As financial barriers to filmmaking tech lower — while barriers to higher education continue to rise and student loans remain a legislative flashpoint — film programs nationwide have had to consider how to adapt to stand out.
Many programs have added LED walls (UNCSA, DePaul) and are building backlots that rival Warner Bros. (SCAD). Some upstarts are successfully climbing the ranks of a crowded field — Brooklyn College’s Feirstein is only 8 years old — while others are doubling down on long-established reputations: Think Wesleyan (a liberal arts school committed to celluloid) or USC (a big program with an even bigger alumni network). All the while scholarships, financial aid, tuition expenses and postgraduate grants are becoming more paramount to would-be student decision-making.
With all this in mind, THR has compiled its 13th annual list of the nation’s top film programs.
1. American Film Institute
LOS ANGELES
“If you’re at AFI, you’ve earned that spot, but so has the talented individual sitting next to you,” says alum and Tár director Todd Field. The graduate school is the most storied in the country, graduating a trove of Oscar winners and enough faculty actively working in Hollywood to fill the Dolby Theatre. In the past year, 152 AFI alumni projects screened across Telluride, Venice, Toronto, the New York Film Festival, AFI Fest, Sundance, SXSW, Cannes and Tribeca. But the program, which is split into six disciplines and spans two years, has long come with a hefty price tag in an extremely expensive city. AFI says the average student receives $14,330 in scholarship money and the school offers funding for the first year’s three short films requirement and a second-year thesis film. Tech company Canva established a fellowship that provides scholarships for six AFI fellows totaling $240,000 annually. In 2023, Disney and AFI partnered for an Underrepresented Storytellers Initiative — which offers a micro-grant of $35,000, along with professional development workshops and mentor meetings — to several aspiring filmmakers.
TUITION $68,103 GRADUATE (ALL FIGURES ARE PER YEAR)
ALUMNI Ari Aster, Andrea Arnold
2. USC
LOS ANGELES
The storied school offers the traditional directing and screenwriting routes but has curriculum and equipment alternatives for students who decide to pivot to other roles. Alumnus and Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. cites a graduate production course that spends a semester on a short film as a personal favorite. “This class allowed us to focus on one role and see it through start to finish,” he says. Newly added in the 2023 school year is Themed Design, with a focus on theme park design, while the VFX curriculum also has been expanded, leveraging its top game design department to help students navigate game engines used by professional productions. New faculty includes Wes Anderson and cinematographer Robert Yeoman, and alums Ryan Coogler and Tracy Oliver have joined the school’s board of councilors. Being a part of a larger university allows for more financial aid possibilities, such as USC’s initiative where freshmen students from U.S. families with an annual income of $80,000 or less will attend tuition-free.
TUITION $66,640 UNDERGRADUATE; $39,533 TO $58,621 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Shonda Rhimes, Juel Taylor, Rian Johnson, Shawn Levy
3. NYU
NEW YORK CITY
As a part of a massive donation from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, NYU will begin construction on the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center (the filmmaker earned two degrees from the school), a 45,586-square-foot space with two soundstages and two television production studios on a Brooklyn waterfront. An opening is planned for 2024. The school’s graduate film track is particularly lauded and has graduated such top-tier talent as James Bond director Cary Fukunaga, with a mentorship program that enlists working filmmakers. Alum Spike Lee, who acts as the artistic director for the graduate film program and a professor, has long offered a production fund to financially support student thesis films.
TUITION $66,388 UNDERGRADUATE; $73,698 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Dee Rees, Debra Granik
4. Chapman University
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA
Just an hour’s drive from Hollywood, Chapman’s Dodge College takes advantage of the proximity by bringing in A-list talent, including the likes of Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Colin Farrell, to speak to students. Dodge allows students free use of film equipment for their creative projects, not to mention spending $750,000 a year in tech updates. “Chapman gave me the space, tools and mentorship to hone my craft,” says Smile writer-director Parker Finn. And in May, Chapman received an anonymous donation of a whopping $2.5 million, a gift that will fund the school’s Innovation Hub equipped with new LED and AI technology, set to open in 2025.
