experimental film mfa

Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts

General info.

• Faculty working with students: 16
• Students: 24-30 (12-15 per matriculating class)
• Students receiving Financial Aid: 100%
• Part time study available: No
• Application terms: Fall
• Application deadline: January 30

Tom Rankin Director of Graduate Studies MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Duke University Durham, NC  27708-0800 Phone: +1 (919) 660-3613

Email: [email protected]

Website:  http://mfaeda.duke.edu

Program Description

The Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts is a terminal degree offered with the support of three academic units: the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies, the Center for Documentary Studies, and Cinematic Arts. The MFA|EDA brings together two forms of artistic activity—the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media—in a unique program that will foster collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners.  The ideal candidate has a well-established practice in documentary arts, film/video and new media, or experimental technology, and seeks a program with a pioneering focus on stimulating aesthetic production outside of traditional contexts.  

• Experimental and Documentary Arts: Master's Admissions and Enrollment Statistics
• Experimental and Documentary Arts: Master's Career Outcomes Statistics

Application Information

Application Terms Available:  Fall

Application Deadline:  January 30

Graduate School Application Requirements See the Application Instructions page for important details about each Graduate School requirement.

• Transcripts: Unofficial transcripts required with application submission; official transcripts required upon admission
• Letters of Recommendation: 3 Required
• Statement of Purpose: Required
• Résumé: Required
• GRE Scores: Not required
• English Language Exam: TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo English Test required* for applicants whose first language is not English *test waiver may apply for some applicants
• GPA: Undergraduate GPA calculated on 4.0 scale required

Department-Specific Application Requirements (submitted through online application) Each applicant must submit a portfolio consisting of representative examples of their work, as well as a statement of purpose detailing their practice and relationship to documentary and experimental visual arts.  Portfolio applications are submitted electronically via the program's Slideroom portal. For a more detailed description of application requirements, please visit the program website at  http://mfaeda.duke.edu .

Writing Sample None required

We strongly encourage you to review additional department-specific application guidance from the program to which you are applying: Departmental Application Guidance

List of Graduate School Programs and Degrees

Secondary Menu

• MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts

The Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts at Duke University brings together two forms of artistic activity — the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media — in a unique program that fosters collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners. Successful completion of the program requires the development of a complex understanding of documentary practices and traditions as well as creative skills in experimental media and new technologies.

The philosophy of the program is guided by a belief in the intersection of personal artistic work with interpretive knowledge and of the relevance of the individual documentary/experimental artist within the cultural history and life of communities. A key component to the program is the notion of creative engagement through the arts and the role of the artist in society. Graduates are expected to generate work that has impact both within and outside the academy.

MFA Requirements

• 2-year degree program requiring 15 courses over 4 semesters
• 5 studio courses: Documentary Fieldwork, Experiments in the Moving Image, Computational Media, Thesis Writing Workshop and Thesis Project Workshop
• 5 seminars: Continuity and Change in Experimental and Documentary Arts, Critique I-IV
• 5 electives
• Present project in a second year Spring MFA Exhibition
• Written thesis

Visit Program Website

• Mission Statement
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
• Learning Outcomes
• Local Arts Links
• ARTHIST 345
• ARTHIST 383
• Art History
• Art History: Architecture
• Art History: Museum Theory & Practice
• Art History & Visual Arts
• Computational Media: Interdepartmental Major in Computer Science and Visual and Media Studies
• Visual Arts
• Visual & Media Studies
• Visual and Media Studies: Cinematic Arts
• Computational Media: Interdepartmental Minor in Computer Science and Visual and Media Studies
• Photography
• Cinematic Arts Minor
• Frequently Asked Questions
• How to Apply
• Where Our Students Go
• Capstone Projects
• Graduation with Distinction
• Global Education
• Independent Study & Research
• Senior Portfolio
• Undergrad Grants & Resources
• Student Funding
• Trinity Ambassadors
• Ph.D. in Art History & Visual Culture
• Ph.D. in Computational Media, Arts & Cultures
• MA in Computational Media
• MA in Digital Art History
• Financial Aid
• Meet Our Graduate Students
• Living in Durham
• MA in Digital Art History/Computational Media Students: 2015-2021
• PhD in Art History & Visual Culture Students: 2008-2021
• PhD in CMAC: Retrospective Booklet 2016-2021
• Advising Statement of Expectations
• Dissertation
• Independent Study
• Language Requirement
• Preliminary Exam
• Progress Toward the Degree
• Professional Development
• Historical & Cultural Visualization
• Cinematic Arts
• Computational Media, Arts & Cultures
• Fall 2024 Core Courses
• Primary Faculty
• Secondary Faculty
• Instructors and Affiliated Faculty
• Emeriti Faculty
• Post Docs & Researchers
• Graduate Students
• Student Visual Arts Projects
• Faculty Visual Arts Projects
• Faculty Art History Projects
• Student Visual & Media Studies Projects
• Faculty Visual & Media Studies Projects
• Selected Faculty Books
• Related Programs
• Smith Warehouse Art Exhibition Space Request
• Alumni Profiles
• For Our Students
• Assisting Duke Students

Graduate Film and Media Art (MFA)

Advance your film and media production skills

GRE requirements

Points of entry depending on your professional experience

Credit hours

About the Graduate Film and Media Art Program

Whether you want to explore narrative film, documentary, experimental media, installation art, or interactive media, Emerson College’s on-campus Film and Media Art MFA program gives you the expertise you need.

You will work with a diverse group of students and faculty on our Boston campus as you expand upon your knowledge of film, audio, video, and interactive media production. The program offers the opportunity to use image and sound to challenge, inform, entertain, and persuade through the creation of both traditional and emergent media forms.

Housed in the Department of Visual and Media Arts in the School of the Arts, this program offers three distinct entry points depending on your prior experience and varies in length from two to three years, allowing students with a variety of life experiences and diverse academic backgrounds to inspire each other’s artistic development. Once you are admitted to the program, we will work with you to create a plan of study based on your professional and educational goals.

Program Highlights

• Explore a variety of media production genres and develop expertise in the use of media technologies, criticism and theory, and media business
• Learn from faculty members who are themselves working artists (and whose ranks include Guggenheim and Fulbright fellows) and build a network of creative partnerships that will inspire and support you in your artistic career
• Using our state-of-the-art facilities, immerse yourself in your specific area of interest, producing an ongoing body of work within a collaborative, creative environment
• 2–3 year-long program with advanced standing opportunities available for those with prior experience
• No GRE requirements to apply
• Day and evening classes offered

Request More Information

Program details.

• Curriculum Requirements
• Emerson Advantage
• Tuition & Financial Aid

Upcoming Events

Explore similar programs.

• Creative Writing MFA
• Writing for Film and Television MFA
• For Current Students
• For Parents
• For Faculty
• For the Media

Secondary Menu

• Graduate Education

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

The Center for Documentary Studies cofounded Duke University’s first Master of Fine Arts program, the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA), which brings together the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital and emerging media technologies. This unique two-year program fosters collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners.

The philosophy of the program is guided by a belief in the intersection of personal artistic work with interpretive knowledge and of the relevance of the individual documentary/experimental artist within the cultural history and life of communities. A key component of the program is the notion of creative engagement through the arts and the role of the artist in society. Visit the MFA|EDA’s website for more information.

Other Graduate Opportunities

CDS offers enrollment opportunities to graduate students enrolled at Duke University through graduate pairing numbers. Priority is given to graduate students in Duke’s MFA|EDA program.

The pairing system allows graduate students to take one or more courses at CDS for credit. Enrolled students will participate in courses with undergraduates but receive credit at the graduate level. Most of these courses will require additional work for graduate credit. Note that we offer no graduate certificate or degrees in documentary studies other than our collaborative offerings through the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts.

Interinstitutional Registration

Through an area interinstitutional program, students from the following universities may register for Duke courses, including those offered through CDS (listed as DOCST):

• North Carolina Central University
• North Carolina State University
• University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
• University of North Carolina–Charlotte
• University of North Carolina–Greensboro

Students from these universities should first contact the university registrar at their home campus for details about the process before contacting CDS. Interinstitutional registration is limited to those courses where spaces are available after a host institution’s students have registered.

The procedure for non-Duke graduate students to enroll in CDS graduate-level courses is:

• If there is space available in the course after August 1 (for fall semester courses) or December 1 (for spring semester courses), contact the course instructor and request a permission number. As priority is given to Duke students, please wait until the dates above to request permission to enroll in the course.
• Bring the permission number to your home university’s registrar’s office and request inter-institutional registration for the course.
• Instructors
• E-Newsletter
• Undergraduate Education
• Certificate in Documentary Studies
• Continuing Education
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
• Literacy Through Photography
• Lehman Brady Professorship
• Opportunities
• Filmmaker Award
• Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize
• Curators’ Award for Insight and Innovation
• Julia Harper Day Award for Documentary Studies
• John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards

Experimental and Documentary Arts

The Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts at Duke University brings together two forms of artistic activity—the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media—in a unique program that will foster collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners. Successful completion of the program requires the development of a complex understanding of documentary practices and traditions as well as creative skills in experimental media and new technologies.

The philosophy of the program is guided by a belief in the intersection of personal artistic work with interpretive knowledge and of the relevance of the individual documentary/experimental artist within the cultural history and life of communities. A key component to the program is the notion of creative engagement through the arts and the role of the artist in society. Graduates are expected to generate work that has impact both within and outside the academy.

• Experimental Cinema

News and resources on experimental films

University of iowa fully funded mfa in film and video production.

Rating: 

The University of Iowa’s fully-funded 3-year MFA program in Film & Video Production is seeking applicants for the 2020-2021 academic year!  

The University of Iowa's Department of Cinematic Arts has a long history of fostering experimental and non-mainstream cinema and continues to do so with professors  Christopher Harris ,  Anahita Ghazvinizadeh  and  Nellie Kluz . Recent faculty includes Mike Gibisser and Julie Murray. Along with extensive resources for digital filmmaking, the University of Iowa teaches and provides resources for 16mm and 8mm filmmaking, as well as hosts regular visiting experimental filmmakers who work on film.

For more information about the curriculum, resources, and faculty, visit  https://clas.uiowa.edu/cinematic-arts/graduate-program/mfa-film-and-video-production

Current students’ work ranges from documentary to fiction to experimental. Some work by current students: 

• https://whomichael.com  
• https://vimeo.com/370965671
• https://julianna.vision
• https://audenlincolnvogel.com

Applications are due January 15th 2020 .

Deadline: 

Submission links: .

• university of iowa

Add new comment

More information about text formats

Filtered HTML

• Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <img> <h2> <h1> <h3> <div> <span> <section> <b> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p> <table> <td> <tr> <br> <hr>
• Use [fn]...[/fn] (or <fn>...</fn>) to insert automatically numbered footnotes.
• Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
• Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
• No HTML tags allowed.

Upcoming deadlines

• Resonance Sound Art and New Music Film Festival Thu, 15/08/2024 (All day)
• Film & Video Open Call @ Rhizome DC Thu, 15/08/2024 (All day)
• Signal Culture - Artists, Researchers and Toolmakers residencies Sun, 18/08/2024 (All day)
• III International Poetic Film Showcase Wed, 21/08/2024 (All day)
• Diametrale 2025 - Experiment & Humour/Absurdism Sat, 24/08/2024 - 23:45
• Pugnant Film Series
• MIA @ the Armory
• Queer Moving Image Review Open Call
• UMW Video Wall - Video Art Submissions

• New Film Schools
• Latest content Latest reviews Latest questions
• Search reviews

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

• United States
• North Carolina

Duke University - MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Reviews & Admissions Statistics

• Documentary Filmmaking

Film School details

Related Threads

• FilmSchool.org
• Mar 21, 2021
• General Film School Discussions

Latest questions

• Jul 25, 2024

Hello! I am considering different MFAs to apply to and have come across Duke's Experimental Documentary Film Programme. Does anyone know how this compares to a programme like Chapman that seems to be less academic? Would be great to hear any reflections from someone who has attended this programme!

• Feb 22, 2023

Has anyone heard back from Duke yet? I apply to Duke Experimental Documentary yet but haven't heard anything back.

How was the interview @Wendy Tong

Hi！The interview was good! They were rly nice and only asked me why do I want to go to Duke. And then just asked me to ask them questions. And they gave me 12200 dollars for the second and third semester TA job and 10000 per year scholarship. But I might still want to go Calarts. I'm still thinking about that.

Latest Accepted Applications

Admitted but not attending (after interview)   film mfa 2024.

• Aug 6, 2024
• Reaction score: 1
• Comments: 1

Attending (Off Waitlist w/o Interview)   USC Writing for Screen and Television - Fall 2024

• Jan 8, 2024
• Updated: Aug 2, 2024
• Reaction score: 2
• Comments: 2

Admitted (After Interview)   NFTS VFX 2025 JAN ENTRY

• katakotomba
• May 28, 2024

Admitted (After Interview)   USC Production - Fall 2024 Transfer Student

• Writing Samples
• May 24, 2024
• Comments: 5

Admitted (w/o Interview)   FAMU One-Year Program

• May 19, 2024

Unread posts

• Jan 11, 2024
• Film School Application Year Threads

• Oct 6, 2023
• london writer
• Mar 23, 2024
• MickTheWriter
• Jul 13, 2023
• Feb 26, 2024

Acceptance Data

• AFI Conservatory - American Film Institute
• USC - Film and Television Production (MFA)
• Columbia University - Screenwriting/Directing (M.F.A.)
• NYU - Tisch Film and Television (M.F.A.)

Film School information

Duke University Durham, NC 27708-0800

More in North Carolina

• A UNC- Wilmington A hybrid program of studies and production, this is close to the...
• A Asheville School of Film offers Part-time, Evening, and Weekend Workshops Take one class- or take many! Tailor your education.

Share this Film School

• This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Accept Learn more…

Secondary Menu

Courses of study and degree requirements.

The MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts is a two-year degree program requiring 15 courses over 4 semesters: 10 required (Core) courses in prescribed sequence, and 5 electives. 

• 5 Core  S tudio  courses: Documentary Fieldwork, Experiments in the Moving Image, Genealogies of the Experimental, Thesis Writing Workshop, and Thesis Project Workshop.
• 5 Core  S eminar  courses: Continuity and Change in Experimental and Documentary Arts, Critique I - IV.
• 5  Electives  complete the degree requirement minimum, with one required as supporting thesis project ("Methods"), and one required in an emerging technology ("Comp Media").

Each student’s culminating project will be presented in a second year Spring MFA Exhibition. A written thesis on the project is also required.

YEAR 1 – FALL

• Documentary Fieldwork  (3 units) Exploration of the range of mediums and approaches to community-based documentary work that expresses both cultural/political realities through a personal point of view. Final project required.
• Genealogies of the Experimental  (3 units) History of experimental expression in 20th and 21st century art. Final project required.
• Elective: (3 units) 
• Critique I  (1 unit)

YEAR 1 – SPRING

• Experiments in the Moving Image  (3 units) Methodologies of experimental film and video. Final project required.  
• Continuity and Change in Experimental and Documentary Arts  (3 units) Conceptual survey of documentary studies with attention to experimental and artistic practices. Final project required.
• Critique II  (1 unit)
• Individual Thesis Research

YEAR 2 – FALL

• Thesis Writing Workshop  (3 units)
• Methods Elective: (3 units) An elective that support thesis research or production.
• Critique III   (1 unit)

YEAR 2 – SPRING

• Thesis Project Workshop   (3 units) Production and completion of thesis project.
• Critique IV  (3 units)
• Program Strengths
• Our Collaborators
• Application Guidelines
• Portfolio Guidelines
• Financial Support
• Thesis Exhibitions
• Spotlighted Projects
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Class Offerings
• Visiting Artists - 2024
• Visiting Artists - 2023
• Visiting Artists - 2022
• Visiting Artists - 2021
• Visiting Artists - 2020
• Visiting Artists - 2019
• Visiting Artists - 2018
• Visiting Artists - 2017
• Visiting Artists - 2016
• Visiting Artists - 2015
• Visiting Artists - 2014
• Visiting Artists - 2013
• Visiting Artists - 2012
• Visiting Artists - 2011
• Alumni Highlights
• MFA|EDA Alumni
• For Our Students
• Assisting Duke Students

Filmmaking, MFA

Each student directs three motion picture projects.

The program accepts 12 new students each year; most courses enroll only 12 students.

The extensive equipment room includes over 100 digital camera packages.

Graduates are prepared for careers such as:

Learn to lead a collaborative team in realizing your artistic vision.

Learn to write, produce, shoot, light, edit and sound mix digital media.

New media and experimental courses expand outside conventional forms.

The MFA is a terminal degree that qualifies graduates for university teaching positions.

Develop expertise in producing, screenwriting, cinematography, editing and sound design.

Develop technical expertise and master cinematic storytelling, expression and aesthetics

Develop collaborative and commercial networks with peers and professionals

“ I feel such a strong community here. We’re all creative in our own unique ways. ”

APPLIED LEARNING IN A CREATIVE COMMUNITY

UNCW’s MFA in filmmaking is an immersive three-year terminal degree program. The comprehensive curriculum includes multi-modal (narrative, documentary and experimental) workshops in cinematography, screenwriting, editing, sound design, producing and directing, as well as courses in cinema history, analysis and aesthetics.

You will develop technical expertise and a creative voice by directing three film projects, collaborating on projects directed by peers and developing filmmaking skills in specialized classes, including elective courses in animation and new media (installation, 360 video, VR and interactive media). You will be matched with faculty mentors offering a wide range of experience and expertise.

You will build additional skills and grow your professional network by completing an applied learning project in community outreach, an internship or other professional collaboration.

The MFA in filmmaking is part of a thriving film community. The UNCW Film Studies Department also offers an M.A. in film studies program and an active undergraduate film studies program.

Wilmington is home to EUE/Screen Gems studios , the Wilmington Regional Film Commission , the documentary organization Working Films , multiple production companies  and the acclaimed Cucalorus Film Festival .

Resources and Facilities

University film center.

• Large equipment room stocked with full range of camera, lighting, grip and sound equipment.
• 4,000-square-foot sound stage with set, lighting grid and full company power box.
• Postproduction lab with 20 pro dual 27-inch monitor Mac stations.
• Sound recording and mixing studio.
• 70-seat theater with 4K digital projection and 7.1 surround sound.
• New media studio with lighting grid, company power box and green screen, as well as equipment dedicated to immersive sound and video installation production.
• Media lab and research space with equipment for volumetric video capture, projection mapping, virtual reality, 360 cinema capture, binaural and ambisonic sound recording, and stop motion animation.
• Postproduction lab with 20 dual 27-inch monitor Mac stations.
• 175-seat high-definition digital movie theater with 7.1 surround sound.

MFA in filmmaking students shoot assignments and projects on professional-standard digital and celluloid cameras. Narrative cameras are equipped with high quality prime lens sets, follow focus, matte box and fluid head tripods.

All UNCW students are provided with the Adobe Creative Cloud software suite, which including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Photoshop and InDesign. Post-production labs are equipped with Mac Pro and iMac computers loaded with the software above, as well as Pro Tools, Movie Magic, Final Cut Pro, Izotope RX, Red Giant and Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve.

Sample Courses

Admission Deadlines & Requirements

Information: m.f.a. filmmaking.

• Complete applications are considered for admission as a group, after the published deadline.
• Applications received on or before the priority deadline will receive priority review. Applications submitted after the priority deadline will be reviewed through the space available deadline if unfilled positions remain. 

Coordinator

• Mr. André Silva 910-962-2229 [email protected]  

Location/DeliveryMethod

• Main Campus

Deadlines (11:59 p.m. EST)

• Complete application required by priority deadline for teaching assistantship consideration & other support.
• Space Available Deadline:  May 1, 2025

Transcripts

• One official transcript is required from each U.S. post-secondary institution attended. Refer to the Getting Started page for international transcript instructions.

Test Scores

• None Required

Recommendations

• 3 letters of recommendation

Additional Requirements

• Upload Supplemental Documents After Submission
• A Statement of Purpose:   A Statement of Purpose that articulates the goals the candidate would like to pursue in the M.F.A. program. The Statement of Purpose must also include links to creative film or video work uploaded to Vimeo.com, and a description of the work that includes your role in each project, and the date each project was completed. Teaching Assistantship: Applicants who wish to be considered for a teaching assistant position should include a paragraph communicating interest, relevant experience, and ways they seek to foster community and inclusion for students of all backgrounds on set and in the classroom.
• A sample of creative film or video work:  A sample of creative film or video work. You may submit multiple samples of creative work, but the total running time of all samples must be at least 5 minutes and no more than 20 minutes. All creative work samples must be uploaded to Vimeo.com, with links and descriptions included in the Statement of Purpose.  Vimeo.com Information
• Work in other media:   Work in other media (i.e. still photographs, audio projects or a written script) may be submitted, but at least one example of filmmaking work is required. The application for graduate admission allows up to three uploads of work in other media, each with a maximum size of 20mb.
• An example of academic writing: This may be a anything that you’ve written for a class. There is no page limit; we recommend something at least 5-10 pages long.
• Resume or Curriculum Vitae
• Differential Tuition: Differential tuition applies to this program. Tuition & Fees

Explore More Program Details

Learn more about the Department

Related Programs

Film studies, m.a..

A two-year Master of Arts degree in the history, theory and aesthetics of cinema.

Creative Writing, MFA

An intensive, three-year studio-academic experience in the writing of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction.

CalArts offers a variety of unique programs at the undergraduate and graduate level within its six world-renowned Schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater.

Undergraduate core courses are the foundation of BFA studies at CalArts, providing a strong general education and opportunities to deepen every student's artistic practice.

• Interdisciplinary
• International Engagement Opportunities
• Open Learning
• Coursera for Campus
• Academic Calendar
• Course Catalog
• Academic Requirements
• Archived Catalogs

Explore is your first stop if you are considering applying to CalArts. Here you can find information about your program(s) of interest, events the Institute is hosting or attending, a virtual campus map, and much more. Your journey to CalArts starts here.

• Application Process
• Application Deadlines
• International Applicants
• Transfer Applicants
• Academic Transcripts
• Letters of Recommendation
• Critical Studies
• Center for Integrated Media
• Campus Tours and Information Sessions
• Open Houses
• Accepted Students
• Submit Enrollment Deposit
• Admissions FAQ
• Meet Our Counselors
• Tuition and Fees
• Cost of Attendance
• Net Price Calculator
• Estimated Multi-Year Tuition Schedule
• Health Insurance
• For BFA Students
• For Graduate Students
• Outside Private Scholarships
• International Students
• Federal Work Study
• Student Employment
• Policies & Eligibility
• Self-Service Proxy
• Financial Literacy Resources
• Understanding Your Award
• How to Pay Tuition
• Payment and Refund Deadlines
• Payment Options
• Access Tuition Statement
• Residence Life
• Dining Options
• Student Union
• Campus Maps
• Santa Clarita Tip Sheet
• Health and Wellness
• Disability Services
• Academic Support
• International Student Support
• Sexual Respect
• Office Of Community Rights And Responsibilities
• Basic Needs Center
• Career Fair
• Internship Program
• Bridges to Industry Program
• Campus Safety
• Covid Updates
• Board of Trustees
• Mission and Values
• Strategic Framework
• Equity and Diversity (IDEA)
• Nondiscrimination Policy
• Facts and Figures
• Accreditation
• Consumer Information
• The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts
• Land Acknowledgment
• Institutional Effectiveness
• Giving Opportunities
• Planned Giving
• Impact Stories
• How to Give
• Industry Partnerships
• Advancement Staff
• Annual Report
• Scholarship Impact
• Alumni Council
• Alumni Events
• Benefits and Discounts
• Stay Connected
• Get Involved
• Professional Development Resources
• Parents & Families
• CalArts News
• Event Publicity
• Social Media
• Publications
• Events Calendar

CalArts is located in Santa Clarita, Calif., 30 miles north of Los Angeles. Explore the local area and community.

Offering innovative continuing education arts courses designed to meet the needs of both emerging artists and lifelong learners.

• Request Info

Experimental Animation

Program faculty.

The Experimental Animation Program offers a framework in which students explore, develop and refine intellectually demanding, aesthetically progressive concepts and professional practices in their personal cinematic art-making.

The Program enjoys a long-standing international reputation for excellence in innovative animation production. Its faculty, students and alumni have consistently won top awards at festivals worldwide and are widely credited with helping to define the art of animation as we know it today.

Program Gallery

Lilli Carré

Stephen Chiodo

Hillary Kapan

Kangmin Kim

Wendell Mc Shine

Jonah Primiano

Alexander Stewart

Mark Toscano

Jamie Wolfe

Jordan Wong

Student Story

Before coming in to CalArts, I’d been freelancing for clients such as Google, Whole Foods, Facebook, Toyota and Nestlé, but I wanted to get more serious about directing—about becoming the one in charge. I looked at the CalArts website and found the student work incredibly inspiring. I thought, "I want to be  there . There must be some magic in this place."

My stop-motion work has a handmade, rough-around-the-edges feel, but also a clean sense of design. It became a marketable niche.  Bottle  was made at CalArts with the support of my mentor and faculty—as well as student-to-student collaboration—that, at times, was just as helpful. I like to play with different materials, and for  Bottle,  I animated, with sand and snow. I’d never seen that done before and the film got a lot of attention.

