Welcome to the School of Film
It is with great pleasure that we welcome students to the academic year 2023-24!
The School of Film of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the first University Department to offer applied studies in cinema in Greece, is now 19 years old. Having established a prominent reputation in the academic, professional, and artistic world in the country, it continues to evolve its curriculum, taking into account the continuous developments in the audiovisual field, establishing new collaborations and remaining in constant dialogue with its foreign counterparts.
In the past year, the School of Film stood out in national student competitions in terms of nominations and awards and its films have travelled internationally. Our graduates and alumni in various artistic specialties, hold positions of responsibility in contemporary audiovisual production, while some are already recognised as prominent emerging figures of Greek cinema.
These results reflect the School’s pedagogical strategy, which has been based on practice and teamwork from the very beginning. Hundreds of film exercises are carried out every year -fiction, documentary and experimental- offering students initially an overview of all artistic areas of audiovisual production and later specialisation in one of eight specialties (script, directing, production management, sound and music, set and costume design, cinematography, editing, augmented/virtual/mixed reality), or in the field of film and television theory and history.
The School’s teaching staff is comprised of artists and film scholars, whose work is widely acclaimed, and the five-year pluralist curriculum (integrated master) has recently been assessed as excellent and fully compliant with the quality standard principles of the National Authority for Higher Education. The School participates as a full member to the International Association of Film and Television Schools CILECT and is constantly developing new links to institutions and the industry, thus enhancing teaching and research and providing internship opportunities for students. In the context of our excellent relations with the film community, the School often has the pleasure and honour of welcoming distinguished filmmakers for masterclasses, while the collaboration with various international cultural organisations – most notably the Thessaloniki Film Festival – gives a unique extroversion to the curriculum.
In all these years, the School of Film of the Aristotle University has achieved a lot: it has become a nursery for new creative voices, it has strengthened the domestic artistic potential especially in areas of specialties that were lagging behind, it has given a significant boost to film research as well as the integration of women in audiovisual media and it has remained an inclusive space for free expression and experimentation, meeting and collaboration of hundreds of creative young people.
To the old and new members of the community, we wish you to continue surprising us!
Apostolos Karakasis
Professor
Head of the School of Film