Press Release- 15/1/2014
London Film School recruiting new Director to succeed Ben Gibson
The Board of The London Film School is looking to appoint a new Director in succession to Ben Gibson, who has stood down from the post, following fourteen years at the helm.
Mike Leigh, Chair of Governors and LFS alumnus, said, “Ben Gibson has led LFS from strength to strength over his fourteen years of outstanding service, and we will be sad to see him go. With our move to the Barbican, we are entering a radical phase in the school's history, and the scope for a dynamic new Director to take us on this journey is very exciting indeed”.
Ben Gibson said, “It's been an engrossing pleasure to lead this dynamic and important institution. LFS is a wonderful place to work and learn, and the privilege of teaching and supporting talented, collaborative and clear-eyed people from all over the world counts as one of the important experiences of my life. I want to pursue some other interests after 14 years, and 2014 feels like an 'eclipse' moment where I can move on. The school has big plans in the works, but it’s a good time to have fresh eyes and ideas applied to them, and we'll manage a smooth handover this year."
With alumni in the film and television industries worldwide, The London Film School combines its status as a major international conservatoire with its role as one of the two leading British graduate film schools supported by Creative Skillset and the BFI.
In December, LFS announced its first major funding from Creative Skillset towards the development of its plans to transfer its operations from Covent Garden to a new site within the Barbican Centre in the City of London. The move is planned for 2016, when the school will also celebrate its 60th birthday.
Further details of the Director post at www.lfs.org.uk/jobs
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Pic: Ben Gibson
Contact Kate Hughes k.hughes@lfs.org.uk, Tel 07788432852
Notes to Editors:
The London Film School
Founded in 1956, LFS is one of the world's longest established graduate filmmaking schools. It is constituted as an international conservatoire with 70% of its MA Filmmaking students coming from outside the UK. The School offers a core 2-year MA Filmmaking, a 1 year MA Screenwriting, a 1 year MA International Film Business and a PhD Film by Practicewith the University of Exeter, plus around 50 Continuous Professional Development courses each year as LFS Workshops.
The school is the most active in Europe with post-graduation teaching partnerships, including The Low Budget Film Forum, Making Waves and Serial Eyes.
LFS has been selected by Creative Skillset, the UK government agency for audio-visual training, as one of three ‘Film Academies’., accredited as centre of excellence.
LFS graduates are established in film and television production in more than eighty countries and include Mike Leigh, Michael Mann, Tak Fujimoto, Roger Pratt, Ueli Steiger, Iain Smith, Duncan Jones, Horace Ove, Ho Yim, Danny Huston, Franc Roddam, Brad Anderson, Ann Hui, Marius Holst and Bill Douglas.
Ben Gibson – LFS Director 2000 – 2014.
From the late 80s to 2000, BEN GIBSON worked as a producer, and as Head of Production at the British Film Institute from '89 to '99. His credits as producer and executive producer include Terence Davies' The Long Day Closes, Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein, John Maybury's Love is the Devil, Carine Adler's Under the Skin and Jasmin Dizdar's Beautiful People, as well as 18 other low budget features and numerous shorts by UK directors including Patrick Keiller, Gurinder Chadha, Lynne Ramsay, Richard Kwietniowski and Andrew Kotting. From '81 to '87 he was a partner in distributors The Other Cinema/Metro Pictures. He has also been a theatre director, a repertory film programmer, founding Chairman of The Script Factory and a film critic and journalist.