Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China

Title: Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China
Author: Unionsys Geographic
Time: Sunday, August 30, 2009
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Beijing Film Academy: Overview

Beijing Film Academy is a full-time, higher professional school of film and art. Its forerunner is the Performance Art Institution of the Film Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, which was founded in May 1950, and changed its name to the Film School of the Film Bureau of the Ministry of Culture in July 1951 and Beijing Film School in March 1953. The school was finally renamed the Beijing Film Academy on June 1, 1956.

Beijing Film Academy is the cradle of China film talent and currently the only institution specialized in film in China higher education. It has high reputation in the field of film and cultural art both in China and worldwide. Through 56 years' development, it has build up a scientific cinematic specialties system and advanced film professional fostering system which can offer diploma, bachelor, master, and PhD degrees. Today BFA is a worldwide well known cinematic higher education institute with advanced cinematic teaching facilities, comprehensive specialties, experienced faculty, and leading innovation and academic research results.

The Youth Studio of the Beijing Film Academy was founded in 1979 and has produced a number of remarkable works in past 20 years. Such numbers include: Come Fly With Me, Neighbors, A Girl From Hunan, The Story of Qiuju, Black Stallion, Red Cherry, King of Masks and The Days Without a Hero.

For 40 years many of the academy's graduates have won international acclaim in the movies. Xie Tian, Chen Qiang, Yu Yang, Wu Yigong, Huang Shuqin, Wu Tianming, Xie Fei, Zheng Dongtian, Ni Zhen, Ding Yinmeng, Li Qiankuan, Cao Cuifen, Huang Jianxin, Wei Lian, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimo are some of the most famous names in the business called the Uprising of the Fifth-Generation Directors of China. Some of their most famous films include: Sun Yat-sen; Red Sorghum; Chongqing Negotiations; Old Well; Yi Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao; So Near, Yet So Far; The Drive To Win; Youth Sacrifice; and My Father and Mother. Some of these works have won domestic and international awards. The associated assignments for graduation, Lottery, Memory of the Childhood and Gone with the Wind, have won Oscar nominations from international universities, including the Special Director award at the Tokyo Movie Festival of International Universities.

The Beijing Film Academy was absorbed by the association of the world's major film and television schools, CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision), as a member university in 1984 and was elected as a council member. In June 1991, the academy held the Movie and TV Play Training Seminar of the Asian and the Pacific Region. The seminar approved the establishment of a movie and TV-play training center at the Beijing Film Academy.

Beijing Film Academy: History

Established in May 1950, the Beijing Film Academy was first named Performance Art Institution of the Film Bureau of the Ministry of Culture. During its first year, 38 students enrolled. For the next five years, the school was renamed thrice - Film School of the Film Bureau of the Ministry of Culture in July 1951, Beijing Film School in March 1953 and finally, Beijing Film Academy on June 1, 1956.

Upon its first establishment, the academy contained 2 schools - the School of Photography and the Animation School with the associated departments and their subsequent specialties. The Screenwriting Department was one of the earliest departments to be established at the academy in 1951.

Gradually, the academy expanded its number of schools and departments. On September 14, 1950, Beijing Film Academy offered its first undergraduate course in performing arts. The course attracted a class of 30 students, many of which were notable figures in film and television. Due to its success, Beijing Film Academy established the Performance Institute in June 1956. In 1952, Beijing Film Academy offered its first programs in sound recording. The Department of Sound Recording was officially founded in 1959. The Department of Sound Recording continued to grow throughout the years. In 1960, Beijing Film Academy's Department of Sound Recording and the School of Engineering were joined together. Beijing Film Academy began offering a two-year course in film and television production management in September 1955. Although the first class only graduated 28 students, the popularity of the course grew, and a Department of Management was formally established in 1987.

Beijing Film Academy: Facts

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution brought hardships for schools throughout the People's Republic of China. Beijing Film Academy was equally affected; many of its professors left the academy. However, in the beginning of 1976, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, many faculty members returned to Beijing Film Academy. By 1977, the academy had recovered from the Cultural Revolution. Finally, in 1978, the academy allowed new students to apply.

In 1989, the International School of the Academy was set up, along with the Information Research Center in October 1999.

Individual departments have also developed recently. Major development of the screenwriting department was the establishment of a postgraduate course with Master's Degree in Screenwriting in 1985, followed by the construction of the undergraduate program on Film Theories in 1987. Further postgraduate courses for Ph.D. students in Screenwriting were set up in 2004.

Beijing Film Academy: Academics

The academy offers associate, bachelor, and master's degrees in many areas of film. BFA offers courses in script writing, film theory, film directing, film and television production, film acting, film and television art design, advertisements, animations, sound art, cinematography, photography, and entertainment management.

Courses other than the undergraduate and postgraduate studies are also offered. These are:

Vocational courses
Correspondence courses
Night school courses

Beijing Film Academy: Schools and Departments

School of Performing Art

The School of Performing Art, originally known as Chinese Central Performing Institute, was established in 1950. It was expanded from the former Performing Department of Beijing Film Academy. The School boasts four specialties: performing art, language skill, vocals and body shaping, and a strong teaching team, composed of 12 professors and associate professors, 18 lecturers and assistants. Over 50 years, with their own teaching and practical experiences, the teachers have laid a very solid teaching foundation for the school's education. The young teachers, with wonderfully inherited sounding teaching concepts and methods from their predecessors, have given a full play to their creative minds and made a great contribution to the field's growth. Collectively, the school faculties have been striving to expand their teaching programs into new disciplines.

The School of Performing Art offers nearly 40 courses, including acting basics, professional acting, film basics, other academic basics and practical training courses. During the past 50 years, it has successively run different training programs; undergraduate; teacher's training; special training and programs of professional leader's training; senior occupational training as well as special undergraduate courses for students with general degrees and extended training courses. Up till now, the school has turned out 50 different groups of graduates in the number of more than 1500. In 1991, the college began to run graduate programs and recruit overseas students worldwide.

The performing school participates actively in academic exchanges and has successively absorbed merits, the advanced theoretical and teaching experiences in the fields of film and drama from Russia, America and Britain. By combining them with the precious heritage of Chinese culture and filmic practices, the school manages to form a pattern fit for Chinese film and television art education. Over a decade or so, the faculty has come up with the publication of 20 academic books, 10 teaching materials, more than 100 academic essays and articles published in the key national academic periodicals and magazines.

Meanwhile, the school held professional related academic symposiums frequently. Each term, as required by the academy, it also arranges for a feed-back show, reporting to the whole school whatever learned in performance in the school theatre. The school will recommend students to take part in various artistic practices and activities, whose excellent performances always left a big impact in the circles of film, TV and drama, and the whole art circle as well.

Being the cradle of many film and TV stars, the performing school has cultivated a lot of highly qualified acting talents for our country. They have created numerous excellent images in many films and TV programs, for which they are honored with various kinds of prizes both at home and abroad, who contributed a lot to the reputation of the academy. Looking into the new era, the School of Performing will encounter as many new challenges as new opportunities. Now the faculty staff is ready to march on with even greater vigorous spirits and determined more than ever to dedicate themselves to the great cause of Chinese cinematic education.

Department of Directing

Department of Directing specializes in training talented directors of film and television. With almost 50 years of hard work, it has trained a large number of excellent directing professionals in the fields of Chinese film and television production. It has made great contributions to the promotion of the prosperity of Chinese film and television undertakings, which impact is felt domestically and internationally.

Directing is a kind of labor of a very creative and artistic nature. According to the policy of practical training, students are required to have the knowledge and capability in comprehension of literature, art theories and history; good taste in aesthetics and art appreciation; systematic knowledge of the basic rules of film and television directing; video and audio expressive skills; strong combined practical skills and organization capabilities in originality, narration, modeling and sound.

Directing Department offers 3 majors, fiction film directing, documentary directing, and film editing. It offers doctorial, master and bachelor programs and multi-level programs specially designed for occupational carders or else.

The teachers of Director Department enjoy good fame for their great achievements in film and television directing, and their works have won various domestic and international awards many times, which made great contribution to Chinese film and television undertakings. At the same time, the teachers have taken full charge of scientific research projects on film art theories, directing and projects of compiling teaching materials. Many books and essays of good scholarship have been published.

The main courses in Director Department include: Drama, Performing, Video and Audio Language, Directing Art, Documentary Film Theory and Making. And some other basic courses are also offered: The Basic of Cinematograph, The Basic of Film Sound Recording, The Basic of Film Music, The Art of Film Design, Film Sound, Studies on Film and Television Directing Masters, Histories of Chinese and Foreign Films, Analysis of Films, Analysis of Art Works, Analysis of Music Works, Analysis of Literary Works, the Aesthetics Principles, and General Introduction of Art.

In the periods of their studies, the students are required to be able to shoot some 3-30 minutes long home works, based on the course they are learning, with DV. videotape or film, either independently or finish together with students of other specialties. The degree of difficulty of the work and the length should be increased along the way. During the courses, students' assignments also include: field work, film viewing, research and exchange.

Department of Cinematography

Department of Cinematography was set up along with the establishment of Beijing Film Academy in 1950. For more than 50 years, with the teachers' efforts of several generations, the department has educated a large number of film and television art and technical talents, and most graduates have become outstanding persons in Chinese film and television domains. Many of their works, have not only made big impact on the domestic audience, but also enjoyed an international fame for Chinese film and become an excellent vehicle in communicating Chinese culture.

The educational expertise of film cinematography does not lies only in teaching special techniques and skills of cinematography, but also very much in cultivating good taste of the students in art creations and appreciations. So in the practical training, the teachers act not only upon the principle of teaching, which is based on its combination of film and television technology with art theories, but also pay more attention to shaping of students' professional qualifications and exploration of their artistic imaginations.

Among the teachers in Cinematography, there are not only famous scholars, who are provided with well-set and embedded teaching theories as well as remarkable academic achievements, but also well known professors, who possess rich theoretical and practical experiences with works that have produced a big impact on the public. The department has a teaching faculty that is reasonably made of different aged group with various knowledge structure and capabilities. With the advantage of the higher-level faculty teachers both in theory and practice, the department has adopted a whole set of effective teaching methods over the years.

Right now, the Cinematography Department is executing a series of teaching reforms, such as engaging actively in pioneering a new major of Image Studies that will turn digital technology into teaching and creations, so as to further explore the traditional ways of film making. The department has begun to enroll students for lighting specialty to meet the urgent need of film and television industry, and at the same time it enrolls students from foreign countries, gradually to carry out the plan of bilingual education.

In order to conform to the overall professional demand of our society, Cinematography Department redefined its training directions in 2001: training professional cinematographers in both film and television making.

Department of Cinematography: Courses

The optional courses are: Film Appreciation, Chinese Film History, Foreign Film History, The Basics Of Drama, The Film Sound, Film Making and Market and so on. The required courses are arranged to ensure that the students will be enabled to acquire the basic filmic skills and skills to use the equipments, so as to increase their practical capabilities, which include Photographic Lens Skills; Exposure Techniques and Skills, Application Principles For Sensitive Materials, On Camera Filters, Movie Camera, Film Lighting Techniques, Image Art Design, Skills in Cinematograph, Skills In Film Lighting, Basics of Film Shooting and Videotaping, Picture Framing, Computer Graphics, and Non-linear Editing and so on. In the mean time, among the required courses, in order to promote the thought of creation, some other courses are added, including The Basics Making a Director. The special courses set by the department, such as Documentary Making, Advertisement and MTV Shooting, and Creative Basics of Cinematography, provide more practical opportunities for the students to be with camera, which works in line with our goal of teaching to make them eventually become skilled cinematographers.

Department of Sound Recording

The predecessor of Sound Recording Department was Film Engineering Department, which was established in 1960 and developed into the Department of Motion Picture Sound Recording from Electro Acoustic Specialty in 1973. In 1978, a combined study major of art and technical sound recording was made and then the first group of undergraduates of Recording Art major was enrolled.

Since 1978, Sound Recording Department has educated a large number of film and television sound experts including the ones of the fifth generation. And the most well known sound artists who won the most influential awards for their works both at home and abroad are from our department.

The department has a strong team of teachers. Through active involvement in film and television sound creating practices every year, the faculty teachers keep a sharp sensibility at the pulse of the new professional developments in the world and therefore enabled to keep at the front in the field. Among the teachers in our department, there are several members and boarding members of CSMPTE and National Recording Association. They presided and took part in the national panels on film and television sound recording technology and art studies and took full charge of the design work of the recording room of Chinese Film Museum. The department also keeps a favorable cooperative relationship with the well-known film and television academies in the world and conducts constant exchanges of teachers and students with the academies in America, Europe and Asia. The department often invites foreign professors to come to teach or give lectures as well.

The department has the most advanced recording lab resources, from the electro laboratory for basic courses to all the technical conditions needed by post-production of the film and television, non-linear editing equipment for pictures, advanced analogue and digital synchronization equipment, analogue and digital voice recording studio, dynamic effect recording studio, digital audio work station, DVD rerecording studio, Dolby5.1 film rerecording studio, MIDI music studio, piano house, and music mastering and DSD music making and so on. While accomplishing the teaching work, the laboratory also assumes several scientific research tasks of various levels from the Municipal Education Committee, the Academy and this department.

Recording art is an interdisciplinary program that combines technology with art. It is also a subject of great interests and adaptability. The field study includes training the capability to listen and identify sound; music appreciation; grasping the characteristics of the sound source and sound field; studying the technologies of electron, computer, multi-media, and network; basic principle and operation approaches of audio and video frequency equipment; designing and creating film and television sound; learning and mastering the new techniques, as well as studying foreign language including listening, speaking, reading, writing, translating and studying the professional foreign language.

Under the recording art major, there are two study directions for undergraduates, recording art and scoring. The courses for the undergraduates will be film and television techniques; network media technology and art; recording acoustics; MIDI music making; film and television music creation and so on. Four graduate courses are offered: film and television sound creation and theories; film and television music creation; film and television recording creation, and film and television recording techniques. At present, there are totally four levels of education in the department: senior occupational education, undergraduate education, undergraduate program for the students graduated from technological academies, as well as graduate student program of master degrees. In the meantime, to meet the need of the developments of the occupations, the department will irregularly offer graduate extension courses on new technologies and techniques.

Department of Fine Art

Department of Fine Art was established in 1959. For 46 years since its establishment, through the collective efforts and hard labor, the department specializes in training talents in film and television design, film and television special effect and film and television advertising.

The academy took the Department of Fine Art for core construction - Studies of Fine Art. The courses, Film and Television Advertisement, Film and Television Special Effect and Screen Picture Design, are not only the unique ones all over the country, but also the ones being most popular in market demand. Closely following the development of vanguard art, the fields of new art media has great potential for future developments. The number of the students in the department is 277 of 16 classes. A complete education system has set up which covers the programs of senior occupation training, undergraduates, graduates and doctors. To meet the needs different people, a multi-form and multi-level education is offered, such as undergraduate course for the students graduated from technological academies, extension courses and graduate student extension courses.

The Department has a teaching team made of highly talented teaching staff, who stand at the front in film and television art, advertisement education, research and artistic creations. It has formed a perfect system of advertisement teaching in film screen design, film and television advertisement creation and production. Over the years, teachers have accumulated rich teaching experiences. Most of them not only have studied the special theory widely and deeply, but also have been provided with abundant practicing experiences, and their film and television works, advertisements and paintings have constantly won awards both at home and abroad. Teaching structure is reasonably matched , not only there is traditional film painting design, but also other directions of specialties including film and television special effect, advertisement creation, advertising theory, picture design, painting, sculpture, architecture, and new media art, which cover several areas of visual art imaging. Furthermore, the Department of Fine Art also invites some famous domestic or foreign artists as visiting scholars or guest professors so as to renew concepts and enrich teaching.

In the department, there are various faculties, such as Film Painting Design, Film and Television Special Effect, Film and Television Advertisement, Figure Designing, Basic Painting and New Media Art faculty, as well as some laboratories including Film and television Special Effect Laboratory, Advertisement Creating Laboratory, New Media Art Laboratory, and Model Producing Laboratory. Additionally, there is Special Effect Studio, which is provided with complete facilities and advanced prophase-photographing equipments including STEADICAM photographic camera, 12-meter movable lifting arm, and MOTION CONTROL that is the most advanced stunt photographing equipment all over the world at present; and there is also an advanced Post-phase Editing and Composing Studio, which is provided with several G5 Apple computers and complete set of special editing system of AVD, FINAL CUT, SHAKE and MAYA system, with which two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital images and figures could be created, composed and edited there. Apart from these, there are several special art studios, multimedia amphitheaters, computer teaching room, showing hall, and reference room, which all provide abundant perfect and modern substantial support for modern film and television teaching.

For more than 40 years, the Department of Fine Art has educated a large number of excellent film art designers for Chinese film undertakings, who are the key winners of China Jinji Award, or some are even the winners of Cannes International Film Festival in the category of outstanding art designers. And among them, many have become famous film or television dramas directors, whose works frequently won the awards at domestic or international film festivals. Many have also become famous directors of advertisements, special visual effect, or become great painters. These excellent achievements have won them wide recognitions.

The Animation School

The Animation School of Beijing Film Academy was set up in 2000. It keeps it as its primary goal to educate animation directors and high-level talents for animation production. The school used to be the single animation major under the department of Fine Arts of Beijing Film Academy, which was established in 1952. During the past 50 years, the school has made a great contribution to the development of Chinese animation industry. Many famous Chinese animators, outstanding animation directors and production talents of different generations have been graduating from the school, such as A Da (Three Monks, Director), Dai Tielang (Police Officer Black Cat, Director), Yan Dingxian (Prince Nezha's Triumph Against Dragon King, Director), Lin Wenxiao (Child of Snow, Director), and Hu Jinqing (Yu Bang Xiang Zheng, a Chinese water color painting and paper cut animated short film, Director), etc. The school offers 4 MFA programs, including Animation Production Theory, Animation Production and Multi-media Application, History of Animation and Screenplay Writing for Animation; 4 BA programs, including Artistic Animation, Computer Animation, Cartoon and Comic, and Game Design; 4 junior college education programs, including Cartoon and Comic, Computer Animation, Character Animation Design, and Game Design. The school also provides programs of occupational certificate training and continue education.

