The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has a decades-long legacy of contributing to the most prestigious cinematic awards in the world. This year, SCAD is proud to announce the contributions of 158 alumni and current students who have contributed their talents to films nominated for the 96th Academy Awards®. The Awards will be televised live on Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 7 pm.
These talented artists and filmmakers contributed to a total of 17 films receiving nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including six Best Picture nominees and three Best Animated Film nominees including global blockbusters Barbie, Oppenheimer, and sleeper hit Elemental.
The SCAD Casting Office helped to place over 50 alumni, students, and faculty in front of and behind the camera on director Todd Haynes’ film May December, which was filmed in Savannah and is nominated for best original screenplay. SCAD faculty worked directly with the film production of May December to structure two SCAD classes — a production design class and film and television class — which convened on set. In another impressive showing, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nominated for best visual effects, includes 39 SCAD alumni credits.
SCAD alumni and students who worked on these Oscar-nominated films represent a variety of top-ranked degree programs, including animation, visual effects, film and television, production design, sound design, acting, casting, dramatic writing, sequential art, illustration, architecture, interactive design and game development, fashion, painting, photography, and furniture design. For more than 40 of the alumni, this is not the first time they have contributed to an Oscar-nominated film.
SCAD’s School of Film and Acting and the School of Animation and Motion have launched thousands of alumni into the movie industry, with resources that rival Hollywood studios, Oscar award-winning professors, stunning locations including an 11-acre backlot and two LED volumes, two professionally run casting offices, and stellar film and television festivals.
“I am extraordinarily proud of our alumni, faculty and current students who contribute everyday to the professional filmmaking landscape,” said Andra Reeve-Rabb, the dean of the School of Film and Acting. “Having over 150 of our SCAD bees working on Oscar worthy films is a WOW moment, and it’s not surprising. It’s what we do at SCAD. We have countless full circle moments that begin with a student in a master class during our film festival engaging with an award-winning actor or director and then fast forward a few years and now that alumni is working side by side with those same industry professionals making the best films of the year.”
The SCAD Savannah Film Festival has established itself as a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards. Since its inception in 1997, the festival has screened more than 175 Oscar-nominated films and honored more than 125 legendary actors, directors, producers, writers, and filmmakers.
During the 2023 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, SCAD screened 26 Oscar-nominated films including nine of the 10 films nominated for best picture. Twenty-five of the festival’s honorees, panelists and other visiting guests received nominations including cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema from Oppenheimer, director Cord Jefferson from American Fiction, and production designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer from Barbie.
SCAD alumni also worked on three of the five films nominated for best animated feature: Elemental, Nimona and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The films were featured at the SCAD AnimationFest in Atlanta and the SCAD Savannah Film Festival in 2023, with students benefiting from the career advice from Oscar-nominated industry professionals.