Just after I released my thesis film online, the showrunner from  Adventure Time  called and said they’d seen it and that they’d love for me to create a stop-motion episode for them. It was the first time that I had a whole team of professionals working with me, which was amazing. I’m also happy to be teaching at CalArts. It’s nice to come back and say, "Hey, I graduated recently and I’m able to make my living doing these things. Let me help you so that you can also be successful, too." I can’t imagine doing it at any other school.

Similar Programs

Character Animation

Follow the program of experimental animation.

Home • Programs • Experimental Animation

School of Film/Video

661-253-7825 phone 661-253-7824 fax (main) 661-291-2728 fax (Character Animation) Room E204

Skip to Content

Other ways to search:

• Events Calendar

The MFA in Film is an interdisciplinary endeavor between the Art and Art History Department and the Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts Department and offers the best of both worlds.

We welcome applications from emerging film artists interested in creating fiction or non-fiction cinema, animation, moving image installations, media performance or hybrid time-based works from single channel to the white cube gallery, and beyond.

Students interested in the legacies of cinema history, personal experimental filmmaking, media appropriation, social, environmental and landscape research, projection performance and installation, artisanal film laboratories, and film preservation are sure to find a faculty who are accomplished and ready to engage with them.  

Research and development of Film MFA projects are supported through graduate coursework, studio visits with faculty and visiting artists, a yearly Imagemakers Graduate Seminar, the visiting filmmakers program First Person Cinema, and the annual Brakhage Film Symposium. Some grants available for funding of student projects. Grads are assigned their own studio space amongst their cohort of Arts Practices MFAs of all disciplines.

Film MFAs have access to the full range of cinematic tools from analog to digital: cameras, projectors and sundries, in-house digital-to-film & film-to-digital transfer stations, animation stands and optical printers, a fully stocked computer editing/post-production lab, a fully functioning Steenbeck lab, a chemical darkroom, a new shooting studio, and an in-progress film preservation center.  

Admission to our program is selective and strongly dependent upon the portfolio and we are looking for creative potential in moving image work—not a reel—but films, videos, sound, installations or media performances you have created and are invested in. Other mediums also encouraged. Tell us what you are passionate about and why, and what you’ve seen that inspires you to work with film and media.

Study and create smart and innovative moving image works in a visual arts program inside a research university. Explore the full range of media materials and processes, integrating studio practice with history and critical studies. Work closely with a faculty of working artists, scholars, and cinephiles.

MFA Application

Explore the Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts Department

• Theatres/Projection Rooms  
• The Brakhage Center
• First Person Cinema Visting Artist Series
• CINE Faculty ​

Area Faculty

Alumni Spotlight

Adam Sekuler

MFA, Film, 2017 Artist Website

Since the program consists of not just filmmakers, but artists across disciplines, cohort feedback would come from artists working not just in filmmaking, but in photography, ceramics, sculpture, print making, and painting. Moreover, this gave me access to professors working in those disciplines as well.

When I was looking at graduate programs, I applied to a number of schools where I knew the work of the faculty. CU, at the time, had a number of well known filmmakers; Jeanne Liotta, Phil Solomon, Alex Cox, and Reece August. I admired all of their work, but faculty reputation alone wasn't the deciding factor. Additionally, when I learned that my incoming film cohort would consist of just one other student, I couldn't believe it. Not only would all these wonderful artists become colleagues and mentors over the next few years, but I wouldn't have to struggle to get time with them. Boulder, was unique in other ways as well.

I currently live in New Orleans teaching at Loyola University. My practice remains active with several projects in development. I recently received a major grant from POLIN, a Jewish museum in Poland, to make a new short film for an exhibition that will take place in April of 2022. Additionally, I'm in production on a new feature length documentary called The Flamingo , about a late in life sexual awakening of a 60 year woman in Salt Lake City. I also just completed a short experimental film exploring abandoning a project on the end of the world amidst a global pandemic.

Christin Turner

I am living and working as a freelance filmmaker/artist in Berlin. My current project is a feature length essay film, which is an extension of my thesis short “Vesuvius at Home.” Based upon Jungian scholar Linda Fierz-David’s classic psychological analysis of the Villa of the Mysteries and its frescoes depicting an initiation ceremony for women, and Nor Hall’s study of the lives of Jungian women analysts to excavate a memoir of cinema, the female self situated in the paradox of destruction, creation, and preservation. 

I choose the CU Boulder MFA program because it was the best value for faculty, equipment, and personal freedom than the other MFA programs I was accepted to. I appreciated that it is interdisciplinary because my video work benefits from the other arts. Furthermore, being located away from filmmaking hubs like Los Angeles or New York, I could focus on developing my own voice as an artist/filmmaker outside of commercial pressure and have access to landscapes or ideas outside of or inaccessible to the typical modes of image-making in America. 

I remember my first week at the program uncertain if I had made the right choice to be there. I was sitting in a class by the late and great Phil Solomon titled Transcendental Cinema, where we sat in the dark and had the most deeply moving and emotionally resonant images presented before us by a man who loved them as much as a parent loves a child. Eloquence, beauty, and reverence were before me in body, spirit and celluoid. I was humbled and sure that despite any challenges or setbacks that lay before me, or were of my own making, I was ultimately where I needed to be for the type of work I needed to make. 

What Happens to the Mountain  (2017) trailer  Christin Turner, MFA 2018

Dakota Nanton

MFA, Film, 2019 Artist Website

It was amazing to have studio visits with the many visiting filmmakers and artists in the program, I met so many artists I looked up to previously and got to have one-on-one discussions with them.

I was an Alumni of the BFA program in printmaking and had a great experience with supportive faculty and staff in the department. When I decided to pursue my BFA I returned to the MFA program in another discipline in order to expand my career skills and work with the amazing mentors on the faculty and to take advantage of the amazing facilities and resources.

I recently began a career as an Assistant Professor of Cinema at the University of Hartford after completing the prestigious yearlong "Jackie McLean Fellowship". I am currently working on an animated travelogue that is the culmination of five years of research and archival work.

• Art History
• Foundations
• Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practice -IMAP
• Painting & Drawing
• Printmaking
• Sculpture & Post-Studio Practice

MFA Experience

The program is housed in the MFA Studios and Gallery, which includes individual studios for every graduate student (available summer between first and second year), a large gallery space, computer lab, classroom space, and more. Graduate students also have access to the  full production facilities  and  exhibition spaces  at MCAD.

The MCAD community expands outside of our studios and galleries:

• Minnesota's Twin Cities
• Museum Neighbors
• Mizna – the only Arab American lit and art journal in the country
• Forecast Public Art – fosters public art, community-engaged design, and transformative placemaking
• Minnesota Center for Book Arts – largest and most comprehensive book arts center of its kind
• Film North – education, resources, and leadership for film and media artists
• Midwest Comic Book Association –  presents the MSP Spring Comic Con and MSP Fall Comic Con
• McKnight Discussion Series – Each spring visiting critics pair with McKnight Visual Artist Fellows for public discussion
• Walker Insights Design Lecture Series – Each spring a series of world-class designers lecture on their practices
• Hellavision Television Network – Participatory events emphasizing improv practices to create animation, film, art, & design.
• Twin Cities Zine Fest – Annual celebration of Twin Cities zine-makers, illustrators, and comic artists.
• Art Shanty Projects – Each winter, using lake ice as a relatively unregulated public space to expand the notions of what art can be.
• The Great Northern – An annual, interdisciplinary, 10-day cultural celebration and investigation of The North in a time of climate change
• Walker Out There Performance Series – Each winter, international performance artists visit for short runs of their cutting-edge work

Publications

Scroll through MFA publications from recent years. See thesis work from our graduates and recent alumni. 

Throughout your time as a graduate student, and once you become an alumni, you will have many opportunities to showcase your work. Some of the opportunities include:

• MFA Fall Show : During the first weeks of the fall semester, students plan and curate an exhibition introducing the new MFA candidates and showcasing recent work from the second-year students. This event is timed to coincide with an alumni reception and the opening of fall exhibitions in the main MCAD Gallery.
• Art Sale : Annually, MCAD puts together the nation’s largest college art sale, one of the most anticipated art events in the Twin Cities. Since it began in 1997, the MCAD Art Sale has generated millions of dollars for emerging artists. MFA students and alumni successfully participate every year.
• Mid-Program Review : In this second-semester milestone, students demonstrate and discuss how they participate in their fields of creative study for a panel of faculty and outside reviewers. Students receive oral and written feedback for their reflection and integration as they prepare for advanced work in the program. 
• Public Research Presentations : At the end of the third semester, students each give a public presentation of their research completed in the course, Graduation Preparation I . This event is an opportunity for the community to familiarize themselves with our soon-to-be graduating MFA students and their research.
• Thesis Exhibition : This fourth-semester exhibition showcases the graduating class and provides the setting for all thesis reviews. There is a public reception, and the end of the show overlaps with graduation, so traveling friends and families can see the work.