The Animation School carries out a training solution combining new digital technologies with traditional animation production skills, focuses on animation production, and implements the integration of production, education and research on animation, visual effect, game and multi-media disciplines. The school pays a special attention to the academic exchanges with colleges and universities in the same domain internally and internationally, making it open to new ideas and technologies for animation education. The school has a lot of advanced facilities for animation education, including two animation production studios, one motion capture lab and one 5-dimentional animated film lab, which provide an excellent circumstance for animation education, production and research.

Many textbooks on animation have been written by the teachers of the school, such as Modern Animation Design, Dictionary of Animation Art, Advanced Tutorial for the Post-production of Digital Film and Video, Tutorial and Case Study for Maya, etc. These textbooks have received very good appraisals from readers.

The school will successively publish more than one hundred new textbooks, which will become an animation textbook series with the most abundant contents in China.

The Animation School has great teaching team which keeps the school to stay at the front in the animation field. Teachers and students were sent many times abroad to take part in animation film festivals and got awarded in recent years. In order to promote the animation creations, starting from December 2001,

the school organizes an annual nation-wide animation competition, named the Academy Awards of the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy for the college students as well as for animation lovers, so as to provide them the opportunity to exhibit their works, which were supported by people of all circles and made a big impact in the field.

In its future development, the school strives to widen its ranges of its academic teaching, set up new disciplines and new majors which should meet the demand of current animation industry. The school is planning to build up a new teaching and research facility model, consisting of one school (the Animation School), three departments (Artistic Animation Department, Computer Animation Department, and Web, Game and Multi-media Animation Department), and two research divisions (Artistic Animation Research Division and Animation Technology Division). The school will strengthen theory studies and practical animation productions, enlarge the exchange with other colleges and animation studios and firms both at home and abroad, and improve its quality of animation teaching, research and production to a new level. The school will be always trying to make greater contributions to Chinese film and animation industry.

The Photography School

Beijing Film Academy is the oldest photography educational institution in China. Starting in 1986, the picture photography specialty was set up by the photography department. And then in order to speed up the educational system reform and enhance academic construction, the Beijing Film Academy worked jointly with the Chinese Photographer Association and set up the Photography School a subdivision of the Beijing Film Academy in February 1996.

The Photography School is keeping to its principle of undergraduate education first and continuing education second，It is also developing specialized education at different levels in a more cost-effective manner. The existing professional level is set up as follows: Master degree courses，Undergraduate courses，undergraduate course for the students already graduated from technological academies，courses for senior occupational education of junior college、post-university courses for continued education and courses for continued education. On this basis, we insist on the idea of running a school with a national characteristic that is in line with international standards.

The school executes a kind of integrated education -- substantial basic and all-round knowledge, and establishes a study system, it is based on photography optics, chemistry, digital processing technology, photographic history and art theories are the basic research subjects, with practical work at its core. We strive to keep the highest quality of professional teaching. Within a limited teaching period, we strive to bring up sophisticated talents who are rich in art understanding, posses a complete knowledge structure, subjectively active, of the first quality and who are good at integration of image with media and society, and who are able to adapt to modern needs, as well as possessing national self-pride, but with an international vision.

The photography school has world-class professional equipment of photography as its foundation, while respecting traditional photography ideas, skills and techniques; it pays attention to the development of the future of photography, emphasizing the study of the digital image and multimedia technology. The school's teaching equipment is very advanced and complete. This has offered a solid base for bringing up senior special talents that are able to engage in picture photographing, media, image, picture advertisement and art design, photographic theory studies, photography teaching, and other relevant field of work. They should eventually become high-ranking talents both in skills and morality.

Recently, the Photography School has formed a completely integrated teaching system and a set of scientific training methods with a teaching team whose knowledge structure is well matched. Our teachers for the most part have a professional art background studies and posses abundant relevant teaching experiences. Among the teachers, some are graduates from this academy and some are reputable scholars and experts coming back home from abroad. Through collective efforts, the teachers are striving to educate top-ranking picture photography talents of the world with creative capabilities, so as to keep ahead in the domestic photography teaching and the scientific research field.

Department of Literature

If film dramatists and theorists are the creators of film art, the Department of Literature of Beijing Film Academy is the cradle of Chinese film makers.

The Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy has a long history and far-reaching influence in the industry of film education. For many years, it sticks to the teaching principle that the script is the root of the drama and holds the belief that it is from here that a film is born.

In 1951, Beijing Film Academy began to admit undergraduates who were studying in other universities and who were so fond of film literature (film script writing) into two-year programs of film playwriting and film editing. In 1956, the faculty of literature was founded, led by Xu Zhiqiao and Yu Qian successively. In 1960, the department began to admit students for the bachelor programs of film playwriting and film editing. After the Cultural Revolution, the Literature Department Preparation Group was set up in 1978. Literature Department was officially set up in 1982, with Shen Songsheng, Wang Di, Hu Bin, Zhong Dafeng and Liu Yibing heading the department successively.

In 1985, Literature Department officially started to enroll undergraduates in film script writing across the country for the first time, which drew the extensive attention from society. In 1987, undergraduates of film theory were formally enrolled for the first time. In 1985, master programs were offered and in 2004, PhD program started to enroll students. Hard labor has been rewarded with fruits. Up to now, the graduates from the Literature Department have spread all over the world and are active in the forefront of film and television production, working hard either in education or in publication and literary criticism. They are not only undertaking writing and directing film and television, frequently receiving various awards at famous domestic and international film and television festivals, but also a group of disciplined teachers for courses such as adapting the film, television theories and editing publications.

The teaching offered in the Literature Department is not simply restricted by the conventional lectures. More importantly, the teachers have always been sharing their practical experiences in film and television productions. With rich teaching experiences, profound theoretical knowledge and the numerous prizes in film and television productions, the faculty is regarded to be a group of highly qualified professionals full of responsibilities. Additionally, they are trusted with lots of state and provincial research projects and keep close ties with international academia.

