The UP Film Institute (UPFI) was named by The Hollywood Reporter (THR), a leading film trade publication based in Los Angeles, California, USA, as one of the top film schools in the world for this year.
The list covers film schools outside of the USA which also included world-renowned film institutions like La Femis in France, the National Film and Television School in United Kingdom and New York University, Tish School of the Arts Asia in Singapore.
Other film schools included in THR’s list are: The Australia Film, Television and Radio School, Baden-Wurtemberg Film Academy in Germany, Whistling Woods International in India, Scuola Nazionale di Cinema—Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Italy, Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Jordan, the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) also in the Philippines, Chapman University in Singapore, and the National Taiwan University of Arts.
UPFI director and Professor Eduardo Lejano Jr. said the fact that the institute’s low tuition fees were mentioned by THR alongside with the other institutions which charge higher fees, makes the inclusion more significant.
The institute has about 75 film graduates a year. In addition to lectures by notable Filipino cinematographers such as Nap Jamir and Neil Daza, it offers workshops and short training courses covering all areas of production. “UPFI produces filmmakers, not technicians,”UPFI Senior lecturer, Professor Sari Dalena, said in an email interview with THR reporter Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop. Dalena added, “Whether it is in mainstream filmmaking, independent filmmaking or television, many of our alumni have become directors.”
UPFI is a product of the integration of two film institutions in the university – the Film and Audio-visual Communication Department of the College of Mass Communication (CMC) and the UP Film Center. It offers a 4-year bachelor’s degree in filmmaking which covers film theory and production courses, as well as a master’s degree in media studies that only cost about $1,000 or less than P50,000 a year. The institute has produced filmmakers like Raya Martin, whose three films were screened in Cannes Film Festival, and Pepe Diokno, whose first feature, Engkwentro, won the prize for best debut in 2009 at Venice.
—with reports from The Hollywood Reporter