The graduate impact report of the National School and the NFTS) landed on Tuesday, and director Jon Wardle takes THR through its extremely impressive figures.
Every five years, the NFTS, located in the Buckinghashire, in England – and included on The Hollywood ReporterThe 2025 list of the best international cinema schools – collects a huge amount of data demonstrating how its former students continue to better improve the film and television industry in the United Kingdom.
Big budget blockbusters Wicked And Barbie to independent successes Ball joint,, Liminant love And SantoshThe new report highlights the depth of school training, as well as the confidence placed in NFTS talents by the main producers, studios and platforms in the world. And with millions of financing books on its way, the NFTS has major plans to strengthen the extent of their teaching.
Director Jon Wardle, who has been working at the NFTS since 2012 and has been its director since 2017, has met THR For a first look exclusive to figures, covering the 28 billion pounds of sterling (38 billion dollars) spent on television and high-end production in the United Kingdom until 2024. The five dishes to remember from this report, he hopes that the NFTS are “a key driver of industry and a powerful factor to attract the interior for the United Kingdom”
But the head of the school also wants to make known his commitment to prepare the next generation of cinematographic and television creatives for a rapidly evolving industry. “Do I invite people in a precarious industry where they will not be able to build a successful life?” Ask Wardle, adding: “I want to make sure I help them build a sustainable career.”
1. The contribution to the Kingdom Cinema and television industry
Read first, some of the numbers of NFTS are completely incredible. In the cinema, 75% of British production expenses since 2020 involved at least one graduate of the NFTS, and this number increased to 89% with regard to high -end television. In the biggest American studios – including Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. – School graduates have a role to play in more than 90% of their film expenses in this country. “I was really encouraged by that,” says Wardle. “It is better that it was not in the previous five periods, despite all the challenges.”
On the set of successful success of Jon M. Chu Wicked were 22 NFTS graduates; For Star Wars‘derivative series acclaimed by criticism Andor With Diego Luna, he was 67 years old. Elsewhere, 74% of the revenues of the 20 best successes at the box office in the United Kingdom and 78% of the revenues of the 20 best independent films in the country present an NFTS graduate in a key role.
According to Wardle. “A studio director said that to me:” You have the first person who has ever come to my office and showed me what your graduates do on my productions, “he said. “There is a lot of money spent, a lot of activities, but can we really follow what these people really do? We recognize that if we want to ask the industry to support us as main donors, then you must be able to demonstrate them at the end of a year, or at the end of a five-year period, which you have done on their programs and films.” And that’s also what students want. “They want to know that they are coming to a course that could lead them to employment.”
Director Weronika Tofilksa and Jessica fired on the set of “Baby Rendeur”.
Nft
2. The seniority among the major professions continues to grow
Expected, of course, but for Wardle, always a cause of celebration. Graduates who worked as assistant artistic directors are now leading five years. Those who have started as boom operations are full full -fledged recorders. “I hope that in five years we will see that growing up,” he says. In the film sector, for example, the influence of NFTS graduates has developed in tandem with the transition from industry to large -scale and domestic investment – an area where NFTS talents are particularly concentrated, depending on the report. Their presence in key roles, including directors, producers and writers, on film and television projects with internal investment increased from 60% (2015-2019) to 67% of projects from 2020 to 2024.
The school hopes to rely on the extent of the vocation they offer thanks to a recent investment of 10 million pounds sterling ($ 13.5 million) British government department for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) and 6 million pounds sterling of $ 6 million per industry. “We are going to start new disciplines,” says Wardle. “We do not teach the costume (design) at school. We are going to start a costume service. We look in space around generative AI and visual effects and virtual production. We are developing two or three new courses in this space while we are trying to connect the points between traditional art departments and visual effects and new production methods, such as virtual production.
While the school explores the possibilities of AI, Wardle admits that they are making no effort to try to create “entirely AI films”. He comes in the wake of the tumult on the AI ​​”actress” Tilly Norwood, who, as announced that agencies seek to sign the talents generated by computer, have made the headlines attracting a generalized condemnation of the SAG-Aftra unions, and some of the most remarkable names in Hollywood. Wardle says NFT will help people in different craft roles to adopt the use of artificial intelligence if necessary. “We have also brought people and say to ourselves:” You sell. You shouldn’t do this, “he said. “But it looks like a very naive perspective, because (ia) does not disappear. The genius does not come back in the bottle. So, the essential is, how do you help people to navigate it effectively and ethically, also understand their own limits?”
