August /20/2018 by Union of Excellence Staff and Editor
10 TOP INTERNATIONAL FILM SCHOOLS
THE LIKES OF ROLAND EMMERICH AND JAMES BOND REGULAR GIANCARLO GIANNINI GOT THEIR CINEMATIC EDUCATION ABROAD AT SCHOOLS FROM MUNICH TO ROME.
Union of Excellence has selected the best international schools around the world.
PICTURE: INSIDE THE AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL
Highly regarded for its industry practitioner lecturers, the Sydney school's alumni include Phillip Noyce, Cate Shortland (recently chosen to direct Marvel's Black Widow), Warwick Thornton (director of Sweet Country) and Masters 2017 graduate Eryk Lenartowicz, whose short film Dots was an official selection at Cannes in 2018, as well as Oscar winners Jane Campion (best screenplay for The Piano) David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road) and Margaret Sixel (editing Mad Max: Fury Road).
Visit Website: www.aftrs.edu.au
HONG KONG
ACADEMY FOR PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL OF FILM AND TELEVISION
One of the first official film schools in Hong Kong, the academy has helped to launch the careers of the second new wave of Hong Kong cinema in recent years, including Jevons Au, who co-directed back-to-back award winners Ten Years and Trivisa, as well as Roy Chow, who apprenticed for Ang Lee before making his debut feature, Murderer, in 2009.
Visit Website: www.hkapa.edu
SOUTH KOREA
BUSAN ASIAN FILM SCHOOL
Operated by the Busan Film Commission, the school &mdash launched in 2016 in the South Korean port city known for hosting Asia’s largest film festival — offers six-month-long training courses for producers, nurtures Asian filmmakers and promotes regional co-productions. Last year’s lecture program featured well-established regional names such as Bhutanese actor-turned-producer Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, one of the producers of Brad Pitt’s Seven Years in Tibet.
Visit Website: www.afis.ac
ROME
CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA
Founded in 1935, the Experimental Center of Cinematography gave birth to the generation that created Italian Neorealism with Michelangelo Antonioni among its most famous alumni. Today, the storied school features acting workshops with James Bond regular Giancarlo Giannini and partners with Rome Film Fest and the National Film Library to restore classic films.
Visit Website: www.fondazionecsc.it
ENGLAND, UK
NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL
The National Film and Television School is one of the top film, television and new media schools in the world, as evidenced by the Observer newspaper describing the NFTS as the “The Best Film School in the World.” No other film school offers so many individual specialist practical filmmaking courses: eighteen masters degrees, fourteen diplomas, four certificates and a wide range of short courses.
Denis Villeneuve, David Fincher, Colin Trevorrow, Kenneth Branagh and Taika Waititi were among those giving masterclasses over the past year, while the school was able to — finally — celebrate its alumnus Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) winning the Oscar evaded him over 12 previous nominations.
NFTS courses are based on learning and applying the crafts and skills of the medium. Students are encouraged to develop a solid understanding of how their specialist role fits into the overall process of project development, production and programme-making. All practical learning is carefully integrated with seminars and other activities that place film, television and games in a historical, cultural and business context.
Visit Website: nfts.co.uk
PARIS, FRANCE
LA FEMIS
IDHEC, (Institute of Higher School of Cinematographic Studies) was founded in 1944 and presided by Marcel LHERBIER. From 1944 to 1985, IDHEC trained 1,439 French and foreign cinema professionals. La Fémis, European Foundation for Sound and Image Trades, took over in 1986, becoming in 1998 the ‘‘National Higher School of Sound and Image Trades’’, a public establishment of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
La Fémis, trains every year 50 students as directors, DoPs, screenwriters, producers, film editors, sound engineers and mixers, production designers, continuity assistants, film distributors and exhibitors, creation of TV series and Ph.D. in cinema (SACRe / PSL).
The school is heavily promoting its summer program for underprivileged youths as well as the fact that 52 percent of its students are female (up from just 38 percent a decade ago).
Visit Website: www.femis.fr
WARSAW
LODZ FILM SCHOOL
The Film School in Lodz, one of the oldest film schools in the world, puts special emphasis on practical work in its teaching programme. The school educates students in film art, television, photography and acting. The students acquire knowledge preparing them to work as directors, directors of photography, animators, photographers, screenwriters, editors, production managers and actors. Studies comprise practical workshop classes accompanied by history, culture and art theory contributing to a thorough artistic development.
Lodz numbers three Oscar winners among its alumni: Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Zbigniew Rybczynski. Holders of honorary doctorates include Martin Scorsese and renowned cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
Visit Website: www.filmschool.lodz.pl
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
THE STEVE TISCH SCHOOL OF FILM AND TELEVISION,
Established in 1972, the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University has educated and raised generations of major Israeli filmmakers and film scholars. They are known for their work, which had a crucial impact on the country's film industry and cultural arena.
The Steve Tisch School is the largest cultural center for Israeli cinema, television and new media. Building on its strategic position within a university research center, the school offers a comprehensive program that combines filmmaking practice and solid theory.
The Jerusalem school boasts not only alums like 2014 Academy Award nominees for best live-action short Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun, director Talya Lavie (Zero Motivation) and Nadav Lapid, whose film The Kindergarten Teacher was recently adapted in the U.S. and picked up by Netflix at Sundance, but also its International Film Lab, a development platform with films going on to festivals like Cannes.
Visit Website: www.en-arts.tau.ac.il
MUNIC, GERMANY
THE STEVE TISCH SCHOOL OF FILM AND TELEVISION,
Germany's No. 1 film university offers solid training in every aspect of the industry, with an alumni roster that reads like a who's who of German big screen talent, from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich to Toni Erdmann helmer Maren Ade and the late, great producer Bernd Eichinger -The Name of the Rose.
