Student Emmys in Animation, Advertising, and Film

At the Television Academy Foundation’s 45th College Television Awards, 17 BYU students earned five nominations across three categories, standing out among more than 185 entries submitted by colleges nationwide.

These awards, also known as the Student Emmys, are the most prestigious and competitive in academia. The winners were announced at the ceremony on March 28, 2026, in Los Angeles, and BYU again captured the top honors in multiple categories.

BYU took home the gold again. The animation program at BYU launched in 2001 and has earned 22 Student Emmys since then.

This year’s Best Animated Series winner was Love & Gold, produced by Jaysen Duckworth and written and directed by Connor VanDyke. The short film was edited by Makenna Buhler. The film tells the story of two rogues in a dungeon who fall in love while searching for a valuable treasure.

Over the course of two and a half years, Connor VanDyke led a team of about 50 people, including students in animation, music, and design. A collaboration with BYU’s School of Music allowed the score to match the film’s intended tone and energy. Student animators rose to the challenges inherent in Love & Gold, developing the characters, creating multiple environments, and designing the dragon—and each element took months to complete.

Much of the film’s inspiration comes from the game Dungeons & Dragons. Through the light-up step designs and the basic puzzles in the story, Connor strove to capture some of the creative and collaborative energy of his favorite game.

“I think it really shows how hard our team worked to create an environment, a world out of almost nothing,” VanDyke says. “My amazing team really put something together that people could get lost in. I think that’s the beauty of Love & Gold: it’s a self-contained world, but you can think about it for much longer and expound on it in your own way.”

VanDyke is the son of BYU animation professor Craig VanDyke, who was the student director of Lemmings, the first BYU animation project to receive a Student Emmy.

“Connor [has] technically been in those labs for 25 years,” Craig says. “I think that’s the kind of story you only get at BYU.”

BYU’s AdLab students once again swept the commercial category, with three nominated videos in the running for the PSA or promo award. The winner of this category was Ink Up. Wash Out, written by Mia Shumway, directed by Kyle Gilmour, and produced by Eli Roth. This win secures BYU AdLab’s seventh consecutive Student Emmy for commercials.

Other BYU commercials that were nominated in this category:

• Gap: Wear with Care, directed by Porter Christensen and written by Maren Edwards, with Jill Jackson and Taylor Slade as producers.
• Never Leave Home, written by Mia Shumway and directed by Carly Garrett, with Abe Tullis and Jeff Yi as producers.

BYU Media Arts students also brought home the trophy for the Comedy Series/Chance Perdomo Legacy Scholarship. The winning video, Thanksgiving, was produced by Ryan Jones, directed by Austin Lawrence, and written by Abigail Tolley.

“It’s been over a decade since the film program won this award. Lots of BYU students don’t know that our program even exists,” Jones says. “Outside of the school, even fewer people know that BYU Film is a thing.”

This historic win is also poignant because of the message of the film. Jones says, “Thanksgiving is special to me because it reminds me, and hopefully others, that there’s always a way back home to loving arms—no matter the path or journey we’re on.”

This year the award also included the inaugural Chance Perdomo Scholarship from Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television—a grant of $10,000.

Watch Love & Gold, three winning ads, and Thanksgiving.