced by student Xueyang Li, taking home a Bronze 2025 Student Academy Award in the Narrative Category. With the win, he joins the ranks of such past winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, and Robert Zemeckis.

The narrative short follows Fei, who after deciding to break up, spends the last day with his unsuspecting girlfriend but is relentlessly hijacked by their memories together. 

Wang accepted his award at a special presentation ceremony held on on Monday, October 6, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City during the New York Film Festival, in partnership with Rolex.

"I want to thank all my beautiful crew members," Wang said, "I'm so lucky to work with them. I want to thank my Columbia University Film community...and a special thank you to my thesis advisor, Bette Gordon. Being a trailblazer in modern cinema herself, she is as fearless in supporting her students in creating their own unique creative voice." 

All student award-winning films will be eligible to compete for the 98th Oscars in the animated, narrative, or documentary short film categories. Past winners have received 69 Oscar nominations and have won 15. The Student Academy Awards were created in 1972 to “provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work,” according to the Academy.

Zefan (Chef) is a filmmaker born and raised in Ganzhou, China. His films take interest in the inter-action and -construction between human beings and their memories, and the surreality of contemporary life.

Xueyang Li is a Creative Producing student and NYU School of Engineering alumna. Her films include A Trail of Dust (Hollywood Shortfest, 2023), The Death of Summer Cicada (Emerging Filmmakers Grant 2024), and Chicken Lady (Katharina Otto-Bernstein R&D Prize, 2024).