The Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg (German: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) is a publicly funded film school

Film school

The term film school is used to describe any educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are usually incorporated into...

 in Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...

, Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The Filmakademie is one of the most internationally renowned film schools and known for its Institute for Animation and Visual Effects. In addition the Film Academy hosts the "Atelier Ludwigsburg/Paris", an inter-university master-class on film production with the notable French film school La Fémis

La Femis

La Fémis , is the French state film school. FEMIS is an acronym for Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son. Based in Paris, it offers courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. The Film Academy also works to expose students to an international network of film-makers by organizing exchange programs with partner institutions worldwide. Every year, the Film Academy organizes a "Hollywood workshop" for selected students at the UCLA , including studio tours and internships with production companies in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

Studies

The project-oriented curriculum triggers learning by doing during all the different stages of a film and television production. More than 300 highly qualified experts from the film and media business instruct the students and take care of their projects.

About 250 films of all genres and formats with top rankings on international festivals are produced every year by teams of students enrolled in scriptwriting, directing

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, cinematography

Cinematography

Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

, editing

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

, series

Film series

A film series is a collection of related films in succession. Their relationship is not fixed, but generally share a common diegetic world. Sometimes the work is conceived as a multiple-film work, for example the Three Colours series, but in most cases the success of the original film inspires...

, film production, film score

Film score

A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

, sound design

Sound design

Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...

 and production design.

The Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg only admits students who have at least one of year of practical experience in the film business and two years for its producers program.

International Guest Student Programme

The programme is aimed primarily at students attending foreign film schools and universities who wish to study at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg for a certain period of time (max. 6 months). The programme offers courses in directing, cinematography, producing, film music, working on a film or shooting of an own film. Preferably, the foreign film schools or universities should be members of CILECT, the international association of film and television schools.

Rankings

In 2003, the Art Directors Club awarded the film academy the title of Germany’s most creative university.

In 2006, issue 22 of FOCUS

Focus (German magazine)

Focus is a German weekly news magazine published in Munich and distributed throughout Germany. It is the third-largest weekly news magazine in Germany. It is considered conservative and leaned towards economic liberalism.- Overview :...

, the Film Academy was ranked as the best film school in Germany. Evaluation criteria were the reputation of the university, the support for the students, the technical equipment and the number of awards won.

The animation institute at the Film Academy was listed as second in the 3D World

3D World

3D World is a printed magazine published by Future Publishing with main focus on animation, visual effects, videogame design, illustration and architectural visualisation...

 ranking in 2007, a global "Ivy League" table of the world‘s top animation schools.

In 2010 the prestigious magazine The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter

Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...

 listed the Film Academy as the only German institution on its ranking of the world's best film schools.

Awards

Students from the Film Academy have already been nominated for the Student Oscar several times for their productions. Film Academy productions have won numerous other prizes such as the Adolf Grimme Prize and the Golden Bear

Golden Bear

According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 at the Berlinale etc. Recent proof of the Film Academy's philosophy of teaching are the Golden Leopard

Golden Leopard

The Golden Leopard is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be entered in the competitive selection. The winning films...

 awarded to "Das Verlangen/The Longing" at the Locarno International Film Festival

Locarno International Film Festival

The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...

 (2002), an Oscar nomination for "Das Rad

Das Rad

Das Rad is a German animated film written and directed by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger. It was produced using a mixture of stop motion, puppetry, and CGI animation....

" in the category "Best Animated Short Film" (2003), the Student Oscar at the Student Academy Awards

Student Academy Awards

The Student Academy Awards is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual competition for college and university filmmakers. The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first presented in 1973. Since 1975, the awards have been given annually, usually in June...

for "Nimmermeer/Nevermore" in the category "Best Foreign Film" (2007).

External links

• http://www.filmakademie.de official website
• http://www.filmakademie.de/?L=1 official website
• http://www.animationsinstitut.de Institut of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction