NYU, The American Film Institute and USC top the Hollywood Reporter rankings of 25 best film schools in the United States, in a four-article package that is mostly predictable but has a few surprises.
One of Hollywood’s longstanding trade newspapers, THR cites as tops New York University (close to the Gotham scene with Spike Lee among resources), AFI (a Los Angeles-area graduate school); and University of Southern California (plugged into mainstream Hollywood for decades).
“From shooting thesis projects on cellphones to hiring in-house COVID-19 safety officers, America’s top film programs sought to prepare the next generation of filmmakers for an industry that looks vastly different from the one that existed only 18 months ago,” says a THR article by Mia Galuppo.
Most of the institutions cited fall into the category of “the usual suspects” being located in and around the Los Angeles/Hollywood complex. But there are some notables out of town. And a surprise is a large number of New York-area institutions and in the adjacent North East getting praised.
Besides stalwarts like NYU (#1) and Columbia University (#5), also getting recognition in the Northeast are Emerson College (in Boston #6 with a Hollywood campus); Wesleyan University (#13 in Middletown CT); Boston University (#14); Syracuse University (#17 with a big, broadly-focused media school); Ithaca College (#18); Rhode Island School of Design (#20); and Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College (#25).
THR also selected from the same Northeast geography for honorable mentions: City College of New York; State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook, the New School (a quirky college institution in Manhattan) and School of Visual Arts in NYC.
Another surprise for not making the list is the SUNY-Purchase school, which is the designated arts university of the New York system and with a heavy indie-centric focus of study. SUNY-Stony Brook is in the middle of Long Island, NY, which puts it on the periphery of the New York City metro area and is emerging as the star of the SUNY system of 64 locations.
Film schools grew in popularity as the movie industry mushroomed, but now are under pressure because of high costs and lack of job opportunities, particularly those with graduate and advanced degrees. The problems are high tuition — most of THR’s institutions charge $40,000 a year or more in tuition — and that the industry has diffused with digital media, opening avenues for plucky young people who don’t have film school degrees.
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