Community Agreements and Priorities

The MFA Program has articulated the following agreements and priorities. We share these publicly and during orientation, so everyone begins their MFA journey with an understanding of these foundational ideas. 

• We want to respectfully acknowledge that the land we are occupying in Minneapolis is unceded territory, the ancestral homelands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. We acknowledge the grave harm that colonialism brought to these lands, in particular the erasure of both indigenous and African identities not only under genocide and slavery, but via racist laws that have segregated all people. We honor those who have lived– and do live, now– at these intersections of identity and experience.
• We create a collective, equitable, inclusive, and accessible community for an interdisciplinary and diverse group of makers. We want every student to have a place and purpose in this tight-knit program, supported by a strong cohort and the MCAD community.
• We normalize discussion of anti-racism, gender, disability, age (and the many other markers of privilege and difference), and systems of power and oppression as they relate to individuals’ creative practices.
• We are accommodating to all religions and practices and offer spaces to students if need be.
• We support each other’s health and safety, both physically and mentally. This includes support for victims of abuse or harassment. See  Title IX resources .
• We value transparency and patience in communication between peers, and between students and the institution. We provide opportunities and time for everyone to communicate.
• We promote engagement with, and questioning of, contemporary discourses and contexts in students’ respective fields of study. We promote expansive, brave and courageous boundary-breaking.
• We promote discourse with mentors, faculty, staff, undergraduates, visiting makers, and community members. We value peer review and iteration as forms of community. We acknowledge the difference between intent and impact during discussion, and know that trust takes time to build.
• We celebrate blurring boundaries across disciplines and the fluid practices formed at the intersection of many creative modes, bodies of knowledge, and communities (mirroring real world creative practices).
• We value personal change, evolution, and discovery throughout students’ time in the program and are open to shifting and growing practices in new and exciting ways.
• We facilitate setting personalized creative goals, promoting self-determination, curiosity, and responsible research paths.
• We invest in our graduates’ success after graduation, and believe ongoing community development in combination with learning tangible professional development skills builds sustainability and financial health, which is a social justice issue.
• We provide value to a community beyond just the MCAD MFA Program through outreach in the form of public artist talks, workshops, and exhibitions. We value this community outreach.
• We value the ways in which art and design play a vital role in a healthy, functioning, and compassionate society. By promoting creativity and fun, we help keep perspective on what we are doing in the academy.

Awards and Recognitions

Since 2013, we have had seven of our international alumni successfully secure  O1 visas , a highly competitive honor.

U.S. News & World Report  has listed MCAD’s master of fine arts program as one of the top sixty in the nation.

Animation Career Review  has listed MCAD’s master of fine arts program as one of the top twenty in the nation for both  animation  and  graphic design .

Best Value Schools  has list MCAD’s master of fine arts program in the top twenty in the nation.

View MCAD’s  awards ,  accreditation, and affiliations .

Have more questions about MCAD's MFA program?

© 2024 MCAD All Rights Reserved.

• Policies & Consumer Information

Feature Film Production MFA

Storytellers wanted. Make your feature film.

UCF’s MFA in Feature Film Production is a three-year, graduate film production program that focuses on independent digital filmmaking. The Orlando-based program includes narrative, documentary, and experimental filmmaking. The thesis includes a feature film independently produced and distributed.

• Course of Study
• Tuition and Fees
• Assistantships & Fellowships
• Faculty and Staff
• Facilities and Equipment

The MFA program supports a flexible curriculum to foster student’s creative vision and professional goals.

Top 5 Reasons to Come to UCF

• Feature Film Thesis
• Affordable & Flexible Curriculum
• Industry-Grade Facilities & Faculty
• Independent Film-Maker Model
• Based in Orlando, One of the World’s Entertainment Capitals

Alumni Spotlight

Emilia garcia.

Emilia Garcia is now the Film School Director at Universidad Catolica Santiago de Guayaquil in Ecuador, where she teaches filmmaking classes and oversees film school programs.  She graduated in 2013 after directing her feature film debut, The Decorruption.  Her film won three awards and screened in six film festivals.  You can watch a trailer for Emilia’s thesis film here .

“The MFA prepared me to see microbudget filmmaking as a viable alternative, especially in the context of the Ecuadorian film market which I try to instill in my students.” — Emilia Garcia

Julian Baner

Julian Baner’s MFA thesis film Some Southern Waters made its world premiere at one of the South’s most prestigious film festivals, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.  Baner describes the film as “a black and white mystery/thriller about an aimless musician who spirals into the surreal after his girlfriend’s death.” Baner graduated in Spring of 2020 after serving as a graduate teaching associate and developing the UCF Film BFA’s new course Directing Techniques. If you would like to see Baner’s film in the virtual version of FLFF, click here . To read an exclusive interview with Julian Baner, written by Dara Anya, click here .

“UCF is the only school in the US that truly supports creating a feature-length film. It has been one of the greatest hands-on learning experiences I could have asked for. Feels like a lifetime’s worth of learning in three years.” — Julian Baner

Max rousseau.

Max Rousseau graduated UCF with a Digital Entrepreneurial Cinema MFA in Summer 2013. There, he produced his feature film, Pembroke Circle. In 2017, Rousseau moved to Boston where he currently works as Science Multimedia Coordinator at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. “My job is to tell the stories behind the cutting-edge science and innovations through short documentaries, narratives and photos.”

Rousseau has worked on projects that celebrate the extraordinary women at the Wyss Institute and that capture the Institute’s creative and innovative spirit as faculty discuss how disruptive technology solutions can positively impact the world. Rousseau is currently working on the second installment to his piece that expresses the impact COVID is having on the Wyss Institute and how the Institute is fighting to assist healthcare workers and to make advancements on the vaccine. You can watch the first installment of this series here.

“My MFA at UCF helped develop my storytelling skills, resourcefulness, and work ethic; all have been critical assets in my current position.” — Max Rousseau

About the mfa.

The Emerging Media MFA – Feature Film Production is a terminal degree, the highest degree awarded to filmmakers or film artists. It is a highly selective and rigorous professional film production program for visual artists and film practitioners who demonstrate exceptional artistic and intellectual prowess, evidence of significant professional promise and a commitment to the expressive potential of digital filmmaking and the exploration of non-traditional modes of distribution. The MFA in Feature Film Production produces graduates with mastery of storytelling through the digital medium as it encourages the candidate to find his or her personal style. Entrepreneurial in spirit, the program emphasizes story, performance, aesthetic choice, business, and creative thinking. When participation is committed and complete, the program develops graduates who can compete in the worlds of national and international independent filmmaking.

While students may make a thesis film outside the narrative feature film model (i.e., an experimental or documentary film), all MFA candidates are required to take the core required courses that teach the customs and skills required of the narrative model. Upon completion of the degree, each student will have produced a microbudget digital feature film or long-form equivalent body of work and prepared a marketing strategy for its distribution and exhibition. The budgetary limitation is designed to encourage the student to move away from more traditional modes of production toward an approach that minimizes crew size, cast size, shooting time and production costs in favor of more careful planning, more personal filmmaking and more creative use of the means of production. We welcome innovative approaches within the digital cinema paradigm that reimagine how new technologies can create alternative performances to exploit the tension between narrative and experimental storytelling, creating a new agency for actors and new expectations for audiences.

Narrative Film Contacts

Kate Shults Lecturer

Tim Ritter Lecturer

Documentary Film Contacts

Lisa Mills Professor & Assistant Director

Experimental Film Contacts

Lisa Kritzer Graduate Coordinator & Assistant Professor

Films by UCF faculty and students have screened at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals.

If you really want to get a sense of what we’re all about, plan a campus visit. Visit with students, talk to faculty and tour our facilities. UCF is calling.

Contact Charlie Elliott Graduate Admissions Specialist [email protected]

• Edit Account
• Manage Interests
• Manage Memberships
• Check Benefits
• Automatic Renewal
• Video Content
• View Cart 0
• Time Remaining: 0:00

MFA Boston Presents "Body Awareness: Maria Lassnig's Experimental Films"

On view October 15, 2022–April 2, 2023

BOSTON (September 26, 2022)—This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), presents Body Awareness: Maria Lassnig’s Experimental Films , on view in the Lizbeth and George Krupp Gallery from October 15, 2022 through April 2, 2023. This exhibition celebrates pioneering work on film by the late Austrian artist Maria Lassnig (1919–2014), featuring 16 pieces exploring physical sensation, autobiography, friendship and New York City, where Lassnig lived in the 1970s. In one way or another, all of Lassnig’s films investigate what the artist termed “body awareness,” an ambitious artistic desire to express the complex and often slippery subjective qualities of internal sensory experience and self-perception. Reproductions of ephemera—texts and images from the Maria Lassnig Foundation in Vienna, Austria—give a glimpse into the artist’s practice and document the evolution of her ideas. 

