“On day three, I sat next to Darren Aronofsky. Talk about right time, right place,” recalls Matthew Libatique of his time at the American Film Institute. (The cinematographer went on to partner with the director on movies including Pi and Black Swan.) It shows that anyone attending a THR top film program could find themselves sharing a classroom with the next Shonda Rhimes, Ari Aster or Barry Jenkins — or become the next name themselves. But film schools, like Hollywood at large, are faced with an increasingly paramount question: “What’s next?”
While Hollywood is preoccupied with concerns over artificial intelligence, many schools on this year’s list are already incorporating emerging technology into their curriculums with classes like Critical and Creative Approaches to AI (USC) and Producing and Screenwriting With AI (Loyola Marymount). Film programs whose emphasis has long been on the “big two” — directing and screenwriting — are now offering minors in virtual production stage operations (DePaul) and classes in live sports production (UT Austin).
The nation’s film programs are tasked with the difficult job of training for an industry with an uncertain future. Here is a glance at how the top 26 are ranked and rising to the task.
This story first appeared in the August 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
USC
LOS ANGELES
Additions at the Robert Zemeckis Center, including a new LED wall and virtual environment lighting, have led to a massive overhauled curriculum that allows students to take advantage of the space. Classes include Realtime CG Filmmaking and the hybrid theory-practice class Critical and Creative Approaches to AI, while the school has installed generative AI software for in-class instruction and launched a virtual production senior thesis course. Habib Zargarpour, who worked on the virtual productions of The Jungle Book and Ant-Man and the Wasp, is a visiting professor. Elsewhere, a new class this fall taught by veteran producers Gail Katz and Susan Cartsonis will examine the making and success of Barbie. A new $5 million endowment to create the John H. Mitchell Program in Episodic Television will offer courses on docuseries and single-camera comedies. Director Sean Wang, who took Sundance by storm with Didi, cites Candice Dragonas’ Music Video & Commercial Production class as a favorite: “She made me believe I could one day be a filmmaker working at that level, too.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $69,904; GRADUATE $39,533-$58,621
ALUMNI Ryan Coogler, Shonda Rhimes, Hiro Murai
American Film Institute
LOS ANGELES
AFI’s hefty tuition is the cost of admittance to the best alumni network in Hollywood, with graduates working on six of the 10 best picture nominees at this year’s Oscars. Recently, there was a new multimillion-dollar donation from AFI vice chair and former Disney Studios president Rich Frank, which will go toward financial assistance for fellows, while alum Brad Falchuk, along with other AFI grads working on the Netflix series The Brothers Sun, announced an annual $20,000 screenwriting scholarship. AFI offers a tuition-free Cinematography Intensive for Women course as well as its long- heralded Directing Workshop for Women, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To help set up the next 50 years, the school established an advisory committee that includes Ava DuVernay, Chloé Zhao and alum Lesli Linka Glatter, who was recently re-elected president of the DGA. Elsewhere, more than $1 million has been invested in improvements to the school’s software, with an additional $1 million going toward hardware, like five new Arri cameras and light kits. Remembers Libatique of his time at the conservatory: “The late great [cinematographer] John Alonzo taught me the power of ambient light and graced us with an in-person audio commentary of Chinatown.”
