Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography was founded in 1919 by film director Vladimir Gardin as the Moscow Film School. Its founding was authorized by Lenin, making it the first and oldest film school in the world.
The institute is named after Sergei Gerasimov, a film director and actor. The school has carried his name since 1986.
Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Lev Kuleshov, Mikhail Romm, Aleksey Batalov, and Marlen Khutsiev all taught at VGIK. These figures were central to the development of Soviet and world cinema.
Notable VGIK alumni include Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, Sergei Parajanov, Elem Klimov, Aleksandr Sokurov, Andrei Konchalovsky, Larisa Shepitko, Eldar Ryazanov, and Leonid Gaidai. The school also produced internationally recognized filmmakers including Souleymane Cissé, Abderrahmane Sissako, Siddiq Barmak, Jerzy Hoffman, Konrad Wolf, and Márta Mészáros.
Yes. During the Soviet period, attending VGIK was a state requirement for anyone who wanted to direct a film in the USSR. Foreign students were also required to learn Russian before enrolling.
As of 2015-2016, VGIK had seven faculties: Directing, Acting, Arts, Filming, Animation and Multimedia, Scripting and Film Studies, and Production and Economics. The school also maintains specialized laboratories including a Laboratory of Classical and Stop-motion Animation, a Laboratory of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, and a Laboratory of International Film History.