2 BYU grads win 'student Emmys'

PROVO — Brigham Young University students won first place for nontraditional animation recently at the 28th annual College Television Awards gala in Culver City, Calif. .

BYU knew last month that its computer-generated animation students had won a College Television Award (also known as a "student Emmy") for the short film "Las Pinatas," but didn't know until April 1 that students had won first place.

The Academy of Television and Sciences Foundation gives Emmys for first, second and third place. In the past four years, BYU has won five of the 12 Emmys awarded in the nontraditional animation category.

The academy awarded the honor to BYU students Kate Kuttler and Kamy Leach, who co-produced the film and led a team that included dozens of student collaborators. Leach was part of the BYU team that took second place in 2006.

Leach has already gone on to work at Digital Domain on Disney's "Meet the Robinsons" and on "Pirates of the Caribbean 3." Kuttler works for a gaming company.

"Las Pinatas" is about two pinatas who attempt to escape ruin at a birthday party.

First place in the traditional animation category went to CalArts for "Icarus and the Tree Herder," a story about the fate of Icarus when he disrupts order within the world of the tree herder.