The president of Vancouver Film School, James Griffin, can boast no shortage of accomplishments.

Graduates from his 28-year-old downtown institution have worked on 27 of the 30 top-grossing films in history. The VFS has eight campuses and accepts 1,000 students each year. The school’s walls are lined with framed photos of movie posters. Each has a plaque below listing names of graduates who’ve worked on these films. And this year, the entertainment trade school reached an agreement with BCIT that enables VFS grads to obtain business diplomas and degrees at an accelerated pace.

But during an interview with the Georgia Straight in one of the school’s six movie theatres, Griffin said his most satisfying experience may have come at last year’s Shanghai International Film Festival. Standing on a stage in front of a room full of Chinese film students were three VFS graduates: animation supervisor Aaron Gilman, screenwriter Terri Tatchell, and director Jordan Brown. Gilman’s credits include blockbusters such as Avatar and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Tatchell received an Academy Award nomination for District 9; Brown, a more recent graduate, won a Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival for his first feature, 2013’s Captive.

“That is when it all really sunk in for me about the magnitude of what has happened,” Griffin said.

He recalled that Gilman was a UBC philosophy grad who decided to visit the VFS after seeing an ad for its animation training. By the time Gilman graduated, he was already being scouted by Disney. Griffin added that Tatchell wasn’t even sure she could be a writer when she first showed up at the film school, but she managed to make a connection with another former student, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Griffin gave District 9 credit for launching Vancouver’s thriving visual-effects industry.

Now the soft-spoken Griffin has an even grander ambition: helping kick-start the film industry in Shanghai. Last year, the VFS, the University of Shanghai, and the Shanghai municipal government joined forces to try to replicate Griffin’s success in teaching local film students.

“One of the things that impressed them was the impact that we had on our local industry,” he said.

One of the school’s strengths is its production capabilities. There are 10 studios and plenty of equipment that’s available for no charge beyond what’s paid in tuition. One of the largest sets is nicknamed the Jurassic Park Studio because it’s filled with giant rocks and trees. The VFS also has one of the biggest green screens in the country for creating special effects. And in another studio, there’s a locomotive that was left over by the short-lived former occupant, Storyeum.

At the VFS, students are enrolled in everything from moviemaking to acting to animation to video-game and digital design. Griffin noted that because his institution is privately owned and operated, staff can respond nimbly to the demands of industry. As an example, he mentioned the recent rise of wearable digital devices.

“We’re already doing programming for wearable products in our digital-design program—and designing,” he stated.

He added that a turnaround this quick couldn’t happen in a public university. At the same time, Griffin expressed admiration for public postsecondary institutions for their many strengths. And he’s especially pleased about the recent agreement with BCIT, which will enable anyone who’s graduated from the VFS over the past five years to receive a BCIT diploma in business management in one year or a BCIT bachelor of business administration degree in two years.

Griffin said that the goal is to develop business-competent, entrepreneurially minded students with expertise in the entertainment industry.

“It’s an extremely huge step for a large public institution to partner with us,” the VFS president said. “Ten years ago, this thing with BCIT couldn’t have happened.”

He said that one of the biggest challenges facing digital creators in Canada and other parts of the world is the lack of “entertainment banking”. While financing is available in New York and Los Angeles, he noted that it’s far more difficult to arrange in Vancouver. He believes the future is in creators setting out to “own their IP [intellectual property]”.

“We’re starting to see some smaller examples,” Griffin said. “A company called Nerd Corps [Entertainment] was founded by VFS graduates. They decided to stay here and they have built a company.”

In its Vancouver studio, Nerd Corps produces animation across various platforms.

When asked what governments can do to stimulate more ventures like this, Griffin paused a moment. Then he said that in North America, there isn’t a huge appetite for investment in infrastructure.

“So I don’t expect that there is a government that is going to step in and say, ‘Let’s build this industry out,’ ” Griffin stated. “The quickest way to build this industry here is to have a blockbuster film where we own the IP.”

For Griffin, the city’s greatest strength is its human capital. He calls it “our key advantage going forward”.

“The people here—the human resources in Vancouver—are what excites me,” he said. “There are only a few regions in the world that have what we have.”

He noted that Sony is already in Vancouver, as is Disney-owned Industrial Light and Magic. Microsoft and Amazon are also ramping up investments in the city.

“These are all strategic decisions,” Griffin emphasized. “They’re not capricious decisions. The reason for it is because we have the talent here. You can’t just go to the middle of Wyoming and get that.”