TUITION $31,200
ALUMNI The Duffer brothers, Justin Simien
5. CalArts
SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA
With Pixar leaders like Pete Docter, Brad Bird and Peter Sohn among its alumni, the California Institute of the Arts is known for housing one of the most robust animation programs in the industry, with a proven track record for success. The school offers programs in character and experimental animation for aspiring animators seeking to hone their craft. There are several animation computer labs on campus, allowing students access to industry-standard tech to produce films using 2D and 3D equipment, as well as traditional animation formats. In 2021, some buildings on campus suffered water damage after an incident with a cooling tower, but renovations are expected to be completed by fall.
TUITION $56,074 UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE
ALUMNI Mark Andrews, Bruce Berman
6. Emerson College
BOSTON
This past awards season marked a big year for Emerson. The Visual and Media Arts program got repped on the industry’s biggest stage when alums Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka Daniels) swept through the awards circuit with A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, culminating in a best picture win at the Oscars. The Boston-based school offers students the opportunity to spend a semester in Hollywood as well as a chance to gain hands-on internship experience at studios like Warner Bros. and Paramount. The program also recently went global, in partnership with Paris College of Art, where students can study in Paris and the Netherlands. “Emerson College is where I found a creative home with others who were just like me,” says Stranger Things sound editor David Klotz.
TUITION $54,400 UNDERGRADUATE; $1,402 PER CREDIT FOR GRADUATE
ALUMNI Adele Lim
7. Columbia University
NEW YORK
New additions to Columbia’s School of the Arts include veteran film and TV editor and producer Elizabeth Kling joining the faculty as well as a new writing concentration for film and TV for MFA students. With high-performing alumni spanning all sectors of the industry, Columbia students note feeling “empowered” by the high-price-tag education that the Ivy League institution offers. “I’m confident I can walk into any room in Hollywood and create stories in a way that will resonate with industry executives and viewers alike,” says Shameless writer Sherman Payne.
TUITION $70,028 UNDERGRADUATE; $71,918 GRADUATE
ALUMNI James Mangold, Ashley Lyle, Deborah Chow
8. Loyola Marymount University
LOS ANGELES
In 2022, James Bond producer and alumna Barbara Broccoli funded the new Broccoli Theater, where student films will screen with 4K projection, while the school recently launched a master’s in Entertainment Leadership and Management, run as a joint venture with the School of Film and TV and College of Business Administration. With a healthy local alumni network, the program offers easy access to LA-based internships and is (slightly) more affordable than the other private LA schools. Broccoli notes that her LMU film history classes have proved helpful, saying, “I reference many of the films I studied then when I’m developing or shooting films now.”
TUITION $54,630 UNDERGRADUATE; $1,536 PER UNIT FOR GRADUATE
ALUMNI Francis Lawrence, Gloria Calderón Kellett, James Wong
9. University of North Carolina School of the Arts
WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA
As a state-funded arts school, UNCSA offers accessible financing — for tuition and student projects — while providing advanced tech like a new LED wall for virtual production. The school recently received a $2.3 million grant to support its Posse Arts Program, which awards full scholarships to students from underrepresented backgrounds. The school offers a comprehensive arts education; Everything Everywhere colorist Alex Bickel cites a philosophy class from Dr. Rick Miller as a personal favorite, saying, “He helped expand my horizons beyond film.”