Although best known as a painter, Lassnig turned to film in 1970. Her birth as a filmmaker occurred when her long-standing interest in the influence of technology on everyday life deepened during animation courses she took at the School of Visual Arts when she arrived in New York. From that point on, Lassnig created animations using felt-tip pen drawings, stencils, spray paint and collaged magazine cutouts as well as live-action scenes featuring protagonists and settings drawn from friends and everyday encounters. In her works from the 1970s, physical sensation is often highlighted—stiff chair backs become fluid as the cushioning spills out, and stones are lifted, dropped and slip into the ether—as the body appears and disappears, always changing. In 1974, Lassnig joined the downtown group Women/Artist/Filmmakers Inc., whose members included Carolee Schneemann, Silvianna Goldsmith and Rosalind Schneider. Their collective was an act of artistic solidarity and community and a direct riposte to the marginalization of women in the art world. 

“Maria Lassnig is one of those artists whose work is hard to easily summarize and that is part of what makes it so special,” said Michelle Millar Fisher, Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. “Both her paintings and films deserve wider audiences. It's a joy to show these film works, a practice she developed while living in the U.S. In concert with her insistence on figuration in painting and her introspective inclinations, her films explored interior emotional experiences. They are a part of her oeuvre that is powerfully resonant with contemporary issues of portraiture in art and wider currents of socially-mediated images.”

The exhibition will include the following films by Lassnig:

• Encounter , 1970
• Chairs , 1971
• Selfportrait , 1971
• Iris , 1971
• Shapes , 1972
• Baroque Statues , 1970–74
• Palmistry , 1974
• Art Education , 1976
• Maria Lassnig Kantate , ( The Ballad of Maria Lassnig ), 1992 (with Hubert Sielecki)

Films from the estate:

• Broadway I and II , early 1970s
• Godfather I, II, and III , 1974
• Stone Lifting. A Self Portrait in Progress , 1971–75
• Kopf (Head) , mid-1970s
• Soul Sisters. Hilde , 1972–76
• Soul Sisters. Alice , 1974/79
• Soul Sisters. Bärbl , 1974/79

The exhibition is included with general admission. Visitors can also explore Body Awareness: Maria Lassnig’s Experimental Films during MFA Late Nites—the Museum’s popular after-hours event, back for the first time since 2019—taking place from 8 pm to midnight on October 21.

With gratitude to the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Austrian Film Museum, and sixpackfilm for their kind and warm collaboration which has made this exhibition possible. 

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The MFA brings many worlds together through art. Showcasing masterpieces from ancient to modern, our renowned collection of nearly 500,000 works tells a multifaceted story of the human experience—a story that holds unique meaning for everyone. From Boston locals to international travelers, visitors from across the globe come to experience the MFA. Through both art and audience, the Museum brings together diverse perspectives—revealing connections, exploring differences, creating a community where all belong. Plan your visit at mfa.org.

• Current Students
• Brightspace
• UWinsite Student
• Campus Bookstore
• Faculty + Staff
• UWinsite Finance
• Alumni + Donors
• Industry + Community Partners
• About UWindsor
• Office of the President
• People, Equity and Inclusion
• Virtual Tour
• Visitor Information
• Campus Maps
• VIEW Magazine
• Undergraduate Programs
• Graduate Programs
• International Programs
• Co-operative Education
• Continuing Education
• Office of the Registrar
• Financial Matters
• Office of the Provost
• Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
• Engineering
• Graduate Studies
• Human Kinetics
• Vice-President, Research & Innovation
• Research & Innovation Services
• Research Partnerships
• Research Appointments
• Research Ethics
• Research Safety
• Animal Care
• Research Finance
• Leddy Library
• UWill Discover!
• About Student Life
• UWindsor Events
• SoCA Concerts & Events
• Lancers Varsity Sports
• University Players
• Athletics + Recreation Services
• Student Accessibility Services
• Food Services
• Student Support
• UWindsor Home
• Master of Fine Arts Program

MFA-Film and Media Arts

Mfa - film and media arts.

The School of Creative Arts offers an MFA in Film and Media Arts program. This innovative program spans traditional film modes for theatrical, broadcast, and streaming platforms, including emerging and expanded documentary forms. Instruction includes exploration of the theory, history, and craft of filmmaking. Students work in a tight-knit, collaborative environment with small classes dedicated to their development as moving image storytellers. The program is a full-time, two-year, five-term program offered at the downtown campus at the University of Windsor’s School of Creative Arts. 

Faculty in the MFA in Film and Media Arts have expertise in fiction, experimental film, and documentary from observational and cinéma-vérité approaches to expanded, ‘i-doc’ models that push the boundaries of emerging interactive and participatory forms. Faculty work has been broadcast and exhibited at festivals, galleries, and museums and across North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. School of Creative Arts faculty members are working on a range of externally funded projects in documentary cinema models ranging from  theatrical to  streaming models , as well as  multimedia performance  and  expanded documentary to fiction and innovative border-crossing modes. Our award-winning School of Creative Arts film production faculty screen films regularly at Academy award-qualifying festivals across the globe. University of Windsor Film MFA graduates have gone on to rewarding careers in film production and post-production and have accepted positions as full members of IATSE and the Directors Guild of Canada.   

We encourage applications from filmmakers interested in traditional and emerging film practices.

Philosophy and Objectives

The MFA in Film and Media Arts program at the University of Windsor is focused on the development of the student’s studio practice across all genres of film production and media arts. Our program provides a critical and theoretical framework that fosters dialogue and experimentation by providing a challenging environment to expand definitions of contemporary creative practice. Students spend twenty months (five semesters) in full-time study, taking graduate level coursework leading to the thesis screening or exhibition and oral defense at the end of the program.

The objective of the MFA Film and Media Arts program is to produce artists that are self-critical and culturally aware, capable of engaging in the contemporary art world independently and self-reliantly both in terms of technical abilities and expanding professional opportunities encountered beyond the university context. The work of the graduate students encompasses a broad range of practices, aesthetic issues, personal concerns and technical means. Our program typically attracts a select group of students who pursue studio work that dissolves the boundaries of traditional areas of specialization.

Program Structure

The MFA Film and Media Arts program provide two years of advanced education and creative development in the student’s chosen area of research. The curriculum consists of studio practice and critical research seminars, accompanied by the student’s production work. These are supported by critical dialogue among students, faculty, visiting artists, lectures and conferences. Students are required to complete the following courses: two studio practice seminars, one seminar on contemporary issues, and one seminar on graduate research and writing. After the completion of the above, students prepare their thesis proposal and their final support paper and individual thesis screening or exhibition, which is examined through oral defense.

Course descriptions

All graduate studio courses are directed individual studies courses. Projects will be planned and carried out in conjunction with a faculty supervisor.

VSAR-8650 Studio Production I: Through discussion, exercises and hands-on work, students explore the concepts, technologies, theories and production techniques of film and video creation and cinematic storytelling. (Lab fees may apply.) VSAR-8660 Studio Production II : This course explores experimental and innovative approaches to media arts. The focus of the course is on experimental video, animation, video installation art, interactive art, audio/sound art, audio responsive installation, multimedia performance, and any fusion thereof. Time-based media arts environments may include sound, video, images, text and/or alternate physical feedback as triggered by interaction. (Lab fees may apply.)

VSAR-8620 – VSAR-8640: Studio Practice II-IV:  Directed individual research in the form of studio projects supervised by a committee comprised of a principal advisor and two or three faculty members. MACS-8600 Seminar on Contemporary Issues:  This course covers current issues in contemporary art and critical theory.  Through presentations, reflective papers, and the establishment of a research archive, students develop an individual dialogue with contemporary theory that is pertinent to their studio practice.

MACS-8000 Directed Individual Studies: Graduate Research Seminar:  This seminar is based on research methodologies and writing strategies that enable students to gain proficiency with advanced level research and writing.

VSAR-8970 Thesis:  The thesis consists of an exhibition of a body of original creative works within the MFA candidate’s area of studio research. The thesis is planned and executed in conjunction with the candidate’s advisory committee. This final exhibition is regarded as the equivalent of the scholarly thesis of an academic discipline, and is examined by an oral defense conducted through a committee of internal and external examiners. The MFA candidate will also prepare a substantial research paper that acts as a support document for the thesis exhibition.