TUITION $70,487
ALUMNI Andrea Arnold, Ari Aster
New York University
NEW YORK
NYU’s new Promise Program, introduced last year, means undergraduate students from families earning less than $100,000 annually will pay no tuition, removing a major barrier to one of the most prestigious film educations in the world. Recent upgrades to the film program, which boasts a majority female student body for undergrads and grads, include two new multicamera television studios and improvements to the production center’s entire pool of lighting gear, as well as new LED tech at the just opened Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center in Brooklyn’s Industry City. Another Martin Scorsese-backed endeavor is the Internship Fund, which provides stipends to Tisch students with internships focused on film preservation. At the 2023 Student Academy Awards, NYU won two of the three prizes in the best documentary category, and alum Sean Baker received the 2024 Palme d’Or at Cannes for Anora.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $68,978; GRADUATE $76,646
ALUMNI Spike Lee, Jon Watts
Chapman University
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA
Like many of the nation’s top film schools, Chapman is a private college that comes with a hefty price tag, but the average awarded aid for fall 2023 was a generous $31,000 per undergrad. Speaking of aid, student productions receive $20,000 for every graduate thesis film and $15,000 for every undergrad film. Chapman also offers tech still far out of reach for most aspiring filmmakers, including a new $1 million, 40-foot LED wall. And it brings Hollywood to Orange with its Master Class series, which saw everyone from Alexander Payne to Ari Emanuel join for its latest school year. Alum Payton Koch — the Emmy-nominated editor behind Only Murders in the Building — recalls a Horror Film Studies class at Chapman as one of his favorites: “We watched and dissected various horror films and then wrote, directed and edited our own short films. The experience was so great because it gave us the opportunity to be the ones in charge, hands on.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $64,580; GRADUATE $63,946
ALUMNI Parker Finn, Duffer Brothers
Loyola Marymount University
LOS ANGELES
LMU does not shy away from teaching the emerging tech that has dominated industry conversations. The school is introducing Producing and Screenwriting With AI, while another course, in partnership with Loyola Law School, will focus on the laws surrounding AI and entertainment. Incoming students can look forward to $500,000 in new digital imaging equipment ready for fall classes. The film program in the university, which was recently named a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, has a student body that’s 50 percent nonwhite, rare for a private school. Hunger Games director and alum Francis Lawrence says the rigorous LMU curriculum still “reminds me to focus on narrative, theme and character development.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $61,867; GRADUATE $1,626 PER UNIT
ALUMNI James Wong, The Bear writer Karen Joseph Adco*ck
CalArts
SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA
As it has been since its founding in the ’60s by Walt and Roy Disney, there is no better school in the U.S. for aspiring animators. While other animation programs have caught up to CalArts in facilities and curriculum, the storied institution still claims the most powerful alumni network in Hollywood, from Pixar’s Pete Docter to Peter Sohn (director of Elemental, a best animated feature nominee in 2024).
TUITION $58,318 UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE
ALUMNI Tim Burton, Brad Bird
Columbia University
NEW YORK
As with any longstanding film program, especially one housed inside a prestigious university in a major city, Columbia’s massive alumni network could be worth the price of admission. Alumni were represented at all the major film festivals, from Cannes to Sundance, and well represented among awards contenders, like Shogun director Jonathan van Tulleken, who says, “a lot of my thinking on set comes directly from the foundation I got in those Columbia classrooms.” The average MFA student at Columbia is awarded $30,000 in educational funding, and several new endowments and scholarships, including a fund for queer filmmakers, have been added to offset costs.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $71,170; GRADUATE $74,846
ALUMNI Anna Boden, Simon Kinberg, James Mangold
UNC School of the Arts
WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA
The rare example of a public arts university, UNCSA has produced top-tier Hollywood talent without the hefty tuition. The school has built a curriculum that keeps up with Hollywood’s ebbs and flows thanks to a newly established advisory council that includes alum David Gordon Green. VFX veteran Bob Keen (Alien) has been brought in as the director of Visual Effects and Immersive Media, while a new three-year concentration — Story Art Studio — has been established for students who want to explore everything from puppetry to AI. Says alum Jeff Nichols, who employed UNCSA grads on his recent film The Bikeriders: “My biggest takeaway was my relationships with classmates; I still work and collaborate with a lot of people from UNCSA and have throughout my career.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $6,497 RESIDENT, $24,231 NONRESIDENT; GRADUATE $9,696 RESIDENT, $24,399 NONRESIDENT