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE: $6,497 (RESIDENT), $24,231 (NON-RESIDENT); GRADUATE: $9,696 (RESIDENT), $24,399 (NON-RESIDENT)
ALUMNI Brett Haley, David Gordon Green, Craig Zobel
10. UCLA
LOS ANGELES
Interim dean Brian Kite continues to enact progressive changes during his tenure (having been in office since 2020), focusing on bringing in a more diverse faculty and student body, obtaining more funding for BIPOC students and reimagining building spaces for student comfort. “At UCLA, I learned to trust my unique voice and know it matters,” says The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood. “Finding your voice was encouraged, more so than chasing the commercial.” Despite his interim status, Kite has obtained more funding for BIPOC students, reimagined building spaces for student comfort, and retained a faculty-to-student ratio of 1:3.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE: $14,000 (IN-STATE), $47,000 (NON-RESIDENT); GRADUATE: $18,000 (IN-STATE), $33,000 (NON-RESIDENT)
ALUMNI Dustin Lance Black, Steven Canals, David Koepp
11. University of Texas at Austin
AUSTIN
“Within the school, and the city of Austin itself, there’s an independent spirit that has stuck with me for my entire career,” says BlacKkKlansman producer Ray Mansfield of QC Entertainment. Recent endowments have gone toward stipends for nonfiction production students, both undergraduate and graduate, and for doc production classes, while MFA students are given $8,500 fellowships for their thesis films.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE: $11,752 (RESIDENT), $40,996 (NON-RESIDENT); MFA: $11,767 (RESIDENT), $21,786 (NON-RESIDENT)
ALUMNI Matt Dentler, Apple head of film; Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez
12. Columbia College Chicago
CHICAGO
Boasting a great track record in graduating top below-the-line talent including several 2023 Emmy-nominated DPs, the school is creating a virtual production curriculum. The 2023 school year will see a B.A. in sound design, and 2024 will offer a new BFA option for undergraduates who want to focus on production. Freshman, on average, receive about $15,000 in annually renewable scholarships. Emmy-winning sound editor Heather Goss, who most recently worked on Michael J. Fox doc Still, remembers being in the program as the sound mixing board transitioned from analog to digital, saying, “Being there for the transition to a digital board and taking several classes on Pro Tools prepared me for my career more than I could have ever known at the time.”
TUITION $32,520 UNDERGRADUATE; $30,480 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Lena Waithe, Chris McKay, W. Kamau Bell
13. Wesleyan University
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
The school’s College of Film has made efforts to support BIPOC and first-generation students by offering grants for those who enter the industry upon graduation and financial support for students seeking internships in L.A. There’s an emphasis on celluloid, with the school uniquely offering thousands in grants for senior thesis films shot on 16mm. It has been a big year for docs, with the school counting Fire of Love director Sara Dosa and Pretty Baby director Lana Wilson as alumni, while faculty Tracy Strain and Randall MacLowry’s debuted Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space on PBS.
TUITION $66,716 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Alex Kurtzman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike White
14. DePaul University
CHICAGO
Bob Odenkirk, Ava DuVernay and Gillian Anderson are among the talent sponsoring six grants exclusively for 2023 MFA candidates. The program recently added two more soundstages, bringing the total to six, with one reserved for digital production, complete with an LED wall running through video game engines. MFA graduate Linh Tran won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Slamdance for her directorial debut, Waiting for the Light to Change, which was financed via the school’s Indie Film Studio, launched to produce student microfeatures.
TUITION $43,665 UNDERGRADUATE; $22,032 TO $33,048 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Sean Gunn, John C. Reilly
15. Florida State University
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
The College of Motion Pictures offers expansive facilities with the added benefit of in-state tuition. Three MFA thesis films won honors at the DGA Student Film Awards, while three docs are shortlisted for student BAFTAs. A dedicated mental health specialist, meant to help with stress and collaboration, has been added to the staff to assist film students.
TUITION UNDERGRADUATE: $6,466 (RESIDENT), $14,430 (NON-RESIDENT); GRADUATE: $21,569 (RESIDENT), $49,982 (NON-RESIDENT)
ALUMNI Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Wes Ball
16. Ithaca College
ITHACA, NEW YORK
This year, Ithaca’s comms school launched SOS — Special Opportunities for Students — a program to help fund experiences outside of the classroom for hands-on learning. The school recently introduced Park Pathways, an exploratory program for students who are interested in media and entertainment but are not yet ready to commit to a major. Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg (Unpregnant) cites her time in visual artist and doc maker Cathy Crane’s class as a crucial point in her career: “Through her own radical, spiritual connection to the art form, [Crane] opened my eyes to the possibility of cinema.”
TUITION $50,510 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Bob Iger, Liz Tigelaar, Bill D’Elia
17. SCAD
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
At SCAD, students pay for the impressive facilities, including a massive 50’x20’ LED wall (complete with an XR curriculum) and an 11-acre backlot that is continuing construction. Alumni populate below-the-line and VFX roles on blockbusters like Everything Everywhere and Black Panther 2, and the new semester will see the inclusion of a virtual production minor. Situated in tax-incentivized production haven Georgia means students don’t have to travel far to enter the industry — which can happen while still in school. Two dozen students worked on Todd Haynes’ Cannes entry May December, which shot in Savannah.
TUITION $40,095 UNDERGRADUATE; $41,085 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Dune VFX artist Austin Bonang
18. Boston University
BOSTON
BU is preparing to offer a new short writing course called Writing the Social Purpose to encourage MFA screenwriting students to engage with pressing societal issues within their work. Alum Rachel Walden’s film Lemon Tree was recently selected for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, while BU graduate and director Benny Safdie acted in a key role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
TUITION $63,798 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Jay Roewe, Jim Gianopulos
19. Syracuse University
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
Syracuse is looking to give its students easy access to L.A., building facilities in the city for a semester-long program. The school works to offset the potential costs of that program with a travel support fund as well as international travel via school funding. Back in New York, a stop-motion animation studio and new Cannon and Sony cameras are among the latest additions to the campus.
TUITION $61,310 UNDERGRADUATE; $33,696 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Dan Silver
20. Ringling College
SARASOTA, FLORIDA
The small class sizes are a draw for the program, which enrolls between 30 and 40 kids a semester. Even with its small size, the school has proven itself, particularly as an animation and advertising powerhouse, with students accounting for two out of the five U.S. semifinalists for the 2023 Student Academy Award in animation. Ringling recently landed The Carl Foreman Award, named after the Oscar-winning producer that will offer a cash grant to be given out for the next 10 years to a graduating film student.
TUITION $50,500 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Editor Andrew Halley
21. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College
NEW YORK
The CUNY graduate program, which boasts a 500,000-square-foot production hub, has not raised tuition in three years, with a focus on affordability for local talent, with the majority of students Brooklyn residents. The CUNY graduate program received a $750,000 grant from the Mayor’s Office to go toward student thesis films, while an anonymous Oscar-winning producer was behind $500,000 worth of grants to go toward scholarships. The program, which has seen enrollment increase year-over-year since its 2015 inception, has an impressive board of advisors, including Steven Soderbergh and Ethan Hawke, and just added Participant CEO David Linde.
TUITION $21,134 GRADUATE (RESIDENT); $30,564 (NON-RESIDENT)
ALUMNI Goya Award-winning María Herrera López
22. ArtCenter College of Design
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
The visual-focused school graduates talent that has found success in music videos and the commercials space. New faculty includes prolific television director Marta Cunningham (Modern Love) while equipment partnerships include supplying gear like Orion anamorphic lenses to students. More than half the students at ArtCenter receive some sort of scholarship support, according to the school.
TUITION $50,606 UNDERGRADUATE; $53,484 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Michael Bay, Zack Snyder
23. Rhode Island School of Design
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
RISD recently opened its Movement Lab, where students work with technology that can help with the analysis of movement. Elsewhere, Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim Henson, will provide support for a visiting puppeteer to teach at RISD.
TUITION $58,690 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Seth MacFarlane, animator Christy Karacas
24. California State University, Northridge
LOS ANGELES
With one of the most affordable programs on this list, CSUN’s Cinema & Television Arts department is also launching its fully online graduate program in entertainment industry management this year, aimed at students seeking to pursue careers as studio and network executives, talent managers, advertising specialists, etc. Screenwriter and producer Matt Young directly credits his CSUN course for writing for hourlong television for ultimately being accepted into the Sundance Episodic Story Lab. He says, “It gave me a solid foundation to pursue TV writing as a career.”
TUITION $7,090 UNDERGRADUATE; $8,524 GRADUATE
ALUMNI Glenn Gainor, Ami Cohen, Dianne Durazo
25. Hofstra University
HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK
The film program, housed in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, has facilities that include three soundstages, with students training on industry-standard Avid and Adobe creative suites. The school’s “Student Experience Fund” issues money for everything from study programs in Cuba to special training and certifications. Filmmaker Scott Aharoni, whose short film Les Criminels was shortlisted for the 2022 Academy Awards, cites former film program head William I. Jennings as having “fostered growth and enriched my artistic journey.”
TUITION $54,334 UNDERGRADUATE
ALUMNI Little Demon creator Kieran Valla
A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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