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Top 25 Film
SchoolsDO
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IMAGESMFA IN FILM
MA IN FILM & MEDIA STUDIES
DIRECTING, SCREENWRITING,
TELEVISION WRITING, CREATIVE PRODUCINGARTS.COLUMBIA.EDU/THR
Photo by Joel Jares.into a variety of formats — from
commercials to documentaries
— and now there are new courses
on virtual reality and serialized
storytelling. Also new this year,
video artist Kara Hearn, whose
work has been shown at MoMA,
has taken over as acting chair-
person while chairperson Jorge
Oliver fills in as an interim dean
of the School of Art. Following
2017’s explosive School of Art
lecture series speech by Werner
Herzog — in which he announced
film school was a waste of time —
Jim Jarmsuch addressed students
as part of the Film/Video lecture
series’ 2018 edition; his remarks
have been kept under wraps.
TUITION $51,870 (undergrad);
$33,984 (graduate)
ALUMNI Writer-producers John
Requa, Glenn Ficarra and Liz
Hannah, director Aubrey Smyth23
SAN FRANCISCO STATE
SAN FRANCISCO
A check for $25 million
— from alumni George and Judy
Marcus — has been a shot in the
arm for the school’s liberal arts
departments, including the film
division, which has been spend-
ing, well, liberally on upgrading
its production facilities and
animation labs. The school has
also started buying new cameras
and lenses as well as VR equip-
ment, which “students are very
hungry for,” says Britta Sjogren,both undergrad and graduate
study-abroad options in London,
Berlin and Florence as well
as a semester-long course in
35mm filmmaking at the famed
FA MU i n P rag ue. St ateside,
Syracuse has partnered with
the Sundance Film Festival to
send 10 students to Park City to
schmooze on the slopes with pro-
fessional moviemakers. For those
who decide not to leave the city,
there’s the Syracuse Film Hub,
the school’s 15,000-square-foot
soundstage.
TUITION $48,780 (undergrad);
$29,160 (graduate)
ALUMNI Danny Zuker, Pixar
president Lila Yacoub, Sony VFX
supervisor Mike Lasker
19
COLUMBIA COLLEGE
CHICAGO
Five equipment centers
around the city dispense cameras
and lights for on-location shoot-
ing, and there’s also the school’s
35,000-square-foot media center,
complete with two soundstages
and a motion-capture studio.
The college’s semester-in-L.A.
program lets students spend
time in Holly wood, with classes
at Raleigh Studios, plus there are
guest seminars by alumni like
Emmy-winning Atlanta cinema-
tographer Christian Sprenger
(’07). According to alum Bryan
Smiley — vp production at Sony
Pictures — the school excels
21
NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephen
Colbert, Seth Meyers, Kathryn
Hahn — more funny people have
passed through Northwestern
than the Laugh Factory. “There’s
a Northwestern mafia in
Hollywood,” says Zach Braff (’97).
“I always joke that we should have
a secret handshake.” The School
of Communications
offers undergrad
degrees in radio,
TV and film, with
specialties in writ-
ing, acting, directing
and — rim shot — comedy. But
the MFA program can be more
serious, with a recent retooling
of its documentary program.
Even if you don’t learn the secret
handshake, Northwestern
provides a solid pipeline to
Hollywood through groups like
Open Television, the school’s
homegrown development and
distribution platform for web-
based shows.
TUITION $56,232 (undergrad);
$74,756 (graduate)
ALUMNI Meghan Markle, Billy
Eichner, Warren Beatty, Greg
Berlanti22
PRATT INSTITUTE
BROOKLYN
Film students are
encouraged to dip their toesat teaching how to navigate
between art and commerce.
“Talent is only half the battle,”
he says. “Understanding the
business side of Hollywood is
equally important.”
TUITION $26,610 (undergrad);
$37,588 (graduate, producing);
$38,841 (graduate, directing)
ALUMNI Lena Waithe,
George Tillman Jr.20
STANFORD
UNIVERSITY
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
For documentarians, the good
news is that there’s an MFA pro-
gram in northern California that
specializes entirely in nonfic-
tion filmmaking. The bad news is
that it takes only eight students
a year. But the 15- to 20-minute
thesis docs those eight students
make at the end of the two-year
program always seem to win
prizes at festivals ... and some-
times end up on public television.
Paloma Martinez (’18) directed a
short doc that won two awards at
the San Francisco Film Festival
and got picked up for broadcast on
PBS’s POV series. For undergrads,
Stanford offers a film studies
major, which covers a range of
cinema, including a new dedi-
cated screenwriting track.
TUITION $50,000 (undergrad);
$52,479 (graduate)
ALUMNI Jon Alston, Lisa Joy,
Sarah NaftalisMarkle