ALUMNI Brett Haley, Craig Zobel
UT Austin
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Leaning into Texas’ athletic program, the media school is developing classes surrounding sports production that will see students get hands-on game-day training, which can lead to jobs on college sports broadcasts while they are still in school. As for the digital sports area, the school launched its first E-Sports Symposium as it continues to grow its gaming program. New curriculum offerings include Business of Unscripted TV and Writer’s Room Workshop, while remodels have been completed on the school’s 23,200 square feet of studio space.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $11,752 IN-STATE, $40,996 NONRESIDENT; GRADUATE $11,767 IN-STATE, $21,786 NONRESIDENT
ALUMNI Shondaland’s Alison Eakle, Glen Powell, Shogun co-creator Rachel Kondo
UCLA
LOS ANGELES
The UC Regents recently approved a multiyear tuition stability plan, meaning cost will be more predictable at UCLA, which offers industry-adjacent geography with a top-tier public school education. While it may not have the facilities of other Los Angeles programs, the school has added a course on AI to its curriculum and is doubling down on researching emerging tech with its Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance that will run across disciplines. As for new faculty, recent Guggenheim fellow and Mexican filmmaker Juan Pablo González (2022 Sundance winner Dos Estaciones) was hired for the film department.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $15,154 IN-STATE, $49,354 NONRESIDENT; GRADUATE $18,137 IN STATE, $33,238 NONRESIDENT
ALUMNI Gina Prince-Bythewood, Garrett Bradley
DePaul University
CHICAGO
DePaul punches above its weight when it comes to keeping facilities and curriculum current. After acquiring an LED wall, the school expanded its visual effects capabilities, adding a stage and two new minors in Virtual Production Stage Operations and Virtual Production Environment Design that focus on the physical on-set components of virtual productions and the design of digital environments. As for hometown pride, many alumni serve on the crew of the Chicago-set series The Bear, including Emmy-nominated cinematographer Andrew Wehde. “I needed the infrastructure, support and the community,” says television director Daniel Willis (Chicago Fire) of what he experienced at the school.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $45,195; GRADUATE $22,920-$34,380
ALUMNI Ghostlight director Alex Thompson, John C. Reilly
Emerson College
BOSTON
With a summer program in Prague, a screenwriting lab in Greece and a three-year BFA program in film arts in partnership with the Paris College of Art, Emerson offers plenty of opportunities outside of New England. The school even offers a low-residency MFA in screenwriting, which allows students to complete the majority of the curriculum online with weeklong residencies in Boston and Los Angeles, where working screenwriters, including Cord Jefferson (2024 Oscar winner for American Fiction), conduct master classes. As for what it does offer on its Boston campus, there is a new Virtual Production teaching studio that opened in March and five new Arri Alexa cameras.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $56,032; GRADUATE $1,444 PER CREDIT
ALUMNI Adele Lim, Daniels, Pamela Abdy
Wesleyan University
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
As is to be expected from a selective liberal arts college, Wesleyan’s alumni network is packed with overachievers, including The White Lotus creator Mike White and Star Trek impresario Alex Kurtzman. Also to be expected from a selective liberal arts college: a hefty price tag. But beginning this fall, the school will no longer offer loans as a part of university financial aid packages, instead extending aid without any borrowing. The school stands out in its commitment to celluloid and covers all film stock and processing for 16mm production courses. Alum Liz Garcia, who recently debuted her latest movie, Space Cadet, cites the film program for teaching her that “storytelling is as much about the flow of information as anything else.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $69,652
ALUMNI Oppenheimer film editor Jennifer Lame, Julius Onah
Columbia College Chicago
CHICAGO
New courses in virtual production and cinematography have been created in conjunction with Columbia College Chicago installing a Volume virtual production wall. The school offers a variety of B.A.s and BFAs in film, television, writing, immersive media and gaming. Columbia is known for graduating below-the-line talent like cinematographers Carl Herse (an Emmy nominee for Barry) and Christian Sprenger (an Emmy winner for Atlanta).