The Department of Literature has established a whole set of advanced film teaching system in terms of teaching theory and teaching method, which fits Chinese situation well and takes the lead in the world. Every year, the department attracts students in great numbers at home and abroad. In the mean time, numerous teachers from other universities and educational institutions of higher education come here for continual education, which won the department a good reputation in the field of teaching and production.

The Department of Literature offers three kinds degree programs and non-degree programs: PhD program of Film History and Film Theory; master degree program of Film Script Writing, Film Writing Theory and Skills, Film Aesthetics, Chinese Film History, Foreign Film History, Film and Television Communication Theory and so on, and four-year bachelor degree program of Drama, Film and Television Literature. The latter includes two-year long undergraduate courses of Film and Television Writing and Directing Creation for the students graduating from junior college, two- year long senior occupational education and extension education. Moreover, the department also offers master degree program for professionals at work. The number of students of this department at school is more than 150, including various types of students in continual studies, graduates, undergraduates, students in extended education and training. Up to now, more than 1000 students have graduated from this department.

The Department of Literature also offers courses to various students from other programs in Beijing Film Academy, such as Basic Theory of Film Drama, Introduction to Drama, Film Script Theory, Theory and Skills of Film Drama, Film Aesthetics, Film Theory, Theory of Communications, Chinese Film Theory, Foreign Film History, Studies on Film Masters, Studies on Films of Some Foreign Countries, Film Genre Studies, Film Analysis and so on.

Film and TV Technology Department / Digital Media Institute

The Film and TV Technology Department / Digital Media Institute, was founded on the basis of the Digital Film and TV Lab, which was prepared to construct in June of 2002. The Digital Media Institute was formally founded in March of 2003, and it became the youngest department, Film and TV Department, of the Beijing Film Academy in February of 2005.

The Film and TV Technology Department / Digital Media Institute, has a teaching and scientific research team which is full of youthful, creative and enterprising spirit. We are endeavoring to build a bran-new digitalized teaching, scientific researching and production platform which objects to the domains of modern film, TV and new media technologies, to lay down a complete digital foundation for film production in future.

The Film and TV Technology Department / Digital Media Institute, is equipped with a complete set of digital film production devices, which ranges from digital HDTV cameras, a digital HDTV editing and processing system in postproduction to a digital cinema projection system, and professional image quality testing instruments, to provide a strong guarantee with equipment for the activities of teaching and scientific research.

The Film and TV Technology Department / Digital Media Institute will apply itself to train new types of persons of abilities who will master high and new technologies and theories and application skills, and who are needed urgently by the society at present. At the same time, it is actively developing the application research in the domain digital film technology, and undertaking many scientific and research projects given by the National Broadcast, Motion Picture and Television Bureau, Beijing Committee of Education or the Beijing Film Academy. It will also make use of the rich resources in the aspects of film arts and technology to exploit on-line games, which is another bran-new domain in digital media and has an extremely large market. Relative application research work will be done and persons of ability will be trained.

Department of Film Studies

The Department of Film Studies is an academy-wide scientific research department of Beijing Film Academy, one of the most important film and television research institutions in China. So it has another name: Institute of Film Studies of Beijing Film Academy. The institute has a body of well known film scholars both at home and abroad, also with most famous experts, scholars who enjoy great fame domestically and internationally in film research institutions as its advisers or part-time researchers, engaging research in many areas, including film history and theory, art and esthetics, culture and communications.

For many years it has had its graduate enrolments in film and television theory research. Graduate majors include Film Esthetics, Film and Television Communications, Film and Television Narration Research, Histories of Chinese and Foreign Films, and Film and Television Creation Theories and so on. Since 2004, the institute has started to enroll doctor candidates and to accept visiting scholars in the fields of Chinese and foreign film and television theory and culture studies.

The Department of Film Studies was founded in December, 2002 when it started a four-year undergraduate program in the direction of film and television media theory studies. The teaching for undergraduates focuses on increasing students' basic theoretical and practicing capabilities so that the students' vision and knowledge will be widened. At the same time, students are required to grasp the basic rules of film and television creations and posses special creating and researching ability which will make them ready for across media employment in the future and become film and television professionals capable both at theory and practice.

Main courses offered are: Film Theory, Film and TV Cultural Criticism, Film and Television Script Writing, Video and Audio Languages, Genre Films, Film and Television Drama, Theory of Film and Television Communications, Histories of Hong Kong and Taiwan Films, Chinese Film History, Foreign Film History, The Origin and Development of Media, Chinese and Foreign Literature, Film and Television Creation Theory, The Basics of Film And Television Making, Film Analysis, and Studies on Master Directors and So On.

The publication of Beijing Film Academy Journal was started in 1984. It is edited by the staff of the Department of Film Studies. It is the only journal of film theory that integrates film education of higher learning with film theory studies. The journal reflects the teachers' teaching and scientific research achievements and tracts the newest film and television creation and research currents. It has become one of the most well known and influential journals in terms of academic level. It is with great popularity in the circle of film professionals. Since the layout was amended in 1998, the journal has been keeping pace with times and has enjoyed a good fame in the areas of Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2002, it was chosen as the core the category of Chinese literature and art. And it has ranked among the best 1568 of over 10,000 Chinese journals. It was chosen as the source journal of Chinese Social Science Quotation Index. In 2002, it won the Second Excellent Social and Scientific Journal Award.

Department of Management

The Department of Management is the cradle to bring up high talents of film and television administrations and management. The teachers of the department have taken charge of the production and distribution work for many influential films and television programs, which has won them great reputation. And they have become the main force in film and television production administration and marketing administration in our country. At the same time, the teachers from this department have engaged in many research projects on film and television culture administration and the issues of film and television production, and published books, articles and teaching materials on film management, which left a big impact in China. Many films planned, produced, administrated by the teachers from this department won the award of Jinji and Huabiao for many times.

The Department of Management offers four learning levels, namely graduate, undergraduate, undergraduate program for students with already two year occupational training and senior occupational education course. In the past ten years or so, the department has educated more than one thousand talents as film and television producers or administrators and contributed a lot to the development of film and television culture.

