London Film School honours Ken Loach and Rebecca O’Brien at the 2012 Annual Show
Announces 2013 launch of MA Independent Film Business with University of Exeter
Celebrates year of graduate achievement and exciting development initiatives
Director Ken Loach and producer Rebecca O’Brien will be named Honorary Associates of The London Film School at the School's annual graduation ceremony on Tuesday 11th December. LFS Chairman and Associate Mike Leigh and Director Ben Gibson will present the awards at he Barbican Centre.
Loach and O’Brien will then award Associateships to ninety-six 2012 graduates of the School's MA Filmmaking, MA Screenwriting and MA Film Curating programmes. Forty-nine graduation films will be shown in full or as extracts during the day.
Mike Leigh commented: "Ken and Rebecca's work is especially important for a school which values cinema that addresses the real world. They have made immense contributions to UK and international filmmaking. We welcome them to the worldwide community of LFS Associates. "
Rebecca O’Brien said: "We're really honoured to be recognised by the School - especially as they've chosen to put Ken and I on the billing together. Making films is always teamwork and this associateship is a major endorsement of that. Thank you, LFS."
Ken Loach said, “It's very pleasant to be asked to join a college without having to sit an exam. I look forward to meeting the students -- maybe I can borrow an idea or two. Good luck to the school”.
Leigh and Gibson will also announce the launch of a new MA programme in Independent Film Business, in partnership with University of Exeter, following the the signing of a five year partnership agreement and the launch of a joint doctoral programme at the beginning of the year.
The first of its kind in the UK, the MA Independent Film Business (MAIFB) is a unique combination of the practical and the academic. It is designed to develop the next generation of future producers and executives, bringing excellence and innovation into non-major studio filmmaking in the UK and around the world.
The Masters is offered as a one-year programme starting September 2013 and will be taught at split locations at the University of Exeter and the London Film School, bringing together the best teaching and resources from both institutions.
MAIFB examines the business and consumer context of film production and practice in the UK, the US and internationally. It will offer practical production work and top-level mentoring from established professionals and will include a group research expedition to a major European Film Festival. Producer Scott Meek will chair an advisory board to support the MAIFB and also other producing strands within LFS.
“Drawing on this exceptional range of specialist expertise and resources, the MA in Independent Film Business equips students with the tools, skills and knowledge to become a versatile, innovative and, above all, successful 21st century film professional. These days it’s no longer relevant to train in production alone. You need to be – or at any rate to understand being – a distributor and a sales agent as well. Otherwise, you’re not an independent producer: you’re a dependent one,” said Ben Gibson, Director.
LFS is also celebrating a year of graduate successes. In the past year, LFS films have played at over 100 festivals, including Palm Springs, Clermont-Ferrand, London Film Festival, San Sebastian and Encounters, winning 25 major prizes and a BAFTA nomination for Arash Ashtiani’s Only Sound Remains. LFS graduates were selected for numerous new talent initiatives, including the Cannes Residence, Film London Microwave Scheme and Film 4.0. Henry Darke was selected as a Screen Star of Tomorrow. Graduates were involved in key roles in a wide range of theatrical releases and TV programmes, including directors Jules Bishop (Borrowed Time), Marius Holst (King of Devils Island), Tongpong Chantarangkul (I Carried You Home) , Oliver Hermanus (Beauty), Ann Hui (A Simple Life), Jannicke Systad Jacobsen (Turn Me On, Goddammit, winner best Screenplay at Tribeca), Ryan Andrews (Elfie Hopkins); cinematographers Ivan Strasburgh (Treme), Erik Wilson (Now is Good), Geoffrey Simpson (The Sessions), Philipp Blaubach (Grand Street); editors Nic Gaster (Hyde Park on Hudson), Robert Leighton (Now You See Me), Mark Goldblatt (Percy Jackson); Producers Iain Smith (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Olivier Kaempfer (Borrowed Time).
The School also announced that it would launch a number of development initiatives in 2013. During the year LFS will: recruit new members into its fundraising and events body The London Film Society; begin an international campaign amongst alumni and supporters aimed at raising funds for student scholarships; establish an 'annual fund' to support course enhancements and new technology; and launch its major capital campaign for the re-housing of the school.
Further info Kate Hughes 07788 432 852 k.hughes@lfs.org.uk
Notes to Editors:The London Film School, founded in 1956, is one of the world's longest established graduate schools of filmmaking. It is constituted as an international conservatoire with 70% of its MA Filmmaking students coming from outside the UK. The School produces 160 films a year including work for the five teaching exercises on the MA Filmmaking. The School also offers MA degrees in Screenwriting and Continuous Professional Development courses as LFS Workshops. LFS graduates (Associates) are established in film and television production in more than eighty countries. Associates include world-renowned filmmakers covering all kinds of cinema - names like Mike Leigh, Michael Mann, Tak Fujimoto, Roger Pratt, Ueli Steiger, Iain Smith, Danny Huston, Duncan Jones, Franc Roddam, Ann Hui and Bill Douglas.
LFS is one of three Creative Skillset Film Academies, postgraduate institutions approved by the UK film industry as centres of excellence.
The School has a tradition of honouring figures who have made significant contributions to the film industry, going back to 1956 when its previous incarnation The London School of Film Technique was founded. Such luminaries as Akira Kurasawa, Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, John Huston, Joseph Losey and Luchino Visconti were Honorary Associates of the school. Recent recipients include directors William Friedkin, Stephen Frears, Lynne Ramsay, Pawel Pawlikowski, Mike Figgis, Abbas Kiarostami, Jack Gold, Richard Lester and Amma Asante, producers Jeremy Thomas and Tessa Ross, actors Samantha Morton, Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson and Rita Tushingham and film critic Philip French.
