Department of Romance Studies

Brandeis Language Oscars

The Brandeis Language Oscars is a World Languages & Cultures Committee initiative which was launched in spring 2013 to showcase language-learning at Brandeis. First-year students from the language programs at Brandeis present videos that they have created in the language that they are studying to demonstrate the knowledge they have gained and skills they have acquired in just one year of language study at Brandeis. The students in the level-20 courses of each participating language select one video to represent their language group at the festival. A jury panel consisting of faculty members from all participating languages votes to select the first-, second- and third-place winners.

Participating languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

For a full list of past winners, links to other videos, and more information, visit the WLC's International Video Competition webpage.

2023

First Place:

German

Gemeinschaft Der Bins / Fellowship of the Bins

Joe Viola '26, Casey Shea Dinkin '26, Hana Miller '25

Professor Kathrin Breuer
Second Place:

French

Le poisson mort / The Dead Fish

Jacqueline Floro '25, Caroline Hall '23, Aaron Rosendorf '26, Maya Thomas '26

Professor Sophia Niehaus

Third Place:

Russian

Зелёная армия / The Green Army

Thomas Musser '26, Sofia Conte '26, Anna Sewald '26

Professors and TA: Valeriya Kozlovskaya, Irina Dubinina, Mariia Makarova

Special Mentions

Funniest Story:

Arabic

وحش الغابة العربي / Arab Monster of the Woods

Yunus Kocaman ‘26, Javi Ramirez ‘25, Sam Newman ‘24, Jason Rich ‘26

Professor Hanan Khashaba

 

Best Acting:

Japanese

ごみのあくま /The Trash Devil

Dong Quentin ‘26, Maxx Kipnes ‘23, Wang Cameron ‘26, Yan Steve ‘26

Professor Hisae Fujiwara

2022

First Place

Russian

Секретная история Брендайзского Оскара по языку / The Secret Story of the Brandeis Language Oscars 

Noa Brudny, Felicity Hyams, Eran Zelixon

Second Place

Chinese

你是我爱的人? / Are you the one I love?  

Spencer Lee, Lin Lin Hutchinson, Smiley Huynh, Kirsten Man

2020 & 2021

The 2020 & 2021 Brandeis Language Oscars were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

2019

First Place
Italian
La Felicità Sopra I Soldi / Happiness Over Money
Olivia Spelman, Max Le Blanc, Gavi Klein
Second Place
Chinese
我们的电影 / Our Movie
Noah Rovner-Frydman, William Robitaille, Henry Wasserman, Matt Robin
Third Place
French
Princesse Blanche Neige En France/ Princess Snow White in France
Catherine Chen, Coco Zhang
You can view the videos from our French and Francophone, Hispanic Studies and Italian Studies finalists below.
a student dressed as snow white and another female student talking on campus

French and Francophone Studies Video: Princess Snow White in France

two male students and a female student talking, sitting at a table in a conference room

Hispanic Studies Video: The Office

a male student and two female students standing in front of the student center talking to each other

Italian Studies Video: Happiness Over Money

2018

First Place

Chinese Studies
It’s complicated
Kenny Sim, Vincent Lee, Youbin Ahn, Rachel Kim

Second Place

Hispanic Studies
La caperucita roja
Yixuan Li, Amy Ollove, Brianna Lackwood

Third Place

Japanese Studies
Beautiful 10 days/ きれいな十日
Minkyu Kim, Carmen Huang, Hongyu Li, Zifan Wang

You can view the videos from our French and Francophone, Hispanic Studies and Italian Studies finalists below.

A student kisses another on the cheek with the word QUOI??? on the screen

French and Francophone Studies Video: Vacances

A student east at a table wearing a shower cap while another student wearing a mask sneaks up on her.

Hispanic Studies Video: La Caperucita Roja

A male student and female student both sit on chairs talking to each other

Italian Studies Video: Lo Scapolo d'oro d'Italia

2017

First Place

German Studies
Bobrat
Cam Braunstein, Julia Haynes, Arianna Unger & Libby Williams

Second Place

Japanese Studies
The Turtle Inside My Dream
Nancy Tran, Charlie Weld, Allison Tien & Jingyuan Huang

Third Place

Italian Studies
Euro-Italia
Jade Lara, Samuel Chakmakjian & Tiffany English

You can view the videos from our French and Francophone, Hispanic Studies and Italian Studies finalists below.

Screenshot of French Video

French and Francophone Studies Video: Les Trois Agents du Président

Screenshot of Hispanic Studies Video

Hispanic Studies Video: Spanish Project

Italian Studies Video: Euro-Italia

2016

First Place

French and Francophone Studies
Le Fabuleux destin de Brandeis
Yuntian Lu, Morgan Mayback & Naomi Soman

Second Place

Japanese Studies
School Break
Alana Hodson, Maia Reyes, Amy Zou & Qianyi Gong

Third Place

Hispanic Studies
Brandeis Hombre
Karekin Johnson, Nick Krebs & Andrew Lee

You can view the videos from our French and Francophone and Hispanic Studies finalists below.

Screenshot of French Studies Video

French and Francophone Studies Video: Le Fabuleux Destin de Brandeis

Screenshot of Hispanic Studies Video

Hispanic Studies: Brandeis Hombre

2015

First Place

French and Francophone Studies
“I love you, my weird mother.”
Amy Li, An Yan, Jing Zhao

Second Place

Japanese Language Program
The Letter
Joyce Hsiao, Julie Kim, Sae Yong Lee, Amy Trankiem

Third Place

German Studies
Inglourious Custards

2014

First Place

German Studies
Wilkommen zu Brandeis
Nate Britten, Yanique Seac, Fei Xu

Second Place

Japanese Language Program
Oliver's Story
Christina Capshaw, Jessica Lu, Austin Luor, Jianshuo Qiu

You can view the videos from our French and Francophone and Hispanic Studies finalists below.

Screenshot of French Video

French and Francophone Studies Video: Kyle L'Explorateur

Screenshot of Hispanic Studies Video

Hispanic Studies Video: ¿Dijeron Perú?

2013

First Place

Chinese Language Program
Dream Girl
Aya Abdelaziz and Ben Lovenheim

Second Place

Russian Studies
Secret Love
Tiffany Johnson, Suzanne Rothman, Ellyn Sherman