The department now has four staff faculties, 18 full time teachers, including 1 professor, 10 associate professors and 4 lecturers. Meanwhile, the department also invites many famous film and television administrators and producers to be its visiting professors or part time professors.Four main courses are offered: Film and Television Production, Film and Television Marketing Administration, Cultural Market Administration and Public Service Administration. The professional basics and professional courses include Applied Mathematics in Economic Management, Film and Television Production, Information System, Professional English, Film Economics, Film and Television Financial Administration, Statistics of Film and Television Production and Releasing, Management Science, Law of Film and Television Economy, Science of Film and Television Audience, Film and Television Human Resources Administration, Administration Science of Film and Television organization, Film and Television Communication, Public Relation of Film and Television, Law of Film and Television Copyright, Science of Film and Television Investment, Medium Operation and Management, Film and Television Marketing Administration. Most of the graduates from this department have directly taken part in the production and making of the film and television and involved in the production administration and releasing work of some influential films and televisions, which caused a great deal stir in the society and professional recognition.

The Higher Vocational College

The Higher Vocational College of Beijing Film Academy，projected in November, 2002, was officially set up in August, 2003. It is a subdivision of teaching with 785 students, distributed into 20 classes of various specialties, including acting, fine art, sound-recording, management and animation. Being student-oriented, the college firmly takes practical training as its guidelines and education, management and students' service as its center of concerns. To meet the need of the age, the faculty has been trying for new thoughts and practical means in teaching so as to improve students' all-around qualifications and operational skills. It keeps its focus and efforts on basic problems at very primary levels. Through a lot of delicate and distinctive endeavors, the students' humane quality, professional capability and morality have been enhanced to different new levels and they are playing quite a positive role in the cultural construction on campus.

International School

Developed from its predecessor "the International Training Center" that was founded in 1988, the International School of the Beijing Film Academy is responsible for the teaching and administration of overseas students.

Since its first enrollment of overseas students in the 1950s, the Beijing Film Academy has made enormous progress in the education of overseas students. The International School has established close links with a great number of counterparts from other countries and China's HK, Taiwan and Macau. The capacity of overseas student enrollment has been increasing each year. The overseas students come mainly from the following 40 countries and regions: Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, U.K., Australia, Canada, U.S., Sri Lanka, Benin, and so on.

The Chinese language courses offered by the International School include five levels: beginner, beginner-intermediate, intermediate, intermediate-advanced and advanced levels.

Overseas students can apply to study film courses with governmental scholarships or self expenses. These courses are at MA level, BA level, junior training level or senior training level.

Overseas postgraduates are managed by the International School and the postgraduate department of the academy; overseas BA students and training students are managed by both the International School and the various departments.

The highly experienced staff members and advanced teaching facilities have laid a strong and solid foundation for the education of overseas students.

Graduates of the International School are playing major roles in the film and TV industries of their respective countries and regions.

The International School provides convenient learning environment and living conditions. The overseas student dormitory building on campus has 8,000 square meters with 6 floors. There are single rooms and double rooms, both having private bathrooms and shower facilities. Each room has a fridge, air conditioner, dial-through telephone and other amenities. Inside the building there are public kitchens and laundries, classrooms, conference rooms, multi-functional halls and a restaurant.

The excellent administration and services provided by the International School have created for the overseas students a heart-warming and comfortable studying and living environment.

Owing to the excellence in our teaching, administration and services , the Beijing Film Academy won the top award in 2002 in the Appraisal of Overseas Students Education and Administration of Higher Educational Institutions of the Beijing Municipality.

School of Continue Education

The adult education in Beijing Film Academy was started in 1987 and the first batch students were taken in 1988. The predecessor of Continue Education School was the Night School of Beijing Film Academy and was renamed as the School of Continue Education on Nov. 20, 2002. The School successively offered the following courses: Scriptwriting, Directing, Artistic Design, Writing and Directing, Sound Recording, Film Shooting, Picture Shooting, Film and Television Advertisement, Cartoon, Film and Television making, Film and Television Makeup, Film and Television Performing, TV. Hosts, Film and Television Modeling and etc. After running the program of senior occupational education for the students graduated from senior high schools, it added two more programs, the undergraduate and collegiate undergraduate education. The study form of the students has been also expanded from originally part time studies to full time and part time two kinds.

From 1994 on, the adult education of the academy has been developed into other provincial territories and municipalities. Up till now, it has set up many correspondence education stations, which have students successively from Hebei, henna, Hunan, Anhui, Guangxi, Sichuan, Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang and Beijing.

The school has been approved by Ministry of Education and Beijing Municipality Education Committee to be qualified to run art correspondence education. The main specialties provided by the correspondence education include Film and Television Literature and Picture Photographing. In 2002, our academy established Cartoon Specialty training centre for the first time in Shanghai outside the main campus. The academy has published more than forty books and various teaching materials.

The adult education and continue education programs of the academy have been conducted with teaching activities of different levels and forms, so as to provide multi-type study platforms for future examinees who love the profession of film and television production, such as remedial courses before examination, specialty certificate courses (such as intermediate photographer certificate course), short-term on-the-job training courses (such as post film and television production course), occupational qualifications training course (such as art image designing level examination training course), one year long specialty extension courses, technological academy education, including senior occupational education for the students graduated from senior high school, undergraduate course education, technological academy to undergraduate course education and so on. In 2004, our academy was also given the special approval for running the training center of image design. No matter what study form it takes, during the course of education, the school strictly follows the rules and principles and the direction of teaching set by Beijing Municipality Education Committee and Beijing Film Academy and the registered status of the students are strictly taken care of. The senior teachers of our academy are invited to teach the courses inconsideration of the characteristics of adults.

Various special lectures are offered periodically in line with the need of education of different specialties.

The adult students in the college mainly attend a day school, but enjoy the same treatment as every full time student, such as teaching conditions, teaching equipment, information resources, books borrowing and reading, film viewing, entertainment and physical exercise and so on.

The College of Continue Education keeps close ties and cooperation with teaching units in and outside the academy, the field of communications and film and television production groups. The College of Continue Education welcomes all Chinese and foreign students who love the specialties of film, television, advertising and media to come and join us.

