Prague Film School Reviews & Admissions Statistics

I attended PFS in the fall of 2025 and had an incredible experience. The knowledge, friendships, and experiences I gained during my time there were invaluable and gave me more confidence in entering the industry.

PFS offers two intensive, hands-on programs: Acting for Film (ideal for students with a theater background who want to move into film acting) and Filmmaking (where students get to learn about every component of the filmmaking process). Students receive consistent on-set experience, high-quality footage for reels and resumes, and rigorous instruction focused solely on their craft. The resources and equipment are incredible, and the international environment adds a unique global perspective. Both the city and school environment are also incredibly safe and supportive, which, coming all the way from the United States, was such a relief.

In the acting program, you start with a few weeks of classes (film acting, Meisner, voice, physical acting, improv, etc.) before having a week off from classes for shooting. You then return to class for another few weeks before having another production period, and so on. The balance of classroom time and hands-on work was beneficial in developing knowledge and honing skills practically. In class, you’ll do a lot of mock self-tapes to get in the rhythm of analyzing scripts and shooting audition sides, allowing you to experiment with different preparation processes. Something I recommend that acting students take advantage of is shooting their own short film at the end of the semester. It is a great opportunity to write yourself a role you’re excited about and take on the same responsibilities that the filmmakers take on. You then have the opportunity to screen your short at the end-of-semester screening, which is very exciting.

As part of the filmmaking program, you have the opportunity to take on different crew positions so that you leave with a well-rounded understanding of all of the different aspects of creating a short film. Filmmakers have access to industry-standard equipment, so projects have a more professional-looking product than many student films from other institutions.

What sets PFS apart the most is that you learn through doing. As both an actor and a filmmaker, the opportunity to be on so many sets (I got to be on around 30 sets) is unique to PFS. While there is so much to learn in the classroom, the experience of being in an on-set environment teaches so much that simply can’t be taught in a classroom. As a filmmaker, you’ll learn so much about the dynamic of a crew, scheduling and logistics, and stylistic choices. As an actor, this is an opportunity to apply all the character-preparation work you learn in class, learn about the importance of working in tandem with the crew, and experiment with portraying a wide range of characters.

Leaving PFS, I’ve fully realized my passions and feel even more excited to pursue my career. In addition to many new friendships, I now have a network of talented creatives from across the globe that I am eager to work with again in the future. I highly recommend PFS to any aspiring actor or filmmaker, no matter your level of experience. The Prague Film School community is so special, and I feel truly grateful for my time there.

I honestly think the experience of attending Prague Film School will vary depending on the attendee's skill level, situation, background, outlook, etc.

Here is mine:

Expenses
I am an American who had never traveled outside of the country before coming to PFS. In the United States, it is very expensive to attend a university out-of-state for a reasonable price. The tuition price was ultimately less than it would have been for me to attend an out-of-state university for a year, so it was a good option for me. I was also using it as a gap year and not coming from partner study-abroad programs at Oberlin College, Northwestern University, or Sarah Lawrence College. In general PFS would be considered too expensive for what it offers. Before arriving in Prague I had not known of the general cost of public education in the Czech Republic. However, the tuition of this certificate program is similar to that of private, English-speaking universities in Prague such as Anglo-American University.

The school provided flat accommodation is also expensive. I wish I had done better research and opted to find my own student accommodation, which can go anywhere from $200 to $800 a month. You can't get anything nice with those prices, but I recommend choosing that route instead. The thought of trying to find housing in a foreign country sounded like a daunting task but it is actually quite easy if you know where to look. School flats are around $1,000 a month, which again sounded reasonable to me at first until I came to Prague and saw how cheap you can get some places here for. Although the flats are expensive, they are indeed very nice places and situated in great neighborhoods. I lived in Žižkov first semester, but moved to Karlovo náměstí second semester to be closer to school. Gorgeous locations with lots of things to do. One thing though is that they are situated in regular flat complexes and neighbors can complain about noise and usage of the elevators for moving equipment.

Production costs mostly fall onto one person, the director of the film. Filmmaking is expensive, and the costs of location, actors, costumes, props, transportation, craft services, outside crew hiring, and additional equipment rental quickly adds up. I've seen people make their projects with no-budget, and others with a big budget.

