From Classroom to Red Carpet: Our Graduates’ Journey to the Oscars

What do Dallas Buyers Club, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and BlacKkKlansman have in common?

Yes, they’re all Academy Award-winning films. 

But they’re also films which our alumni have worked on. 

In fact, we have a long-standing history of students going on to work on films that have been nominated at The Academy Awards.

Working on those kinds of movies is a dream many starry-eyed students hold close to their hearts as they walk through our doors. Nothing quite says you’ve “made it” like working on a production that’s been nominated. 

While it might feel like a distant dream when you’re starting out, it can quickly become a reality, as many of our graduates have discovered. 

In fact, two of our alumni have personally been Oscar-nominated won Oscars for themselves (and one of them won!). 

Let’s take a closer look at the Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films our students have worked on. We’ll also tell you about our close ties with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—and how you can rub shoulders with the very best in the business. 

2014: Graduate nominated for Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards

Who can forget Matthew McConaughey’s incredible performance in Dallas Buyers Club?

Working on the film was an unforgettable experience for one of our 2002 film grads.

As soon as Martin Pensa saw the script for Dallas Buyers Club, he knew he wanted to be a part of it:

“I would have done it for free,” Pensa says, “the script was just that good, and he [Jean-Marc Valée] is just that good.”

Pensa didn’t just contribute to the film, but was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on it as Editor. 

He was the first Los Angeles Film School alumni to be nominated for an Oscar.

2017: The 89th Academy Awards

2017’s Oscars included powerful cinematic contenders like Moonlight and La La Land. This was a year that featured films a number of our graduates contributed to, especially from our Recording Arts program.

2018: The 90th Academy Awards

In 2018, a documentary took the spotlight. Alumnus Noah Mucci was Camera Operator and Editor on Icarus, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. 

But it didn’t end there for our graduates, with a number of alumni working on other Oscar-nominated features:

2019: The 91st Academy Awards

Six graduates of The L.A Film School worked on Oscar-winning films, with three alumni who were part of the crew in Marvel’s Black Panther:

2020: The 92nd Academy Awards

2020 is a year none of us are likely to forget. But it was unforgettable for a different reason for some of our graduates who’d contributed to the Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films below. 

One of our graduates, Ariana Georgescu, worked on the Oscar-nominated film Harriet as a Compositor. The road to getting there was paved through sheer grit and hard work. 

While compositing wasn’t something she’d initially wanted to do, learning about it in our Animation program ignited her passion for it. 

The skills Georgescu learned in the program put her in good stead—impressing those she worked with. Georgescu has gone from strength to strength, working on blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Godzilla.

We are immensely proud of the work of alumni like Georgescu throughout their careers, including the Academy Award-nominated and winning films below:

Watch: 2020 Oscar-Nominated Songwriters at LAFS

2021: Graduate wins Oscar at the 93rd Academy Awards

When Phillip Bladh walked through our doors in 2008, little did he know that he’d be walking across the stage at the Oscars 13 years later.

Bladh worked as Production Sound Mixer on Sound of Metal. The film presented Bladh with a unique opportunity to experiment with the sound design, since the narrative centers on a drummer who begins to lose his hearing. 

The film immerses the audience in the main character’s auditory experience, “Sound of Metal is very much a first-person perspective audio recording,” Bladh says. 

The technical and creative experimentation paid off, leaving Bladh with an Oscar in his hands, “When we did win, I was holding the Oscar and just in my head I was like I cannot believe this just happened.”

Watch: Breaking the Sound Barrier with Oscar Winner, Alumnus Phillip Bladh

2022: The 94th Academy Awards

Just when we couldn’t be prouder of our alumni, we were amazed to see so many of them work on nine different Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films: 

Watch: Barrier Breakers with Jason Beale

2023: The 95th Academy Awards

In 2023, we celebrated an incredible year for our alumni—and our Computer Animation graduates especially. Five Computer Animation alumni worked on the Oscar-nominated sequels Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. 

Watch: Barrier Breakers with Marlon Rivas, moderated by LAFS Animation Program Director, Joffery Black

2024: The 96th Academy Awards

Our alumni contributed to seven different films that featured in the 96th Academy Awards (and it wasn’t the first time for some of our grads).

2025: The 97th Academy Awards

And it hasn’t stopped in 2025—10 alumni worked on nine different productions that received a total of 30 Academy Award nominations!

Hollywood is Closer than you Think

Our passion is to support our students in pursuing their dreams. And if our alumni’s track record of working on Academy Award-nominated productions is anything to go by, those dreams are certainly within reach. 

The glitz and glam of Hollywood and the Oscars might seem far-off to you right now, but at The L.A. Film School, it’s closer than you think. 

In fact, we have a close connection with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Many of our students are chosen for their eight-week internship program, Academy Gold Rising, which gives unique access to film industry opportunities, networking and Academy members.

The best in the business walk through our very doors to talk to our students, too. Oscar-nominated filmmakers and writers like Quentin Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin, Taika Waititi, Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Rian Johnson have given talks at The L.A. Film School—inspiring the next generation of filmmakers. 

Could you be one of them?