Applications for the September 2024 intake are now closed. Please visit our website at a later date for updates on September 2025 intake.

Apply Now! 

Cinematic Arts

Master of Fine Arts in Film and Video Production

Iowa has a long and venerable tradition of university-level film production stretching back to the 1930s. The first graduate work in Film and Television started in the early 1950s, when the Department of Radio, Television and Film was inaugurated, along with state-of-the-art  film and television studios, and we have had a strong reputation for experimental film since the 1970s.

Today, our program offers a fully-funded MFA in Film and Video Production over three years. The program seeks to help students to develop an artistic vision informed by theoretical knowledge; to hone their technical skills in image design, sound, editing and more; to accumulate a strong portfolio; and to acquire essential professional skills (grants, film festivals, etc.) in view of further employment either in academia or in professional settings. All students in our program also gain the teaching experience essential for anyone wishing to enter academia. Strengths in our program include 16mm film, art-house cinema and documentary cinema in various forms.

Our students also enjoy a rich graduate student community. Film and Video Production students regularly collaborate with graduate students from Film Studies and take graduate seminars both in Film Studies and across the university.

For a good overview of what your trajectory might look like, you can consult our  Graduate Student Handbook of Policies and Procedures , especially the section outlining the MFA timeline with milestones by semester. 

To see our university placement record for MFAs, please see the Careers and Opportunities page.

For more information on graduate student funding, please our Funding page here.

If you think you might be interested in applying, it's good to start by consulting faculty profiles available on our People page. Active faculty in Film and Video Production include Laura Gede, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Chris Harris and Hope Tucker.

For instructions, deadlines and minimal requirements for MFA applications, please consult the Graduate Admissions page.

For any further questions, you may also contact our Director of Graduate Studies or the Head of film and Video Production, listed on the People page of this website.

Listed below are the general categories of coursework required to earn the degree; for more specific information on courses, curriculum, and requirements of the Master of Fine Arts in film and video production, visit the UI General Catalog .

MFA Thesis Project

Looking forward to the final year, the committee reviews the candidate’s work to date along with a written proposal for the MFA Thesis project. This year-long project should both extend the candidate’s artistic concerns and contribute to a coherent body of work.

MFA in Film and Video Production (General Catalog)

NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity working to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

MFAIEDA 2023 Thesis Exhibition

The Masters of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts at Duke University, established in 2011, couples experimental visual practice with the documentary arts in a rigorous two-year program. For more than three decades, Duke has demonstrated leadership in documentary arts, film and video, and visual studies. Drawing upon this commitment to the arts, as well as the university’s existing strengths in historical, theoretical and technological scholarship, the MFA|EDA offers a distinct learning environment that sees interdisciplinary education as a benchmark for significant creativity, innovation, and documentary storytelling.

More information on the program, faculty, curriculum and application guidelines is available on the MFA|EDA website at mfaeda.duke.edu . Additional inquiries may be sent to  [email protected] .

Film and Animation Master of Fine Arts Degree

Request Info about graduate study Visit Apply

Graduates of RIT’s film and animation MFA work as artists, filmmakers, and storytellers at the world’s leading animation and live-action studios, including Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks, and Nickelodeon.

Among Schools Offering An Animation MFA

Overview for Film and Animation MFA

• Study an option in animation (2D or stop-motion), 3D animation, production, or screenwriting
• Access 2D, 3D, stop-motion animation, and virtual reality labs
• Utilize multiple sound stages with post-production editing, sound mixing, and color correction suites.
• 24/7 Access to a dedicated graduate lab with industry-level software.
• Gain career experience as a graduate assistant, faculty research assistant, and more.

The film and animation MFA is supported by highly specialized faculty from RIT's photography, imaging science, computer science, information technology, and design programs. This program is offered by the School of Film and Animation which houses state-of-the-art facilities, including full production facilities.

While achieving your master's in film and animation, you will join a collaborative environment with highly-trained faculty and state-of-the-art production facilities. The program is connected to MAGIC Spell Studios , which offers you industry and commercial experience as you pursue your degree.

RIT's Film and Animation Master's Degree

The MFA in film and animation offers four options:

• Animation: Concentrate on both traditional or digital animation as well as stop-motion animation. Courses focus on teaching the fundamentals of animation, 2D mechanics, all aspects of pre-production, and stop-motion fabrication techniques.
• 3D Animation: Learn all aspects of the 3D animation pipeline. Courses focus on 3D animation, modeling, lighting, texturing, and rendering. You may also explore working in VR or with virtual production techniques.
• Production: Develop and refine your creative approach to fictional narrative, documentary, and experimental live-action filmmaking. Courses focus on directing, sound recording, screenwriting, cinematography, and editing.
• Screenwriting: Learn the craft of storytelling in relation to feature, short, and series-length screenplays. Courses focus on short-film production, history, theory, and writing techniques.

All four options require two years of course work and a third year focused on a thesis film or script. All students create and screen finished films in their first two years.

Electives: Elective courses are available in animation, film, video, multimedia, screenwriting, printmaking, painting, sculpture, communication design, museum studies, crafts, bookmaking, typography, color photography, new media, studio photography, advertising photography, perception, gaming, computer graphics, art history, and archival preservation and conservation. There are also opportunities for independent studies, internships, and concentrations.

Thesis: Specific instructions pertaining to the thesis are available in the “MFA Guide for Students and Faculty: Policy Regarding Student Work.” The School of Film and Animation reserves the right to retain copies of student-produced films to be used for educational purposes, to show to prospective students, and as examples of student productions.

Screenings: Screenings are required for all student-produced films and are coordinated through the professor or the thesis chair.

Join us for Fall 2024

Many programs accept applications on a rolling, space-available basis.

Learn what you need to apply

30% Tuition Scholarship for NY Residents and Graduates

Now is the perfect time to earn your Master’s degree. If you’re a New York state resident with a bachelor’s degree or have/will graduate from a college or university in New York state, you are eligible to receive a 30% tuition scholarship.

Learn more about Master Up NY

Careers and Experiential Learning

Typical job titles.

Cooperative Education and Internships

What makes an RIT education exceptional? It’s the ability to complete relevant, hands-on career experience. At the graduate level, and paired with an advanced degree, cooperative education and internships give you the unparalleled credentials that truly set you apart. Learn more about graduate co-op and how it provides you with the career experience employers look for in their next top hires.

Co-ops and internships take your knowledge and turn it into know-how. Co-op in the College of Art and Design  provides hands-on experience that enables you to apply your artistic capabilities in dynamic professional settings while you make valuable connections between classwork and real-world applications.

Cooperative education, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities are optional but strongly encouraged for graduate students in the MFA in film and animation.

Creative Industry Days

Connect with design industry leaders.

RIT’s  Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education  hosts  Creative Industry Days , which connects students majoring in art, design, film and animation, photography, and select computing majors with companies, organizations, creative agencies, design firms, and more. Creative Industry Days are a series of events that allow you to network with company representatives and interview directly for open co-op and full-time employment positions.

Featured Work and Profiles

The Snowman

The snowman's head came out too small. Time to fix it.

Emmy Award-nominated series

Amy Adrion, Meghdad Asadilari, Don Casper

Assistant Professor Amy Adrion, with the help of RIT students, alumni and faculty, has directed and produced many episodes of Storyline Online. The series was nominated for a Children’s and Family...

Launching an educational series

Chelsea DeMott Wildey

Film and animation MFA student Chelsea DeMott Wildey led an animation team in the creation of the series ScienceLore through the MAGIC Maker Program.

Student films a hit at festivals

2D-animated works by Diane Lee '24 are making waves on the film festival circuit around the world. 

RIT, NTID team up to create pioneering film

Students Anna McClanahan (BFA) and Gabriel Ponte-Fleary (MFA) brought together the deaf/hard-of-hearing and hearing communities in creating their finalist film for a Coca-Cola-sponsored program.

Animation complex receives $4 million renovation

The 10,000-square-foot renovation and expansion includes state-of-the-art 2D, 3D and stop motion animation labs and classrooms, all equipped with the latest technology.

Curriculum for 2024-2025 for Film and Animation MFA

Current Students: See Curriculum Requirements

Film and Animation (2D animation option), MFA degree, typical course sequence

Professional Electives

Film and Animation (3D animation option), MFA degree, typical course sequence

Film and Animation (production option), MFA degree, typical course sequence

History and Aesthetics Electives

Film and Animation (screenwriting option), MFA degree, typical course sequence

Students are also interested in

• Visual Communication Design MFA
• Photography and Related Media MFA

Admissions and Financial Aid

This program is available on-campus only.

