BYU Animation Wins Student Emmy Award

March 2023

BYU students claimed the top spots in the Best Animation Series category at the 41st College Television Awards, or “Student Emmys.”

This year’s animated short story was Stowaway, a hilarious piece about an unsuspecting baby kraken that mistakenly ends up aboard a pirate ship, frightening the pirates. Despite the desperate attempts of the pirates, they can’t seem to rid the boat of the harmless little kraken. BYU animation student Tyler Bitner produced the short film while fellow student Ethan Briscoe served as director and writer.

“I was thinking that you don’t see too many pirates in animated movies. I thought it would be fun to have a swashbuckling adventure,” said Briscoe.

Over 20 students were involved in the creation of the film – skills from animation, design, commercial music and computer science were required to bring the story to life.

“It’s an easy thing to start a project. It’s a hard thing to finish it,” said BYU animation professor Seth Holladay. “This team was very unified and they made a goal together that this was going to get done. They knew it mattered for their future experience, their future job opportunities, and their future connections. It was such a great team to work with.”

This is the 19th time since 2003 that a BYU animation film has been featured at the Student Emmy’s. Click here to watch the full animation.