Quiz: Can you guess where these Oscar-winning film directors studied at?
Study International Staff
14 Feb 2020
Winning a coveted Oscar at the Academy Awards is certainly prestigious. With so much competition in Hollywood and film industries around the world, winning an Oscar for Best Director is often the pinnacle of one’s career.
The university that one studied in can make a big difference – setting the foundation for a successful career and building connections that eventually take them to the top of the film industry.
Curious to know which universities some of the best directors in the world studied at? See if you can guess, or flip the card to find out!
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker who recently won Best Director for the movie "Parasite" - which is also the first South Korean and non-English language film to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
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Boon Joon-ho majored in Sociology at Yonsei University, South Korea in 1988 and later enrolled in a two-year programme at the Korean Academy of Film Arts.
Alfonso Cuarón, a Mexican filmmaker, won the Oscar for Best Director for the movie Roma in 2018. He also won for Gravity in 2014. Which university did he attend?
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He studied philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and filmmaking at CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos), a school at the same university.
Kathryn Bigelow is the only female director to ever win an Oscar. She won for The Hurt Locker which also won for Best Picture in 2010. Where did she study?
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She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972. She later earned a Master's degree while enrolled in a graduate film programme from Columbia University.
Martin Scorsese, one of the most influential figures in the fim industry, won the Oscar for Best Director in 2007 for the movie "Departed" which also won Best Picture.
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Scorsese earned a BA in English from NYU's Washington Square College in 1964. In 1968, we earned his MFA from New York University's School of the Arts (now known as the Tisch School of the Arts).
Guillermo del Toro Gómez, a Mexican filmmaker, won the Oscar for Best Director twice - for "Pan's Labyrinth" in 2006 and "The Shape of Water" in 2017.
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Guillermo Del Toro studied at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Cinematográficos, at the University of Guadalajara.
Steven Spielberg won the Best Director award twice - for "Schindler's List" in 1994 and "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998.
AFP/Kevin Winter
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For his undergraduate study, Spielberg attended Brookdale Community College but later dropped out to work with Universal Studios. In 2002, he returned to California State University, Long Beach and completed his BA degree in Film and Electronic Arts.
Ang Lee has won twice in this category - in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain and in 2012 for Life of Pi.
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Ang Lee graduated from the National Arts School (now reorganised and expanded as National Taiwan University of Arts) in 1975. He later earned a Bachelor's degree in theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MFA in film production at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University.
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