Founded in 1956. Closed in 1966 due to the Cultural Revolution. Reopened to students in 1978. Was the first and only professional film school in China. Changed location but in the 1978 era was located at Zhuxin village just outside Beijing.
During the days of the Mao regime, students of the BFA were taught not only film practice, theory and history, but also political economy, ideological theory and CCP history.
Its students graduate in 'generations', with no new students being allowed in until the current batch complete their studies. Courses were offered in a range of practical and theoretical domains. These 'generations' have also served thereby as a categorisation device for historians of Chinese cinema (and as a result for critics, etc), with the history of Chinese film thus being divided into different 'generations' although only the last three (fourth to sixth) generally consist of graduates from BFA. (See 'Generations of Chinese Cinema')
The 1978-82 cycle had 27 students in the directors' class, including 8 women. Note: at that time there were five different overall courses: directing, screenwriting, cinematography, design and acting (also sound, maybe later?). At this time, and before 1989 anyway. the procedure was that a BFA graduate from any of the 5 courses would automatically be assigned to one of the 16 film studios, which were scattered around China. After 1989, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre (as well as due to Deng Xiaoping's 'opening up' policy inciting the film industry to renovate its traditional models in favour of more self-sufficient means), the studios were far less willing to automatically hire graduate students.
Fourth Generation graduates include:
Wu Yigong (later head of Shanghai Film Studio),
Fifth Generation graduates include:
Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, He Qun, Hu Mei,
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