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Become the next Steven Spielberg by attending these best film schools
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04 Jan 2025
Many pursuing degrees to join the entertainment industry have been asked the same question over and over again: “Do you need a degree for that?”.
Granted, most entertainers are usually without one, but in the film industry, a degree is an added advantage, especially if you earn one from the best film schools.
Film school offers a structured curriculum in an environment that covers all aspects of filmmaking. From pre-production to post-production, you’ll learn the ins and outs of filmmaking, including directing, cinematography, editing, and screenwriting.
Studying in the best film schools will also grant you access to some of the most advanced film equipment you can find, typically used in Hollywood sets.
Some might even let you operate Panavision cameras, the Arri Alexa, the RED Digital Cinema, or even an IMAX 65mm camera. These high-tech cameras probably account for most of the films you see in cinemas today.
The most helpful benefit you receive when attending film school, though, is the network.
Here, you’ll build professional relationships with peers, mentors, and industry contacts who can jumpstart your career and become valuable throughout. Because the film industry is a tightly-knit community, you are almost guaranteed to work with each other, especially when making your first movie.
Film director Quentin Tarantino never attended any film schools but has won two Academy Awards. Source: AFP
Do you really need to go to the best film schools?
Some of the greatest in the scene did not attend film school or have any higher education.
One notable self-taught film director would be Quentin Tarantino, who, at first, aimed to become an actor.
But when nobody would hire him, he wrote and directed a movie to star in it. That movie was 1992’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
Another is Steven Spielberg, who was supposedly turned down by the University of Southern California three times, then dropped out of California State University, Long Beach, to work professionally for Universal Studios.
He eventually re-enrolled at his former university several decades later and graduated with a degree in Film and Electronic Arts.
The hard truth is not everyone’s a Spielberg or Tarantino.
It takes immense talent to teach yourself how to make films — by going to film school, you’ll have the support of professors, instructors, and peers alongside well-designed, well-structured programmes that cover every aspect of the art.
Academy Award winners — like Martin Scorsese, Bong Joon-ho, and the Coen brothers — are proof that going to film school is a necessary step to a good career in this field.
For Bong’s placing on the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2020, fellow Academy Award winner, actress Tilda Swinton, wrote: “This is the filmmaker who, this year, has risen into the 2020 vision of the entire cinepassionate planet like a new sun. Whip-smart, highly skilled, supremely cineliterate, exuberant, irreverent, self-determining, deeply romantic, with a voracious delight in the absurd, highly principled, precision-tuned, compassionate to the last: his films have always been all this.”
Five best film schools in the world
The AFI is known for hosting festivals and star-studded events throughout the year. Source: AFI Conservatory/Facebook
1. American Film Institute
Perhaps the most famous of all is the American Film Institute (AFI), a US film school that guarantees you will make movies upon attending here.
Its campus sits in the centre of professional filmmaking communities in Hollywood, allowing easy access to studios, networks, and post-production facilities. So it’s no wonder this institution stays true to its learn-by-doing approach, in which you will learn to create four to 10 films of your own.
The AFI also encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary learning as you work with students from different tracks like Cinematography, Directing, Editing, Producing, Production Design, and Screenwriting.
Beyond that, you’ll get to attend the many festivals and star-studded events hosted by AFI throughout the year too. For film fanatics, AFI releases a top 10 best films annually as well — the 2024 list features “Anora,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “Wicked.”
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2. California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is well-known as the school that Walt Disney helped found in its early days.
It is the first degree-granting US institution of higher learning created specifically for visual and performing arts students. Better yet, CalArts’s School of Film/Video boast an entire faculty working as artists, filmmakers, and technicians to guide you through the processes.
Fitting for a school that Disney co-founded, CalArts excels in animation. From John Lasseter to Tim Burton, the roster of animation power players who studied here is undoubtedly impressive.
To follow their steps, you can opt for bachelor’s and master’s programmes in Experimental Animation and Film and Video. There’s a bachelor’s degree in Character Animation and a master’s degree in Film Directing available, too.
With tuition costing up to US$74,000, the School of the Arts at Columbia University is one of the most expensive film schools. Source: Columbia University School of the Arts/Facebook
3. Columbia University
If you wish to graduate from an Ivy League, Columbia University is the place to go. Its School of the Arts is one of the world’s leading art institutions where you can find the Film MFA programme that offers three concentrations: Screenwriting & Directing, Creative Producing, and Writing for Film & Television.
Tuition is not cheap, though, as it will cost up to US$74,000 to attend, making Columbia University one of the most expensive film schools around. However, if you’re willing to think of it as an investment into your future, you’ll find that joining the school and its programmes will lead you to many opportunities in the film industry.
If you need financial help, the school awards over US$13 million in student aid each year through tuition scholarships, paid service positions, teaching appointments, and institutional awards.
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4. New York University
Out of all film schools, the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television at New York University has the most prolific graduates who have become award-winning filmmakers. Big names include Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Chloé Zhao, Vince Gilligan, and Martin Scorsese.
The latter even has his own department, the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies, in the institute. There, you’ll find a place dedicated to film history, theory, and aesthetics, now including broadcast television, video art, and digital media in its curriculum.
The institute’s location on Broadway, New York, also adds to the learning experience as the city itself can become a film set and a place for professional opportunities to happen.
From visionary director George Lucas to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the list of distinguished graduates is a long one. Source: USC School of Cinematic Arts/Facebook
5. University of Southern California
Out of all the film schools, the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California has the most graduates working in Hollywood today. From visionary director George Lucas to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the list of distinguished graduates is a long one.
The school boasts of being the only one in the world that teaches all the major disciplines of cinema. Students here will take classes across seven divisions that cover everything you need to know about film, television, and interactive media.
These divisions include the John C Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts, Division of Cinema & Media Studies, Film & Television Production, Interactive Media & Games, Media Arts + Practice, Peter Stark Producing Programme, John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television, John H Mitchell Business of Cinematic Arts Programme, and Expanded Animation Research + Practice.
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