History
The Netherlands Film and Television Academy was originally founded in 1958, as a two-year training offering courses in the fields of scenario, scriptwriting and the movie industry. Present at the birth of the Netherlands Film Academy, as the training was then dubbed, was the then director of the Netherlands Film Institute, Jean Marie Peters. Mr Peters was also to become the first rector of the Netherlands Film Academy.
The Netherlands Film Academy was officially recognised as an educational institute in 1960, and the Dutch government has remained its main grant provider ever since.
In 1965, the training provided by the Netherlands Film Academy was extended by a further two years, rendering it a four-year course. It subsequently offered a choice of three "disciplines" for the first time: the artistic discipline comprising such subjects as direction and scenario, the more technical discipline comprising such subjects as camera, sound and editing, and a production discipline.
Due to the emergence and rapidly increasing influence of electronic media, the academy changed its name to the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1975.
In 1987, the NFTA merged with a number of other arts courses to form the 
Amsterdam School of the Arts. During the course of the 1990s, the number of disciplines was increased to eight.
In 2000, Marieke Schoenmakers took up the post of rector. The various curricula underwent further improvement and expansion. The Film and Television training profile was also established under Ms. Schoenmakers' leadership. Greater attention was devoted to developing creativity, training in narrative skills and to academic subjects, such as film analysis and knowledge of art and culture. The mission statement established by the academy in 2001 was also incorporated in this training profile. The mission places emphasis on the narrative tradition in cinema, on creativity and artistic talent, on the training of specialists who are capable of working as a team, all based on the principle of a single camera situation.
In 2002, the NFTA was visited by the Film and Television Review Committee at the behest of the Council for Higher Professional Education, to evaluate the quality of its education. The academy was given a very favourable assessment, particularly for points such as cohesion with the professional practice, the structure of the curriculum, its facilities and the open atmosphere present within the school.
Sytze van der Laan is director of the film academy since november 2009.
