Barbara Broccoli Becomes First Woman to Lead the UK's NFTS
Barbara Broccoli has been named the first female president of the National Film and Television School, Britain's training school for filmmakers and TV makers, Deadline reported.
She takes over from David Puttnam, who becomes President Emeritus. That is an honorary title, kept by someone who has stepped back from the main job but still has a link to the organisation.
Broccoli is best known as a producer of the James Bond films. She and Michael G. Wilson received an Honorary Academy Award in 2024, a special Oscar given outside the usual categories. Deadline also reports that Broccoli has handed creative control of the Bond franchise to Amazon MGM Studios.
The school's news is also about bricks and mortar. Broccoli officially named the NFTS Cubby Broccoli Building at the school's Beaconsfield campus, west of London, in honour of her late father, Cubby Broccoli. The building is due to open in January, a few weeks after the announcement.
It will house teaching facilities and creative spaces. It will also bring the school its first on-site student accommodation, so students will be able to live on campus for the first time.
Sophie Turner Laing chairs the NFTS. Pippa Harris and Alison Lomax have joined the board.
For the people who study and work at Beaconsfield, the next big date is January. That is when the building opens and the school's new home for classes and creative work begins to fill up.
