What are the best film schools in the world?

What are the best film schools in the world?  Not only good schools that help you with your craft, but schools that tend to put you in touch with the people you want to have recognize your craft (and theoretically give you professional opportunities)

• The obvious ones would be AFI, UCLA, NYU, etc. I'm looking for other schools, particularly non-US based schools.

• Answer:

  You missed USC; hands down best film school anywhere.  (yep, I got an MFA in film from there).  I should be a tad miffed; but, whatever. I'll get over my miffed-ness, and provide you with a few non -Hollywood options.  The US schools are pretty well-known - AFI, USC, UCLA, NYU (Tisch), Emerson, CalArts, Columbia, Wesleyan, RISD, UNC, UT-Austin - all excellent; depends what you want to do, where you want to do it, and who, maybe, you want to do it with. (!!)  There's terrific faculty everywhere; it used to be that if you wanted to be in Hollywood studio movies you'd be at the California schools, and at NYU if you wanted to do indie film.  Now it's a little different, although I'd argue that it's still important to be able to develop a network in LA.   But, many schools have LA campuses - and importantly - supportive alumnae networks in LA; and in LA, there's always a flavor-of-the-month, anyway, so having gone to film school in Cuba could be a golden ticket to a fantastic career in Hollywood, if the wind is blowing the right way the day you land at LAX. The main thing to consider is:  where and what kind of "professional opportunities" do you think you'd like to pursue?  Or do you want an adventure, and then go from there?  Traditionally, you had to come to Hollywood, at least if you were in the US, if you wanted to be "in the movies" at one point or another in the course of the development of your career.  Now, there's a great deal more flexibility.  So, it depends on what you think you want to do: write, direct, animate, produce, costume design, dp - it's worthwhile exploring each school's particular offerings and unique talents. So here's a starter list, in no particular order. In India, start with: film and television institute of india (pune) http://www.ftiindia.org SRFTI  http://srfti.gov.in  (kolkota) Whistling Woods  http://www.whistlingwoods.net  (mumbai) In China: Beijing Film Academy http://www.bfa.edu.cn/eng/EIndex.htm Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts http://www.hkapa.edu/ In Brazil: USP University of Sao Paolo http://www.eca.usp.br In Czech Republic: FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of the Performing Arts, Prague) http://www.famu.cz/eng In Cuba: Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television, San Antonio de los Banos http://www.eictv.org/ In the UK: NFTS (National Film and Television School) beaconsfield (!!) In France: La Femis (Paris) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Femis In Poland: Lodz (Polish National Film, Television and Theater School) (rumored 30% discount for those of Polish descent not with Polish citizenship) http://www.filmschool.lodz.pl/pages/view/591-history In Jordan: RSICA (Red Sea Institute of the Cinematic Arts) http://www.rsica.edu.jo/home/index.html In South Africa: Pretoria Technikon University of CapeTown even better, here's a list from SA Film: http://www.safilm.org.za/film/schools.html Australia: AFTRS  Australian Film, Television and Radio School http://www.aftrs.edu.au/ VCA Victorian College of the Arts  http://www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/ftv AND LOOK!!! There are excellent film schools in Canada, Scandanavia, all over the world, almost.  Choose your destination... http://www.filmschool.org/international/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_schools