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $34,088; GRADUATE $42,506
ALUMNI Lena Waithe, Chris McKay
Ithaca College
ITHACA, NEW YORK
Through the recently launched Special Opportunities for Students program, Ithaca students can receive funds for off-campus opportunities, which have included trips to the Bentonville Film Festival and the Merced Queer Film Festival to pick up honors for student projects. Ithaca, which places an emphasis on independent production and is equipped for both digital and celluloid filmmaking, recently completed work on an immersive stage that features LED panels on the ceiling and three walls, allowing for 3D visual effects running through the Unreal Engine used by many Hollywood productions. A robotic jib camera crane soon will be added to the mix.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $53,540
ALUMNI Bob Iger, Liz Tigelaar
Savannah College of Art & Design
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
The Georgia school continues to invest in a backlot, soundstages and equipment that rival some studio setups. An expansion, set for completion in 2025, will include a town square, city hall and a single-family home that can be used in student productions. While many film programs focus on writing and directing, SCAD offers students other on-set possibilities, graduating a technically adept workforce. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects, had 39 SCAD alumni listed in its VFX credits.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $41,130; GRADUATE $42,120
ALUMNI Barbie CG artist Austin Bonang
Florida State University
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
The lowest tuition for in-state students on this list (and that includes all equipment fees) is Florida State’s film program, which boasts a diverse population, with more than two-thirds of its students being POC. Emmy-winning editor Alessandro Soares has joined the faculty as its editor in residence, while alum Barry Jenkins is gearing up to release Disney’s Lion King prequel Mufasa.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $6,466 IN-STATE, $14,430 NONRESIDENT; GRADUATE PRODUCTION $21,569 IN-STATE, $49,982 NONRESIDENT; GRADUATE WRITING $20,792 IN-STATE, $45,418 NONRESIDENT
ALUMNI Wes Ball
Boston University
BOSTON
Producer Craig H. Shepherd (Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown) is taking over the film and television department at B.U., coming in after the completion of $500,000 worth of upgrades to the primary studio space. The school also recently launched a $100,000 annual production fund to help students with the costs associated with student films. Alum Stephen Kijak recently directed the documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $66,670
ALUMNI Josh and Benny Safdie
Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
With two-time best picture nominee Richard Gladstein as the executive director, Feirstein has received a lot of institutional Hollywood support, including a recent donation of film cameras and lenses from Steven Soderbergh. Additions to faculty have included acclaimed producer Anne Carey (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and editor Veronica Rutledge (Ramy, Emily in Paris). The newest film program on the list — it was established in 2015 — offers students a New York-based education without the price tag of other universities in the area (see: NYU and Columbia).
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $21,134 IN-STATE, $30,564 NONRESIDENT
ALUMNI 20 Days in Mariupol composer Jordan Dykstra, Nyad editor Fay Gartenberg
Ringling College of Art & Design
SARASOTA, FLORIDA
While the school’s focus has long been animation, for the 2024-25 school year, two new LED walls are joining Ringling’s fleet of equipment that includes five soundstages, two color-grading suites and a Foley stage. The film program offers dual tracks — narrative or branded entertainment — with students excelling in advertising, last year landing 11 Addy awards. Ringling delivers hands-on experience, with the average student working on 60 short films. “Ringling is a college rooted in animation,” says alum Jason Letkiewicz, a creative director at Disney ABC Television Group. “You get to absorb the culture that comes from being at a world-class art school.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $50,500
ALUMNI Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler
Syracuse University
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
Thanks to a large donation from the estate of alum Dick Clark, Syracuse is expanding its L.A. presence with more classroom space and course offerings at its North Hollywood campus. Back in New York, the school is finishing up new postproduction suites and has launched courses like Screenwriting With Gen AI, which is meant to help students find ethical applications of AI in the creative process.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $63,710; GRADUATE $35,010
ALUMNI Dan Silver, Pixar’s Jim Morris
Rhode Island School of Design
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
A New England liberal arts education meets experimental arts conservatory, RISD offers students classes in animation and video as well as access to a visiting puppeteer (last year’s was Andrew Murdock). While famous alumni like Seth MacFarlane have found mainstream Hollywood success, students are offered a film education through a fine arts lens. Professor Sheri Willis’ work in video and performance installations earned her a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $61,564
ALUMNI Gus Van Sant
Cal State University, Northridge