Division of Graduate Students

Division of Graduate Students is a department responsible for enrollment and course arrangement for graduate students. Since master degree education started in 1984, Beijing Film Academy has had tremendous achievements. The number of enrolled graduate students is getting more and more with each year and the scale of graduate studies is getting larger and larger. There are full-time graduates as well as part-time graduate. The academy also offers graduate studies to students with similar educational backgrounds. Graduate enrollment is open to students all over the country, including students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and open also to foreign students.

Presently, the academy offers thirty graduate programs in three academic fields: Film Studies; Studies on Fine Art and Broadcast and Television Art Studies.

In 2003, a doctorial program of film studies is added with various research directions, which are offered by departments of the academy, branch colleges, research institutes and the basic education division.

The academy has a teaching body made of outstanding graduate student directors in the domestic domain of film studies. Graduate directors are chosen through a strict administration system of selection, consideration and approval, whose level of knowledge and teaching quality have been kept at the top level. Most of the graduate directors have rich practical experiences in film and television art creation, teaching experiences, and outstanding scientific research achievements. Many of them have important essays on film criticism published in special journals of film and television, which have produced a big impact in the circle of film and television both at home and abroad. Some professors are invited as part-time professors, guest professor and doctor candidates directors by internal or external film and television academies and universities.

The graduate students who have graduated from the academy have been playing an important role in the enterprises of culture, education, film and television, universities, colleges and other circles. Many of them have become backbones in art creation, theory studies and teaching professions. Some graduates took part in many films and television productions of unique styles and wide popularities, including Childhood in Ruijin, Beauty, Blood-colored Morning, Cloud and Rain of Wushan Mountain, the Policeman Cui Daqing, the Orange is Ripe, Looking for the Gun, Don't Speak to a Stranger and True Quality of Police, which have caused a big stir both at home and abroad in the field of film and television. Many students have published papers in internal or external scientific journals, and some have published academic books and teaching materials, which won great influence and reputation in the domain of film and television. The graduated students enrolled from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan areas, as well as from Foreign countries have contributed much actively to cultural exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan areas, as well as with many countries in the world, which play an active role in accelerating the cause of Chinese film and television to march to the world.

Division of Basic Education

Division of Basic Education is a combination of Social Science Teaching, Physical Education Teaching and Foreign Language Teaching. It is mainly responsible for the teaching of common basic courses in the whole institute. The main task is to strengthen the elementary social science knowledge for the training of Chinese film art professionals. There are now twenty-four teachers in this division, among whom there is one professor, six associate professors. One is with doctor's degree and eight with master's degree.

Beijing Film Academy: Admissions

Student Admission

The admission rate at Beijing Film Academy is one of the lowest in the country, as well as globally. Admission is extremely competitive. Over 100,000 students apply annually to participate in entrance exams. Only 400-500 students are accepted. The majority of the admissions process takes place in February and March. The entrance examinations include subject tests as well as the National Humanities Examination. Prospective acting majors usually have the most intense competition. International students looking to study at Beijing Film Academy may apply through the International Training Center.

Overseas Student Admission

Beijing Film Academy, as the largest film academy in Asia, was founded in the 1950s, which has enjoyed high prestige in the circle of film education. It features a strong faculty, comprehensive disciplines, orderly teaching procedures, which provide BFA with a basis of cultivating talents in film production, management, and theory. A large number of excellent film professionals have recently won international acclaims in major international film festivals. At the backdrop of film internationalization and ethnic diversification, Beijing Film Academy, as a solely established institution of higher learning, has attracted a large batch of overseas students from over 50 countries and regions, who devote themselves to film industry. The development of overseas student education promotes the cultural communication between our country and other country. BFA has established good relation with art institutes in America, Russia, France, German, Italy, Korea, and Japan.

Majors oriented toward overseas students

BFA offers a comprehensive set of departments,schools and research institutes, such as culture, film directing, cinematography, film recording, drawing, management, film shooting, film technology, and performing school, film shooting school, animation and international exchange school, film technology research institute, and film research institute. All the above mentioned majors provide bachelor, master programs, and also short term training programs.

Besides, BFA also has set up PH.D programs. As to course design, 213 courses are oriented toward undergraduates, 280 toward postgraduates. Chinese languages courses are offered in international school, which fall into three categories, primary, intermediated and advanced categories. Students can choose the category suitable for their own Chinese level. Mean well, BFA give overseas students an opportunity to study film languages in Chinese, which lays a good basis for them to continue their film majors.

Beijing Film Academy: Campus

The Beijing Film Academy campus is situated in the Haidian District, where the majority of universities in Beijing are located.

Beijing Film Academy: Housing

Students at Beijing Film Academy live in single or double rooms.

Beijing Film Academy: Facilities

One of Beijing Film Academy's strengths is its vast amount of facilities and state-of-the-art equipment. Facilities and research centers present at the BFA include:

Library
Youth Film Studio
Film and Television Experimental Center
Television Program Production Center
Digital Art and Technology Research Center
Theoretical Studies Center
Editorial Board of the BFA Journal
Audiovisual Publications Publishing House

Library

The history of the academy's library can be traced back to the Books and Reference Library, which was established in 1950, of Performing Art Research Institute of Central Film Administration. In 1952, Beijing Film School was established. With the nationwide re-construction and adjustment of institutes and departments, the books and library resources belonged the Film and Music Department of the former Nanjing Jinling University and former Sunan Social Education Institute were transferred to the Reference Library of Beijing Film School. In 1956, Beijing Film Academy was established and its Reference Library was put under the Administration of the Office of Educational Affairs of the academy. In 1960, the Reference Library was re-named as the Library. During Cultural Revolution, the library went through all the moving along with the school and its loss was severe. When Beijing Film Academy was restored in 1978, the library was rebuilt, too. In 1983, the library was reconstructed. In 1986, it was moved to the actual residence along with the academy. In 1988, the moving of the library was totally completed. Here onwards, the library began to enter a new stage of development.

The total area of the library is more than 3,000 square meters, among it, the stack room takes up 2,057 square meters, the area of the reading rooms and offices 1,000 square meters. The seats in the reading rooms are more than 120.

