Graduate captures film honor

SARASOTA — Recent Ringling College of Art and Design graduate Eric Prah has won a Student Academy Award for his senor thesis - an animated short story.

Prah's project, “My Little Friend,” was shown at the 2012 Toronto Animation Arts Festival International. It was also screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. “It's really exciting to know that my animated short is being considered among the best in the country, but it's even more exciting to hear that so many people want to watch it,” Prah says in a release. “Every time someone watches my film and genuinely laughs out loud I start to get the feeling that I did something really worthwhile.”

Prah, who graduated this spring, is one of 10 students nationwide selected as winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 39th Annual Student Academy Awards competition. Ringling College students have now won eight Student Academy Awards in the past 10 years, according to a statement.

Click here to view Prah's film.