Full-time study is 9+ semester credit hours. Part-time study is 1‑8 semester credit hours. International students requiring a visa to study at the RIT Rochester campus must study full‑time.

Application Details

To be considered for admission to the Film and Animation MFA program, candidates must fulfill the following requirements:

• Complete an online graduate application . 
• Submit copies of official transcript(s) (in English) of all previously completed undergraduate and graduate course work, including any transfer credit earned.
• Hold a baccalaureate degree (or US equivalent) from an accredited university or college.
• A recommended minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (or equivalent).
• Submit a current resume or curriculum vitae.
• Submit a personal statement of educational objectives .
• Submit two letters of recommendation .
• Entrance exam requirements: None
• Submit a portfolio. View portfolio requirements.
• Writing samples are optional.
• Submit English language test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, PTE Academic), if required. Details are below.

English Language Test Scores

International applicants whose native language is not English must submit one of the following official English language test scores. Some international applicants may be considered for an English test requirement waiver .

International students below the minimum requirement may be considered for conditional admission. Each program requires balanced sub-scores when determining an applicant’s need for additional English language courses.

How to Apply   Start or Manage Your Application

Cost and Financial Aid

An RIT graduate degree is an investment with lifelong returns. Graduate tuition varies by degree, the number of credits taken per semester, and delivery method. View the general cost of attendance or estimate the cost of your graduate degree .

A combination of sources can help fund your graduate degree. Learn how to fund your degree

Kevin Bauer

Mari Jaye Blanchard

Munjal Yagnik

September 5

College of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition

September 18

Film + Foto Fest @ RIT

September 19

Related News

July 25, 2024

Screenwriters vs. the machine: Embracing AI in the storytelling process

After attending Digital Hollywood: The AI Summer Summit, Associate Professor Frank Deese shares his key takeaways from discussions about how artificial intelligence impacts screenwriters in Hollywood.

May 8, 2024

MFA candidate's film screens at South by Southwest

Diane Catsburrow Linnet ‘24 MFA (film and animation) has had her films accepted into film festivals around the world, with the latest being one of the circuit's crown jewels.

May 1, 2024

Students score with RIT Sports Network

Since 2002, more than 1,200 students have gained valuable experience creating a multimedia production ensemble with RIT Sports Network.

Emerging Media (MFA) – Animation and Visual Effects

Program at a glance.

• In State Tuition
• Out of State Tuition

Learn more about the cost to attend UCF.

Housed in the School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), the Emerging Media MFA - Animation and Visual Effects track is a specialized program designed to emulate the professional and independent studio environment, providing opportunities to assume an artistic leadership role. The principal emphasis is placed on narrative film structure and the entrepreneurial aspects of animation as related to independent filmmaking, studio employment, and job creation.

Designed to prepare students for careers in animation, courses provide an understanding of the collaborative function of a commercial studio during the first-year production courses. In addition, students develop their unique style of independent filmmaking during preproduction and production of their thesis film over the duration of the three-year program. Opportunities are available to co-direct a team of undergraduate Character Animation students, adding toward our canon of award-winning films. Labs and studios are equipped with the same industry-standard software and hardware used in professional studios.

Students desiring admission to the Emerging Media MFA - Animation and Visual Effects track should be primarily interested in the opportunity to create their own animation and/or visual effects thesis. In this program students are encouraged to develop their visual storytelling skills while using a variety of animation and visual effects techniques, including traditional hand-drawn, stop motion, 2D computer, and 3D computer animation.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in animation, visual effects, emerging media, art, film, theater, computer science, graphic design, illustration, creative writing, mass communications, game design, or related field and must demonstrate, through a portfolio of work and writing, that they are currently proficient and successful in the Animation art form.

The Emerging Media MFA - Animation and Visual Effects track is a competitive program whereby students receive the best instruction from professors who have had extensive professional industry experience and connections. Drawing on the expertise of the current faculty, graduates are well qualified to enter the teaching and academic professions. SVAD graduates have a competitive edge for greater opportunities within the animation, visual effects, and simulation industries.

The Animation and Visual Effects track in the Emerging Media MFA program is a full-time three-year program (six full-time semesters excluding summers in most instances) and students must progress through the program by taking required classes in particular semesters. The program requires a minimum of 60 credit hours including a thesis project. All courses must be approved by the Graduate Program Director. The thesis consists of producing a short film and thesis document

Total Credit Hours Required: 60 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Bachelor's Degree

Graduate students must maintain a 3.0 or better GPA in all course work to complete the program.

Application Deadlines

• International

Ready to get started?

Career opportunities.

• Animation Professor
• Character Animator
• Layout Artist
• Production Designer
• Story Artist
• Storyboard Artist
• Visual Development Artist
• Visual Effects Animator

University of Central Florida Colleges

Track Prerequisites

Applicants to the MFA program normally must hold an earned bachelor's degree in one of the areas below or equivalent and must have exhibited, through a portfolio of work or writing that they are currently proficient and successful in the Animation art form.

Degree Requirements

Required courses.

• DIG5439C - Script and Story Development for Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• DIG5865 - The History of Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• DIG5386C - Animation and Visual Effects Production I (3)
• DIG5366C - Animation and Visual Effects Production II (3)
• DIG5378C - Editing for Animation and Visual Effects I: Theory and Production (3)
• DIG5385C - Visual Effects for Animation and Live Action I (3)
• DIG5387C - Visual Development and Design for Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• DIG6379C - Editing for Animation and Visual Effects II: Practical Editing (3)
• DIG6365C - Media and Music for Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• DIG6388C - Animation and Visual Effects Production III (3)
• DIG6384C - Directing for Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• DIG6389C - Animation and Visual Effects Production IV (3)
• DIG6377C - Visual Effects for Animation and Live Action II (3)
• DIG6866C - Technical Problem Solving for Animation and Visual Effects (3)
• FIL5800 - Research Methods in Film and Digital Media (3)
• DIG6397C - Animation and Visual Effects Production V (3)
• DIG6971 - Thesis (1 - 99)
• The thesis consists of a short film production and thesis document. The final oral review before the supervisory thesis committee occurs at the end of the sixth semester. At the same time, the graduate student presents a short film production. Students are required to submit an electronic version of the thesis to the UCF College of Graduate Studies. After approval by the UCF College of Graduate Studies, the UCF Library will add it to its archives and make the electronic version of the thesis accessible on the web. The required thesis is created during the independent learning experience in the degree program.

Grand Total Credits: 60

Application requirements, financial information.

Graduate students may receive financial assistance through fellowships, assistantships, tuition support, or loans. For more information, see the College of Graduate Studies Funding website, which describes the types of financial assistance available at UCF and provides general guidance in planning your graduate finances. The Financial Information section of the Graduate Catalog is another key resource.

Fellowship Information

Fellowships are awarded based on academic merit to highly qualified students. They are paid to students through the Office of Student Financial Assistance, based on instructions provided by the College of Graduate Studies. Fellowships are given to support a student's graduate study and do not have a work obligation. For more information, see UCF Graduate Fellowships, which includes descriptions of university fellowships and what you should do to be considered for a fellowship.

• Full-time Student: $90 per term

Course Schedule

The Emerging Media MFA -Animation and Visual Effects track is a full-time, three-year cohort program that requires students to abide by the following course sequence. Students must remain with their cohort in order to remain in good academic standing and graduate within the three -year program of study.

Year 1 Fall: 12 Credit Hours

• DIG 5439C - Script and Story Development for Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 5865 - The History of Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 5386C - Animation and Visual Effects Production I 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 5387C - Visual Development and Design for Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours

Spring: 9 Credit Hours

• DIG 5366C - Animation and Visual Effects Production II 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 5378C - Editing for Animation and Visual Effects I: Theory and Production 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 5385C - Visual Effects for Animation and Live Action I 3 Credit Hours

Year 2 Fall: 12 Credit Hours

• DIG 6379C - Editing for Animation and Visual Effects II: Practical Editing 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6377C - Visual Effects for Animation and Live Action II 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6388C - Animation and Visual Effects Production III 3 Credit Hours
• FIL 5800 - Research Methods in Film and Digital Media 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6384C - Directing for Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6389C - Animation and Visual Effects Production IV 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6365C - Media and Music for Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours

Year 3 Fall: 9 Credit Hours

• DIG 6866C - Technical Problem Solving for Animation and Visual Effects 3 Credit Hours
• DIG 6971 - Thesis 6 Credit Hours
• DIG 6575C - Animation and Visual Effects Production V 3 Credit Hours