Fabulous films: BYU takes home the hardware at Student Emmys
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- From left: BYU students Jaysen Duckworth, Makenna Bugler and Connor VanDyke are pictured.
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- Patrick Thomas, left, and London Thor, far right, with Brigham Young University students, from left, Abigail Tolley, Ryan Jones and Austin Lawrence, the Comedy Series and Chance Perdomo Legacy Scholarship winners at the 45th College Television Awards presented by the Television Academy Foundation on March 28, 2026, in Los Angeles.
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- The award-winning film “Love & Gold” is shown.
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- The award-winning film “Love & Gold” is shown.
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- The award-winning film “Love & Gold” is shown.
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- The award-winning film “Love & Gold” is shown.
Brigham Young University students came home with the hardware last month at the Television Academy Foundation’s 45th College Television Awards, better known as the Student Emmys.
Jaysen Duckworth, Makenna Bugler and Connor VanDyke, who graduated from BYU last year, won best animation for their film “Love & Gold,” and Abigail Tolley, Ryan Jones and Austin Lawrence won best comedy series for their video, “Thanksgiving.”
AdLab students Mia Shumway, Kyle Gilmour and Eli Roth won best commercial for their ad “Ink. Up. Wash Out,” while students Porter Christensen, Maren Edwards, Jill Jackson and Taylor Slade were nominated for their work on “Wear with Care.” Shumway, Carly Garrett, Abe Tullis and Jeff Yi received a nomination for “Never Leave Home.”
The victories continue a dominant run for the BYU programs. The BYU Center for Animation has earned 22 Student Emmys, and BYU’s AdLab has won seven consecutive Student Emmys for commercials.
Animation professor Craig VanDyke said the success of the films, many of which were the students’ senior capstones, is a testament to how the university’s rigorous production programs set students up for success in their respective careers.
“We believe in the process and how we do things, but it’s hard, what these kids have to do,” Craig VanDyke said. “It’s over a year that they’re working on these things … They go off into the industry and say that nothing prepared me better than that experience.”
The professor is particularly cognizant of the pressure because he directed the school animation program’s first film over 20 years ago — and because he had a front-row seat to see his son, Connor, follow in his footsteps last year by directing “Love & Gold.”
“There’s a little bit of trauma there for me, just because I remember what it was like to go through as a student and then watching my own son do it,” Craig VanDyke joked. “I did try to tell him to go into engineering or become a doctor.
“What we do is kind of obsessive. If you’re working in animation, it’s because you just absolutely love it. It’s not a hobby.”
There was no stopping Connor VanDyke, though, from pursuing the field. He developed a personal love for stories and adventure growing up from playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friends. While on a church mission and unsure what he wanted to study, he felt he should pursue his passion and become a storyteller.
He took on a hefty challenge by directing his class’s senior capstone project. The team started in October 2023, working on the script and design of the film. By 2024, they were creating shots and putting them together into a movie. In early 2025, they finalized their shots and delivered a final product.
Connor VanDyke said there were 30 to 40 students working on the film at a given time, with a total crew of 50 to 60 animators, and even more if including students in the music department who created the film’s score.
“We probably had about 100 people total who contributed some amount of artistic effort into making this movie happen,” he said. “All of them are students. It’s all done within the school itself. ”
The final product was a fantasy piece inspired by his love of Dungeons & Dragons about two thieves who enter the same dungeon while chasing the same treasure and fall in love.
“It’s a really fun story,” Connor VanDyke said. “It was a process in making it what it was. We had three or four major rewrites of the story, from pitch to final picture, but every one of those is a perfect refining step in getting us the character and the energy that we have in the film.”
Connor VanDyke said they had to beat out some talented pieces to win the award at the Student Emmys, and that winning it was an awesome experience. Craig VanDyke just felt relief knowing his students’ hard work was validated.
He hopes his son — and all his students — left with the same meaningful relationships that he cultivated through the program.
“What’s so cool about this project is they really do become a family,” he said. “And 20 years ago, those people that I did my project with, we still talk. We’re still together. A number of them have come back here to teach at BYU with. Connor calls a lot of these people uncles. And now I just get to see this same thing happening for every year when they come in. You get these 20 to 30 students together, and that is probably the coolest thing.”