3. A graduate on three NFTS comes from various horizons
Thanks to scholarships of 2 million pounds sterling per year, an annual fundraising gala and with hubs across the country, the NFTS has strengthened its diversity initiative. This year, their statistics produce a 2021/2022 OFCC report according to which only 16% of employees working in the British film and television industry come from an ethnically diversified environment, compared to 33% in the NFT. “I’m really proud of that,” said Wardle THR. “We are now offering activities across the country. We have hubs in Glasgow, Cardiff, Leeds, and we definitely see that people who engage with us in these centers, perhaps on a short course or on a part-time course, their confidence is constructed that they (believe that they) can continue and do something more substantial. ”
With the aforementioned funding of the DCMS, the NFTS campus will soon boast of accommodation for disabled students. For the moment, explains Wardle, students with disabilities must live in London or Oxford and commute. “We cannot speak of being inclusive and wanting the best people to come – no matter the history – and then say to them:” But you have to live at 45 minutes and it will be extremely expensive, “he said.
The school is also proud to provide the appropriate models with its diversified body. “There are very successful black and Asian graduates,” adds Wardle. “That you look at someone like Trix Worrell who created (Sitcom Channel 4) Desmondor Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts and Cross… We often get application forms that say: “I know (Singaporean filmmaker) Anthony Chen went to your school and I want to walk on his traces.” »»
4. Skills in transversal sector are defended
Looking towards the future, Wardle is particularly enthusiastic about giving its students the freedom to rely on various skills – especially in an increasingly competitive market such as games. “The writers’ strike has shown us that if we are counting on the film and high-end television, it is party and famine,” he begins. “So, a great thing we have done in recent years is to make sure that all our graduates in roles below the line – sound design, composition, production design – they can all face games.”
If a student is a sound designer for the film, he should also be able to make audio games, says Wardle, and the same goes for the composition. “We certainly see that,” he adds. “We do not quantify this, because there is not an equivalent of IMDB for the credits on the games. But I see that the NFTS graduates doing six months on a film, then perhaps entering a game project. It is certainly the future when we try to help people build lasting careers.”
Director Olivia Owyeung on the set of “Red Egg & Ginger”.
Nft
5. Individual stories highlight the impact of industry
As director of the NFTS, Wardle admits that he is a real scholar – or, as his wife says, a complete Nerd – with regard to his graduates and their career trajectories. He can choose the name of anyone from an end generic and immediately know that they are one of his own, and highlights some of the most personal stories leaving the 2020-2024 graduate report. Francesca Gardiner, writer on Its dark materials And a producer on Successionis now a showrunner on HBO is eagerly awaited from HBO Harry Potter series. This year’s report includes the first photo of Gardiner on the Harry Potter together. “She graduated the year I started at school,” recalls Wardle. “She was my first end -of -studies school in 2012 and now, to think that 12 years later, she is the showrunner of the biggest television program in the world, which will take place for 10 years … it’s a bit incredible.”
On the adaptation of Disney + of the novel by Jilly Cooper Rivals Only four NFTS graduates have an impressive work summary. Alexandra Brodski, director of the six and eight episodes on the production of Happy Prince, is currently heading the three opening episodes of the BBC / HBO series by Richard Gadd Half-man. The director of photography Carlos Catalan worked on Broadchurch, Dope Girls, Murdered by my boyfriend And Kill Eveand production designer Dominic Hyman on The witch,, The last kingdom And won an Emmy for an exceptional artistic direction on the HBOs The Pacific. Rivals Composer Natalie Holt has marked history as the first woman to mark live action Star Wars Project when she worked on Kenobi Obi-Wan For Disney +.
Wardle says: “You take people with a real passion and a real energy and you teach them. At the same time, Wardle clearly means that success is never linear.” One of my concerns is that (the report) sends a message to a student that it will be really easy, and it is not really “, adds Wardle.” Behind all these individual stories, there is a huge resilience.
