New film school to open in Macedonia in FAMU collaboration

A new film school is set to open in the Macedonian city of Ohrid, in a collaboration between the government of the Republic of Macedonia and the prestigious Prague film and TV school FAMU.

The new educational institution will be called the Institute of Film — Film Academy. According to Deputy Education Minister Spiro Ristovski, it will form part of the Goce Delčev University of Štip and will offer master’s degrees in screenwriting and creative post-­production. The classes, which will be held in English, are to be formulated in line with FAMU’s principles and standards. In addition, some of the teaching staff will be from FAMU itself. Mr Ristovski described the collaboration between the Education Ministry and FAMU as “one of a kind”.

The initiative to open a film school in Ohrid was launched seven years ago by two FAMU alumni, Macedonian film director Ivo Trajkov and Czech filmmaker Tomas Petran.

“This idea is being realised after seven years of hard work [...]. Many people and institutions have contributed to its realisation. This school in Macedonia is also the resumption of the years­-long tradition of cultural cooperation between the two countries, established as early as 863 AD when the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius had arrived in Moravia on their Slavic educational mission,” said Mr Petran.

FAMU is one of the world’s oldest film schools, and boasts such notable alumni as Czech director Miloš Forman and Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.

Source: Independent.mk