Getting one’s education abroad is an option still considered by many Russian students, despite the recent years’ political and economic troubles. For one, Education Abroad International Exhibition is held in Yekaterinburg for the 13th time this year. New York Film Academy representatives attended the event for the first time this year; their plan is to keep working with the local organizations in the future and coordinate a number of workshops throughout the year.



Irina Tokmantseva of Education Abroad Yekaterinburg says the younger locals are quite interested in pursuing a career in arts. The Academy’s stand proved very popular with visitors to the exhibition.

‘Both Russian students and their parents came to see the Academy’s stand during the exhibition. They wanted to learn more about the studying options, the tuition costs, and the future job opportunities,’ she said.

In addition to taking part in the exhibition, the Academy’s admission board representatives also made a few presentations in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, with details on their curriculums and the options available to the Academy graduates.

‘The goal was to introduce the people of Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk to New York Film Academy. This has been a rather successful visit. We coordinated a Doors Open Day in Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, where our alumni presented their stories. We also went to schools, including an art school in Chelyabinsk and Gymnasium 5 in Yekaterinburg,’ says member of the Academy’s admission board Ekaterina Terekhovich.

Possible joint projects with Sverdlovsk Film Studio were also talked about. The two organizations’ representatives agreed to coordinate a series of workshops in Yekaterinburg.

‘We offered a guided tour of the film studio for the New York Film Academy representatives and talked about our cooperation options. The Academy offers plenty of workshops and seminars in this country, so they are interested in entering Yekaterinburg market as well. We talked over the preliminaries during our meeting and will now move on to the more specific details,’ says Sverdlovsk Film Studio Director Elena Flyagina.

Flyagina says the first workshop will take place in late May, the second one in the fall. The spring workshop is an 2.5-day intensive training course in production and script writing.



‘The event is targeted at people over eighteen who are interested in the field. The timing will be suitable for anyone willing to come, no matter what hours they work. The exact price hasn’t been decided upon as of yet, but a similar workshop in Moscow cost $400. We plan for the academy faculty member Paul Brown, one of the people behind The X-Files, Quantum Leap, and Camp Rock, to conduct the event. Lydia Cedrone, head of the Academy’s Los Angeles film production division, is also expected to contribute,’ Terekhovich says.

Based on the Academy’s Russian students’ current choices, script-writing workshops are expected to prove popular in Russia, the event coordinators believe.

‘Our Russian students mainly head for directing and acting. Several Russian students are currently focusing on the acting and musical segments at our New York branch. In Los Angeles, quite a few Russians are now in the Film Making Department, where all film production aspects are studied in all the detail. Most of Russian applicants choose to do both a BA and a MA program,’ Terekhovich says.

The New York Film Academy representatives point out that increasingly more people are considering a career in the arts and want to learn about the Hollywood film-making standards, which is why the Academy expects the number of their Russian applicants to soar this year.