Institute of Cinematography

(All-Union State Institute of Cinematography), an institute that trains writers, directors, actors, cameramen, film critics and historians, film editors, set designers, and film economists for work in cinema and television.

The All-Union State Institute of Cinematography was founded in 1919 as the State School of Cinematography. It became a technicum in 1925 and was raised to the status of State Institute of Cinematography in 1930. The institute was given its present name in 1934. As of 1972, the institute had departments of production and composition (with actors’ and directors’ sections), camera work, screenwriting and film history and criticism, art (animation and set design), and economics. It also offers correspondence and graduate programs. There are 17 sub-departments, a research section, ten training laboratories, a teaching studio, a film library holding about 3,500 films, and a library of more than 200,000 volumes.

About 1,500 students were enrolled in the institute during the 1972–73 academic year, including representatives of 35 foreign countries. The faculty numbered about 200, 26 of them professors holding doctoral degrees and 130, docents with candidate’s degrees. The institute has the right to receive both doctoral and candidate dissertations for defense.

The leading masters and theoreticians of Soviet cinema have taken part in the work of the institute, including Sergei Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, A. P. Dovzhenko, M. I. Romm, L. V. Kuleshov, and B. A. Babochkin. The present faculty is made up of leading Soviet cinematographers, such as S. A. Gerasimov, A. D. Golovnia, E. L. Dzigan, A. B. Stolper, I. P. Kopalin, A. M. Zguridi, L. V. Kosmatov, B. I. Volchek, L. A. Kulidzhanov, T. F. Makarova, and S. F. Bondarchuk; artists, such as I. P. Ivanov-Vano, M. A. Bogdanov, and S. M. Kamanin; and film scholars, such as N. A. Lebedev, V. N. Zhdan, and R. N. Iurenev. Among the more outstanding graduates of the institute are the well-known directors G. N. Chukhrai, S. I. Rostotskii, T. E. Abuladze, R. D. Chkheidze, V. G. Zalakëviéius, and V. M. Shukshin and the actors R. D. Nifontova, T. P. Semina, V. V. Tikhonov, N. N. Rybnikov, and V. S. Ivashov.

The institute has trained about 5,000 specialists since it first opened. It also publishes the collection Voprosy istorii i teorii kino (Questions of Film History and Theory; since 1965) and the annual Kinematograf segodnia (Today’s Cinematographer; since 1967).