Competition is part of life for film students at Montreal’s Concordia University. Those in film production know they will have to fight to get their films made – just like in the real world, says Peter Rist, associate professor of film studies.

‘I think that competition remains with students once they [leave]. There’s this competition for scripts, it helps them when they leave school. They get used to competition here; they get used to what it’s like in the real world,’ says Rist.

The school has three program areas: film animation, film studies and film production. Demand is strongest for places in film production: each year roughly 500 apply for the 65 places.

The 65 students selected are each guaranteed to make two films in their first year. After that though only about half the students will get to make a film each year.

The decision as to which films get made is handled by way of a script committee, ‘and it’s competitive.’ Until five years ago, the first-year class numbered 90, of which only 50 were allowed to continue into second year.

Not all students hang in there until the final year of the three-year bfa – those among the usually 50% not accepted into the fourth-year specialization have the option of finishing two years and still graduating with a degree in film production. Those who stay for the third year, knowing they don’t have a place in the fourth, do so because ‘they like it so much [and] they might feel they want to make another film,’ says Rist.

Films made in third year tend to be ‘longer and they might use professional actors.’ Even in third year, the 30 students remaining will face one in two or one in three odds of getting their film made. And in fourth year, ‘it’s not a foregone conclusion that they’ll all get to make a film.’

But there’s more to the school’s approach than competitiveness: for one thing, an emphasis on artistic sensibility.

‘We’re located in the fine arts faculty, we have a fine arts orientation. When we accept students we accept on the basis of creative potential. We want to accept students who we think could be creative filmmakers. The notion of creativity can be very flexible. We have juries [to choose students]. The focus is on creative filmmaking, whatever that is, certainly not on commercial filmmaking. Even though we train students to use equipment we’re not a trade school. We’re more of an art school, although our students invariably get employed in the industry,’ Rist explains.

This eventual employment is eased by the fact that most faculty are practising filmmakers and students leave with a network of contacts in the Quebec industry, he says.

Even outsiders find Concordia to be a great start. Gary Burns, Calgary-based director of waydowntown, is a case in point.

‘The program was super for me,’ he says. ‘The single most valuable thing about Concordia was coming out with a film in my hand, something you can use to get money [in Burns’ case the film was Happy Valley, a 20-minute comedy made with professional actors]. I had done my research and Concordia seemed to be the best program because you made something right away – two weeks into the program you started to film.’ *

-www.concordia.ca