Teachers and Curriculum
This is the part of PFS that I think can most be improved on. Classes are around 2.5 hours each, with several classes in a day. The quality of teachers is very inconsistent, and there are some more than others you get more out of. Some teachers were not willing to go into the super technical aspects of filmmaking like codecs, color science, etc. Camera and lighting classes consisted of looking at examples of a certain technique and trying to recreate it. While it was super fun coming up with on the spot scenarios to practice with, these classes ultimately get too repetitive. Equipment protocol and crew protocol were the most valuable to the production phase of the semester. The elective classes are not taken seriously, and the optional Czech class was a Q&A on how to say certain words in Czech. Teachers and staff are mostly alumni of the school.

Production
This was my favorite and most note-worthy portion of PFS. They told us in the beginning we would be working on a lot of films throughout the year, and they were not kidding. This is an intensive program, with 12-hour long shoot days and even some overnights. I had the opportunity to explore every crew position, and even found a favorite one I could specialize in. Teachers are not hands-on during the actual filming, which is a positive and negative thing. Students organize and coordinate crew amongst themselves, which can often get hectic and stressful. If something goes wrong during a shoot, which it very much does most of the time, it's hard to get help. I thoroughly enjoyed every set I got to be apart of. It's stressful and hard work, but ultimately so worth it. A lot of students choose to hire outside equipment, crew, and actors. As a director casting actors for roles, the small pool of actors in PFS's acting program is sometimes not suitable. Some are not native English speakers and may have accents that don't fit your story. There is a large emphasis on cinematography and directing, which leaves editing and sound to be a bit neglected. Some older equipment shows wear and tear, but for the most part works okay. The school computers and software installed are not super updated, and has caused me some problems. It seems like this does get better with each new batch. I can't speak to the second-year, documentary, or acting programs.

School Environment and Culture
Every member of the staff, admin, and student body are welcoming kind individuals. In general, the school is well organized and ran via Alice platform. Students are comprised of a wide variety of nationalities, ages, and backgrounds. I loved learning about other cultures than my own. I have met such interesting people here and made life-long connections. School appointed events such as parties and screenings are held at nice venues.

TLDR: FAMU is probably better quality, but PFS is surely not a complete scam. Fast-paced, intensive, with loads of hands-on set experience. I do not regret attending PFS, but it may not suit everyone depending on your circumstances. I am personally someone who whishes for super technical theory knowledge, but I didn't quite get that here. In closing, PFS is an experience I will never forget.

I wish I had seen something like this when I was searching. I had contacted some ex students through instagram but I later realized that when students are young and have not lived in Europe such as Indian young students for whom traveling to the heart of Europe is a big change already and can mean "life changing experience" - their advice was not the best to follow. When I moved to Prague and discovered the school, I realized that it is too expensive for what it proposes.
They advertise it as a school where you'll learn the art of european author cinema with the possibility to develop your own unique voice. But the structure of the program doesn't allow you to do that. The sheer number of students that they bring means teachers have to handle a lot of people. Next the program is very fast paced. Project after project after project. The positive side of it would be to do these projects and learn a lot of technical skills and familiarize yourself on being on a set on many sets and work under pressure. Which would be good if your goal was to get a good basic filmmaking understanding. However if you are relocating from a foreign country your expenses will be so much that you wonder if that's really worth that much money. I paid 18.000 EUR for the school + 8.000 EUR for the stay of 8 months. Then 500 EUR per month (4000 EUR for 8 month) you'll need for food. + whatever cost your projects will be which you have to cover yourself (camera equipment is provided). Actors, catering and props are on you. So you are talking about 30.000 -35.000 EUR spending. Which is a lot for a school that doesn't provide you with network nor with time to create a very well polished portfolio film that could really change your career.

When I was coming to this school. I thought I will put this much money to have access to high quality instructors, equipment and come out with a film after all this study that would be worth sending to big film festivals. But the sheer rapid pace, the business attitute of the very way the school is built, the lack of focus on individual students, just to have new groups and new groups come and go, made the whole thing like a great exercise in filmmaking. We did many sets, from this set to the next set, got the taste of that - but that was never my intention to spend 34.000 Euros on with all the relocation cost and hussle. It was simply not worth it. It was quite frustrating to find out mid way that the school is just teaching you filmmaking basics with a ton of hand on experience through infiniately shifting projects.

Another negative point is the school saves money on teachers. They hire their own alumni. I met 5 instructors that are ex students. And they have 15 people max (excluding administration). They also do not give you industry insights, connections, how to make your way through it. If you enter with misty knowledge about how to grow your career in the film industry, you'll exit in mist also, at least that knowledge won't be coming from the school.

So my overall estimation - the school is way too expensive for what it offers.