Many former students keep visiting the College, often with a finished feature or documentary to show current students.
Alumnus Nicolas Neuhold, from Austria, recently visited the school and gave a presentation on comedy:
The EUROPEAN FILM COLLEGE is a truly oustanding place. In its 8 month course period it is easily as intense as a 3-year course in many other places because you work and live on the campus. You don't even have to think about cooking your own food, it's all taken care of for you - something which I did not appreciate enough until I had to return to the real world. Also you really have no place to go to as you live in the middle of nowhere, so you are not wasting any time on anything other than living and learning the seventh art.
One of the amazing possibilities at the school was to meet industry professionals who came to give lectures at the school. In my year (1998/99), we had visits from now Berlinale-director Dieter Kosslick, Danish directors Soren Kragh-Jacobsen (Mifune) and Bille August (Smilla's Sense of Snow, Pelle the Conquerer), and most importantly to me, Saul Zaentz. Then 87 years old, he is the most impressive person I ever met in the film industry. He is the only person to have three (!) Oscars for Best Film: for One Flew over the
Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient. Earlier in his career he proved to have a good sense of what the audience wants when he bought the rights to a little book that was considered unfilmable, The Lord of the Rings. He openly shared anecdotes and his wisdom with us, and made filmmaking seem like a craft that can be achieved with enthusiasm and hard work, and not just like the untouchable magical thing that we get to see in the cinema. He stayed not just for a lecture but all weekend, lived on the
campus among the students, talked openly with everyone and was a great inspiration for me.
After leaving the EFC, I did not go to a typical three or five year filmschool, but just started making my own films. I am also still in touch with the college, having been involved with arranging the annual reunions of former students and have now also returned twice to give a crash course in comedy. I had the best 8 months of my life at the EFC and can recommend it
highly to anyone starting his or her education for the film and television industry.
