Contact Information

Main Program Contact:
Alexandria Katis
Director, International Programs
katis@filmschool.cz

Program Information

Degree Categories:
Certificate, Diploma, BA/BS/BFA

Program Categories:
Cartooning, Character Animation, Experimental Animation, Computer Animation/Digital Art, Fine Art, Workshops

Number of Students:
60

Number of Foreign Students:
4

Year Program First Started:
1992

Fees / Tuition Information:
2-Year Certificate Program for Foreign students: 2000 Euro/year (includes all materials). 2-Week Animation Workshop: 500 Euro (includes all materials, shared accommodation, lunch and cultural excursions).

Entrance Requirements:
Students eligible for 2-year Diploma studies at Film School Zlin must be secondary school graduates who have successfully passed their respective school graduation requirements or exams (Czech equivalent of A-levels). The equivalent of a U.S. High School Diploma is sufficient.

Program Philosophy:
Filmova Skola Zlin (Film School Zlin) was founded in 1992 by Czech film director Elmar Klos. Together with longtime collaborator Jan Kadar, Klos directed The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1965. Set in Slovakia during World War II, the film tells the story of an Aryan Controller who works in a button shop owned by an elderly, Jewish widow.

Klos chose to situate Zlin Film School within the grounds of the historic Ateliery Bonton Zlin where he started his own career as a script editor in the 1930s. These film studios, high up on a hill in Zlin's Kudlov neighborhood, were originally constructed to produce advertisements for Tomas Bat'a's thriving shoe business but soon evolved into a center for production of animation and childrens' films. Over the past 70 years, more than 2000 films have been made in the Zlin Studios. Today, students get the rare chance to study and work in the very same studios where early Czech animators Hermina Tyrlova and Karel Zeman created such classics as Ferda Mravenec (Ferda the Ant), Vzpoura hracek (Revolt of the Toys), Vanoci Sen (The Christmas Dream) and Cesta do praveku (Journey to Prehistory).

Last Edited: Monday April 23, 2007