NORTHRIDGE, CALIFORNIA
The average scholarship awarded to students in the Cinema & Television Arts department for 2023 was $2,287, a sizable portion of the school’s yearly $7,500 tuition. The program does not have the bells and whistles of others on this list, but it offers the lowest cost for a school in the L.A. area, and was recently awarded a $1 million federal grant and launched two new scholarships. Says VFX producer Brooke Noska (The Santa Clauses) of her time at CSUN: “Classes with William Stratford, where we received real-world treatment and feedback, or with Quinn Saunders, who opened the door to meeting and engaging with industry professionals, were access points that carried me into the real world.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $7,458; MFA SCREENWRITING $8,982; M.A. MANAGEMENT $15,030
ALUMNI 20 Days in Mariupol producer Michelle Mizner
ArtCenter College of Design
PASADENA
The film program at ArtCenter is housed inside the larger arts conservatory that spans majors like fine art, illustration and photography, allowing for a more holistic arts education. While many film schools focus on narrative filmmaking, the Pasadena school has graduated prominent commercial directors. ArtCenter alum Michael Bay got his start in commercials, including one of those famous “Got Milk?” ads, and, recently, students have received Addy awards for spots for Tinder, Zillow and Levi’s.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $53,086; GRADUATE $56,104
ALUMNI Zack Snyder
(TIE) Hofstra University; Rochester Institute of Technology
HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK
At the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, thesis films are shot on Arri Alexas with three soundstages available to students. Hofstra recently added a Sports Media bachelor of science with coursework conducted in partnership with the athletic program that spans live broadcast, podcasts and media strategy. Herbert’s specific scholarships include the Joel Oliansky Annual Scholarship, which is supported by alum Francis Ford Coppola and given to a student with interest in playwriting or screenwriting.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $56,544
ALUMNI CAA’s Bryan Diperstein
***
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
Rochester places an emphasis on the intersection of Hollywood and STEM and has gained a reputation for graduating tech-savvy below-the-line talent. The school uniquely offers a B.S. in motion picture science, where students can dive into imaging and color sciences, with recent grads landing jobs at Apple, DreamWorks and Marvel. Last year, the school struck a new partnership with Dolby Laboratories that provides students and faculty with access to tools used in creating industry-standard audiovisuals.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE $58,324
ALUMNI Frame.io founder John Traver
Other L.A., NYC Area Film Schools
The best local and community college programs in or near entertainment hubs.
CALIFORNIA
Azusa Pacific University
This year, the Southern California institution added a soundstage and a new Foley stage and revamped its postproduction lab thanks to a $300,000 gift to theschool, which is based in Azusa.
Biola University
Longtime veteran AMC Networks executive Tom Halleen, who worked on The Walking Dead and Mad Men, is the dean of the Christian university’s film program. In 2026, the school, located in La Mirada, will open a new massive complex that will feature a 3,000-foot soundstage, color-grading suites and a game-design lab.
California State University, Long Beach
The school offers a newly introduced bachelor of arts in cinematic arts, where students can select an industry focus after two years in the program. The Long Beach-based school also introduced a travel class titled Film & Festival & World Cinema, in which students journey to Italy to immerse themselves in international cinema.
California State University, Los Angeles
This school offers undergraduate and graduate options through the television, film and media studies department at a lower price tag than many other L.A.-area schools. Its student-run filmmaking club, Golden Eagle Productions, offers its young filmmakers project funding, equipment rentals, production experience, guest speakers and more.
NEW YORK
City College New York
CCNY’s film program, established in 1941, offers a BFA. Undergraduate students can enter a fiction or documentary filmmaking track, where tuition for in-state students now runs less than $4,000 a semester. The curriculum includes classes in journalism and film studies.
Purchase College, State University of New York
The school features a list of notable alumni, including Abel Ferrara and Azazel Jacobs, whose latest film, His Three Daughters, arrives this fall via Netflix. In-state residents only pay $7,070 per year in undergraduate tuition fees, while out-of-state students pay just $17,320.
Rutgers University
The Rutgers Filmmaking Center offers a BFA in filmmaking. Students can immerse themselves in individualized fiction and documentary production courses, though the New Jersey school is known for its Documentary Film Lab headed by Oscar winner Thomas Lennon.
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook offers an MFA in television writing and an MFA film program, providing students with a hands-on, project-driven learning environment. The film program includes directing, writing, producing and independent tracks and features a faculty of industry experts including Past Lives producers Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon (the latter also serves as artistic director).
