"I know exposure to other cultures can make one's life richer," began Michelle Rodriguez as she introduced the medalists in the Foreign Film category at the 2015 Student Academy Awards.

The "Fast & Furious" star, who relocated from her native San Antonio, Texas to the Dominican Republic for a short time when she was eight years old, kicked off the 42nd annual award ceremony Thursday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Along with fellow presenters, "Straight Outta Compton" actor Jason Mitchell, Oscar-winning director John Lasseter, and the Oscar-winning team behind the animated feature “Big Hero 6,” Roy Conli, Don Hall and Chris Williams, she announced the gold, silver and bronze Student Academy Award medal winners, which recognized cinematic achievement from 15 student-filmmakers from universities and colleges around the world.

"There's no orchestra like at the Oscars that's going to cut me short," joked the first student on stage - bronze medal winner Patrick Vollrath from Austria's Filmakademie Wien school, who helmed the drama “Everything Will Be Okay.”

In closing his acceptance speech, the budding filmmaker echoed what many Oscar winners have famously said over time—a sentiment repeated throughout the night: "Thank you to the Academy."

Watch Student Academy Award winners reveal which director has inspired them:

https://youtu.be/yJr5Me0vaSM

The 2015 Student Academy Award winners - medal placements:

Alternative
Gold: “Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California
Silver: “Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York

Animation
Gold: “Soar,” Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco
Silver: “An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts
Bronze: “Taking the Plunge,” Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of
Visual Arts

Documentary
Gold: “Looking at the Stars,” Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California
Silver: “I Married My Family’s Killer,” Emily Kassie, Brown University
Bronze: “Boxeadora,” Meg Smaker, Stanford University

Narrative
Gold: “Day One,” Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California
Silver: “This Way Up,” Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute
Bronze: “Stealth,” Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute

Foreign Film
Gold: “Fidelity,” Ilker Çatak, Hamburg Media School, Germany
Silver: “The Last Will,” Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Bronze: “Everything Will Be Okay” Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria