L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) (the "Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies") is a French film school, founded during World War II under the leadership of Marcel L'Herbier

Marcel L'Herbier

Marcel L'Herbier, Légion d'honneur, was a French film-maker, who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued until the 1950s and he made more than 40 feature films in total...

 who was its president from 1944 to 1969. IDHEC offered training for directors and producers, cameramen, sound technicians, editors, art directors and costume designers. It became highly influential, and many prominent film-makers received their training there including Louis Malle

Louis Malle

Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...

, Alain Resnais

Alain Resnais

Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...

, Volker Schlöndorff

Volker Schlöndorff

Volker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States...

, Jean-Jacques Annaud

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, film producer and screenwriter.- Biography :Annaud was born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne...

, Claude Sautet

Claude Sautet

Claude Sautet was a French author and film director.-Biography:Born in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Claude Sautet first studied painting and sculpture before attending a film university in Paris where he began his career and later became a television producer...

, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, André Weinfeld

André Weinfeld

An alumnus of prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, André Weinfeld is a French and American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, photographer and journalist.-Early life:...

, Patrice Leconte

Patrice Leconte

Patrice Leconte is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter.-Biography:...

, Costa Gavras, Theo Angelopoulos

Theo Angelopoulos

Theodoros Angelopoulos is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.-Life:Angelopoulos studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC before returning...

, Omar Amiralay

Omar Amiralay

Omar Amiralay was a Syrian documentary film director and prominent civil society activist. He is noted for the strong political criticism in his films and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000....

 and Rithy Panh

Rithy Panh

Rithy Panh is an internationally and critically acclaimed Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter.The French-schooled director's films focus on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia...

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It was reorganized in 1985 and renamed La Fémis

La Femis

La Fémis , is the French state film school. FEMIS is an acronym for Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son. Based in Paris, it offers courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training...

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