While covering the 2015 Academy Awards, the increased interest of film, among the younger generation was a topic of conversation.

That's natural in a town, like Los Angeles, that's packed to the gills with film students and aspiring thespians everywhere you look.

Hollywood is a company town and business is booming despite the many exciting platform changes, the desire to create and make movies will never diminish. It's storytelling and we've been doing that, "collectively" since the cave people huddled around a roaring fire and shared about their fears and dreams. 

In full disclosure, which is my nature, while covering the Oscars, this year, I was most excited about TEAM OSCAR (in it's third year) than I was about rubbing elbows with the famous and glamorous.

The Academy is packed with people who make things happen. Not idle talkers and one way they show their support for developing talent s with the Student Academy Awards. 

Good news, the Academy is now accepting entries for its 2015 Student Academy Awards competition. All Student Academy Award® winners become eligible for Oscars consideration.  

The 42nd Student Academy Awards presentation will be held on Friday, September 18, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Beginning this year, students are able to submit their films online using FilmFreeway, a widely used festival and competition platform. Also new this year, the entry deadline has moved to June 1, and the awards ceremony date has been changed from June to September to better align the competition with the academic calendar.

Complete rules and a link to the online submission platform are available at www.oscars.org/saa. 

Past winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. Two previous Student Academy Award winners received 2014 Oscar nominations: J. Christian Jensen, a 2014 Silver Medal winner, received a nomination for Documentary Short Subject for “White Earth,” and Talkhon Hamzavi, a 2013 Silver Medal winner, received a nomination (with Stefan Eichenberger) for Live Action Short Film for “Parvaneh.”  Past Student Academy Award winners include such acclaimed filmmakers as Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker and Robert Zemeckis.

Awards may be presented to student filmmakers in the following categories: Alternative, Animation, Narrative, Documentary and Foreign Film.

The Student Academy Awards U.S. competition is open to all full-time undergraduate and graduate students whose films are made within the curricular structure of an eligible accredited institution. In the Foreign Film category, eligible schools are allowed to submit one film to the competition.

The deadline to submit entries is Monday, June 1, 2015.  For a list of eligibility requirements, visit www.oscars.org/saa. 

In 1972, the Academy established the Student Academy Awards to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work.