Marta Baidek and Guy Lubin, both international graduates of the MetFilm School in London, were involved in the production of three Academy Award nominated films – ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’; ‘Ready, Player One’; and ‘Isle of Dogs’.

“Our philosophy is to minimise the difference between study and industry”

Baidek, who is Portuguese, studied a bachelor’s in Practical Filmmaking at the London institution and went on to specialise in visual effects and animation.

She worked on both ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ and ‘Ready, Player One’, as a visual effects assistant coordinator and animation coordinator, respectively.

“It was one of my favourite experiences of my life so far. The team was just brilliant! I had the chance to see Steven Spielberg work and be a part of a movie that tried to break convention and dared to go further in visual storytelling,” she said.

Both the films were nominated in the Best Visual Effects category, but both were beaten by ‘First Man’ – the biopic of Neil Armstrong.

Lubin, who is Israeli, still splits his time between London and Tel Aviv after graduating from the same course at Baidek in 2013.

He was also working on a an animated film, Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’. It was up for Best Animated Feature, but lost out to ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’.

Jonny Persey, Director at MetFilm school said the HEI designed courses to be as much like industry as possible, for international or domestic students moving into the various filmmaking careers available.

“Our learning philosophy is to minimise the difference between being a student and being in industry. It’s about make, make, make – feature films, short films, web series, documentaries, etc. And, doing so under the guidance of professional filmmakers in an organisation that also makes films professionally, and at Ealing Studios, a filmmaking hub steeped in history.”