Love & Gold – Student Emmy Winner for Best Animation 2026

I’ve been waiting for this to be unleashed…  and here it is. The 2026 winner of the Best Animation at the National Student Emmys is Love & Gold, written and directed by Connor VanDyke and produced by Jaysen Duckworth.  Representing BYU, it’s the university’s fifth consecutive win in this category and has now been released in full on YouTube.  Watching it in full for the first time today, this animated short certainly does have winner written all over it – from start to finish.

Before I take a look at the film, I would like to add a note of praise and thanks to the host of talent BYU pulled together to create this film. This was the university’s Center for Animation’s short film project for 2025 and from the credits, it looked like the whole department worked “in the trenches” for this short.  What better way to learn one’s craft than to be involved in a project of this size and ambition?  Little wonder that BYU’s graduates almost inevitably turn up in the credits for major animation projects.  So, hat’s off to this splendid team – too many to mention here, but thank you.

The plot is quite straightforward – the audience rocks up at the end of two separate quests for the same thing: the treasure left behind by a king and queen hundreds, perhaps thousands of years before.  So, tension is immediately created because the young explorer/adventurers (OK, thieves) have no intention of sharing the booty (they are both seeking a huge gem).  Yet they soon discover that the old king and queen had no intention of allowing someone with purely selfish motives to claim their treasure and that teamwork will be necessary if they are to survive their ordeals inside the castle.

You might be thinking “so far so tropey” and you would be right.  I don’t often spot in-movie references to other movies, but I think writer VanDyke may have watched the Indiana Jones series on repeat when he was a kid! Yet, take into consideration that people have been recycling basic plot patterns for thousands of years, picking over the skeletons of old stories and revivifying them for contemporary times and audiences.  Of course stories – truly successful stories – are more than simply plots. 

Much more important is who it happens to and how it’s told, as well as what the audience now understands that older audiences didn’t (and there are a few gleefully placed anachronisms in this dungeons and drangons-esque setting).  The references to the undying love of the previous king and queen, and how it impacts on the dual quest presented in this story are subtly and quickly disclosed to the audience.  The nature of the characters, likewise, are revealed through the narrative, which bops along at quite a speed (but not too fast to confuse the audience – it’s all there for us).  The writing is deft and tight, the structure almost perfect. So, certainly, all the right boxes are ticked for how it’s told.

So, on to who it happens to. Although the characters are not named during the film, I discovered in the credits that they are Rayden and Robin (voiced by Parley Lambert and Darci Ramirez – not that they say an awful lot!).  So, that’s how I will refer to them from now on.  The characters are particularly well-formed, something vital in such a short film.  Rayden seems like the kind of young man who has, perhaps, walked somewhat effortlessly through life, a sort of cross between Phoebus in Hunchback and Kristoff in Frozen.  Yet there’s no swagger – he’s quite a sweetheart which makes him immensely likable. 

Robin is more difficult to pin down.  She is the most complex but least trusting of the pair – and at the same time the least trustworthy too – her selfish acts put the couple into danger more than once. Perhaps she has been betrayed in the past? Yet like every good character arc, hers is offered the chance of redemption. I won’t reveal any spoilers, here – it’s up to you to watch the film and find out for yourself whether she gives in to avarice or not.  Hang around for the end credits sequence, too – it reveals what might be in store for Rayden and Robin in the future.

Once again, thank you students (and staff) of BYU for bringing Love & Gold to the world.  Some of the commenters on YouTube have said, this would make a great feature-length movie.  It’s pretty much perfect as it is – so, maybe, a sequel? Please?

Watch Love & Gold below: