Stories from our past students

Alumni Stories

Central Film School is proud of the diversity in its study body. We have welcomed students from 52 countries over the past 10 years and this multiculturalism has been a defining characteristic of the school, as well as a driving force in its development.

Students come to study with us for many different reasons and periods of time. Programmes run for anything from one month to three years. Some students choose to study with us because they have always been a fan of film and would like practice it as a hobby. Others have had a specific idea for a film for many years and want to turn it into a reality. We have Directors, Screenwriters, Editors and Focus-pullers, and we have some students who are not yet sure what role they want on the film set. What connects all these disparate objectives and motivations – a real passion for film and a desire to tell a story.

“Being able to study and work with a small group of aspiring filmmakers, growing together as we learned more about the craft and which role we suited best really inspired me. Being able to write and direct my short Viking film as my graduation project is one of the biggest changing moments of my life as a filmmaker, giving me the confidence to take on bigger projects, working with many of the same people I spent the two year course with. Before coming to Central Film School, I thought I would have best suited being a cinematographer. Through the course of the programme, I started to believe that I have the potential to be a director. The course gave me the opportunity to try myself as a writer/director, and gave me the resources to complete a challenging project with the collaboration of my talented classmates.”

Tariq Keblaoui

I have a BA in visual communication, and have worked on TV commercials and online film as an advertising art director, but I’ve always wanted to study filmmaking. I took a career break from an ad agency and decided to take the One-Month Practical Filmmaking course at Central Film School; I absolutely loved my experience. The course was very intense and practical which was exactly what I wanted, you learnt something new every day and got a flavour of all the different roles in the film industry. The best thing is you got to make one film by the end of the course, with the help of your classmates and the school. I’m now friends with some lovely people from the school, I’ve just worked on another online video through the connection I got from Central Film School.”

Micky Chan

It was the only course that I found that was purely concentrating on Screenwriting and was only 2 years. Perfect for someone like me who took many years to realise what they really wanted to do and now are impatient to start their career. What inspires me most is the fact that it’s very practical and that we build a nice portfolio throughout the course. We have written several short film scripts of different lengths, a TV pilot episode, a narrative document for a game, and an original feature film script as well. The tutors here have taught me so much and have opened my eyes and inspired me in so many ways. They are all very helpful and genuinely care about you.”

Annette Borg

“I love the fact that it’s a small school, I’m a person that learns practically and was very new to filmmaking when I joined Central Film School so when I discovered that it’s not a massive school and it offered great programmes in filmmaking, I was sold. I loved the programme as it just pushed me out there into the film world. It’s like “here’s a camera, here are some lights, go make a short.” It was very hands-on and it offered an awesome 16mm course with amazing tutors.”

Mohamed Zaki

“Central Film school offers a well rounded, comprehensive study of all the various roles in Filmmaking. This allowed me to explore elements of production that I had never considered. Regardless of what people aim to do in the Film industry, it is crucial that they understand the roles of everyone who collaborates with the production, as making a film is a fundamentally cooperative process.”

Yasmin Mehboob-Khan

“Central Film School was the only university that offered Practical Filmmaking among the list of countries I was exploring. We learnt all kinds of roles, practical approaches to them and a chance to choose what role inspires you the most. Working in small groups made it personal and allowed us to concentrate on developing our skills ”

Kristiana Stepanovica

Don’t forget – CFS Filmmaking Alumni (BA & MA) can also continue to hire equipment for free, up until 12 months post graduation. Please note this is subject to availability and doesn’t include the Virtual Production screen.