The main part of the library at the eastern part of the academy is a library unique in film and television book storage, in which the total number of the collected books is more than 200,000. The yearly ordered Chinese newspapers and periodicals make more than 500 kinds and the yearly ordered foreign periodicals nearly 90. The book ordering gives priority to art and social science and the collected books mainly relate to movie, television art, technology and interfacing disciplines. This library has collected more than 200 kinds of early film periodicals published in the twenties and thirties in last century; the collected books, literature, periodicals and dada published after the establishment of the People's Republic of China are unabridged; and the collected scripts of the films produced in the past years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China are more than 10,000 volumes and sets. All of the collections form the characteristics of this library. At present, the establishment of electronic resources in this library is developing very fast and more than 5,000 electronic reading materials and CD have been bought in recent years.

The library has 19 operating personnel, among whom two persons are with senior rank professional titles, two have associate-senior rank, ten have middle rank professional title, and five with junior rank professional title. The average proportion of senior-rank and associate senior-rank professionals is ahead of libraries of all other art universities and colleges in the whole country.

The organizations of the library: Curator Office, Procurement Division, Circulation Division, Periodical Division and Information Division.

The service sectors open to the readers include the book-borrowing office which is used for the operation of borrowing and returning books and other literature, checking return information and providing direction; reading rooms include the room for foreign, Hong Kong and Taiwan books; Film and Television Data Reading Room; Chinese Periodical Reading Room; Fine Art and Photograph Data Reading Room, and the Electronic Reading Room and Reference Room. These sectors are opened to provide book borrowing, reading, information reference, consultation and other services. The books in the Open-shelf Reading Room can be only read, not to be borrowed.

This library has Reader Service Section in the eastern hall on the second floor, in which the reader can copy and print literature and manuscript. This library is administrated with computers and so are the professional work in all divisions and all kinds of reader services.

Youth Film Studio

Youth Film Studio was established in 1979 under Beijing Film Academy. It is one of the fiction film studios authorized by the state, and also the base for the teachers and students of the academy to practice their film and television art creations. Whereas, Youth Film Studio has formed an unique academic style compared with other film studios across the nation. The youth Film studio, with hundreds of excellent academic teachers to be the backup force, take full advantage of the staff of high capabilities. It has produced excellent films and still remains in very promising position with great potential for further development.

The films produced by Youth Film Studio have won domestic and international film and television awards many times. Since the studio was established, there have been more than 70 films that have won awards in various categories, of which the mosy influencial are: Cherry; Neighbors; Sacrificeof the Youth; the Rustling Xiang Girls; In the Birth Year; the Rock-and-roll Youth; Good Morning, Beijing; Qiuju's Going to Court; the Meridian of War; the Sot Zhang San; the Red Cherry; Changing Mask; the Black Courser; Don't Call On Me After Divorce; the Flying Leopard; the Underground To Spring; and the Past in Taiwan. Most famous directors such as Xie Fei, Zheng Dongtian, Zhang Nuanxin, Wu Tianming, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Feng Xiaoning have produced their film in Youth Film Studio, which actively reflect the life of reality. With youth as the subject materials, these films elaborate and advocate a kind of upward spirit, which bear the very signature of the youth studio. That is creativity, exploitive nature and popularity.

In recent years, Youth Film Studio has been under constant efforts to produce mainstream films with themes that could reflect upward and positive life attitudes. The film Flying Leopard shot in 1999 won the Huabiao award in the category of best Chinese film, Five Ones Project Award offered by Publicity Department of CCCPC and Ten Ones Project Award from Beijing Municipality.

The film Nuoma's Seventeen, The Past in Taiwan. Along with the development of the cultural enterprise, Youth Film Studio continues its exploitation and innovation. After the effective adjustment of its structure and facility resources, the Youth Film Studio has the capability for simultaneous productions of fiction film, documentary film, animation, and television drama. To promote the development of Chinese films and strive for a thriving and prosperous film industry, the youth studio is doing its best to produce more excellent works.

Film and Television Experimental Center

Film and Television Experimental Center is an important division of Beijing Film Academy in film teaching practice and experiment. It has 12 departments: Teaching Adjusting, Video Laboratory, Videotape Information Laboratory, Photography Laboratory, Computer Network Teaching Classroom, Language Laboratory, large medium and small Film Halls, small theatre, Storeroom for Dress and Property, Storeroom for films, photographic materials and equipment, videotape and lighting staff, and the central office. The center is open to service for all the students, undergraduates, junior college students, students of senior occupational education, of extension courses, further education courses and graduate students, as well as foreign students. With many years of teaching practices, the center has formed a set of comparatively complete controlling methods and regulations.

The center practices a serious, strict and centralized administration method which managed to turn most facilities into teaching practice. In 2000, it began to serve students on Saturday, Sunday and in the evenings, which has won praise many times by superior leaders.

Beijing Film Academy: Alumni

For over 40 years, graduates of Beijing Film Academy have won national and international acclaim for their contributions to film and television. Their notable alumni include directors, producers, screenwriters, as well as actors and actresses.

Beijing Film Academy's older famous graduates mostly consist of fourth-generation, fifth-generation, and sixth-generation directors. The most well-known fourth-generation directors include Wu Tianming, Wu Yigong, Teng Wenji, and Zhang Nuanxin. The three best-known fifth-generation directors all graduated from Beijing Film Academy (Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, and Zhang Yimou). Other famous Chinese filmmakers include Xie Tian, Chen Qiang, Yu Yang, Wu Yigong, Huang Shuqin, Wu Tianming, Xie Fei, Hu Mei, Zheng Dongtian, Ni Zhen, Ding Yinmeng, Li Qiankuan, Cao Cuifen, Huang Jianxin, and Wei Lian. Finally, notable sixth-generation directors include Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, and Zhang Yuan.

The majority of famous recent graduates are actors and actresses, as well as a few directors. Modern-day Chinese-American filmmaker Dayyan Eng, who has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, transferred to Beijing Film Academy. Xu Jinglei, a well-known actress and director, graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1997. The Performance Institute's class of 2000 included three students who later became extremely popular actors: Zhao Wei, Huang Xiaoming, and Chen Kun. Other graduates include famous actresses Liu Yifei, Dai Xue'Er (戴雪儿), Jiang Wenli, and Jiang Qinqin.