London Film School (LFS) is a film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, neighbouring Soho, a hub of the UK film industry. It is the oldest film school in the UK. LFS was founded in 1956 by Gilmore Roberts as the London School of Film Technique (LSFT). Originally based on Electric Avenue in Brixton, the school moved to its current premises on Shelton Street in 1966, after a brief parenthesis in Charlotte Street, and changed its name to London Film School in 1969. From 1974 to 2000, it was known as the London International Film School (LIFS), and reverted to the name London Film School in 2001. LFS offers various degrees at postgraduate level: an MA in Filmmaking, an MA in Screenwriting, and, in partnership with the University of Exeter, an MA in International Film Business and a PhD in Film by Practice. It also offers a range of short and part-time professional development courses under the LFS Workshops banner. LFS recruits students from all over the world and is specifically constituted as an international community; around 70% of its students are from outside the United Kingdom. LFS is recognised as a World-Leading Specialist Provider by the Office for Students and in recent years it has been named one of the top international film schools by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. The school's current director is Neil Peplow and chairman is Greg Dyke. History The origin of the LFS was a short film training course taught by Gilmore Roberts at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea. After a dispute with the art school, Roberts decided to continue the course independently, so he set up the London School of Film Technique in October 1956. After struggling to find suitable premises, the first filmmaking course finally started in April 1957, based in rather modest locales above a grocer's shop in Electric Avenue, Brixton. The school was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. Inspired by the emergence of film schools in Eastern Europe after World War II, it was set up around the belief that the future of the British film industry required properly designed formal training, rather than the apprenticeship basis which was, at the time, the only access into the field. At first, the school offered a 6-months diploma course which students could take over the day or