American Film Schools in the Arab World
This month marks the closing of the first round of admissions for the brand new Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts. This new film school based in Aqaba, Jordan is a joint effort of the Jordanian Royal Film Commission and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. They are offering an MFA in Filmmaking with the hopes of graduating a mass of people with high-level media production skills in the Middle East.
The have a good-looking website and sparkling new facilities (or so the simulated pictures make it seem) and hopefully when then first students graduate in 2010, there will be a whole new batch of well-trained Arab filmmaking talent.
On a similar note, the New York Film Academy (NYFA) opened shop in Abu Dhabi last month with the help of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. Like the RSICA, NYFA-AD will accept its first group of students this coming fall. As expected with anything from Abu Dhabi these days, they’re not skimping on appearances.
