Photo Illustration The Pixel Pushers/Photos courtesy subjects One class stands out, even after all these years,” says uber-producer-director Shawn Levy of his time in the MFA program at USC’s famed film school. “[Producer and film historian] Bruce Block’s class on visual expression was revelatory. I still to this day think about and use the things I learned in that class.”
While the programs on The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of the nation’s best film schools only run two, three or four years, the lessons learned and connections made last a lifetime. Just ask Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan, who met as freshmen at Loyola Marymount University’s film school and last year co-wrote the Netflix animated hit and Oscar winner KPop Demon Hunters.
As the industry begins openly courting AI advancements, schools that introduced the controversial technology into the curriculum two years ago continue to double down, with UT Austin adding even more dedicated AI classes to their course catalogs. At the same time, other schools like AFI and Wesleyan are bolstering their celluloid offerings at a time when analog film is becoming an increasingly large selling point.
Even with a top education, employment in the contracting entertainment industry is far from ensured, and student loans continue to be a massive burden for any aspiring filmmaker. But schools are looking out for students even after they turn in their cap and gown. At Chapman University, a seven-figure donation will be going toward the school’s career center. And then there are the fully-funded MFA programs at Northwestern for an entirely tuition-free (albeit competitive) graduate degree.
With all of this in mind — and after many calls, emails and all-nighters in the campus library — THR unveils its 2026 list of the nation’s top film schools.
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USC
Marvel head Kevin Feige has made a monetary gift to USC for faculty, students and programming at the newly named Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production. Courtesy of School After already dominating the box office, alums Ryan Coogler and Sev Ohanian, who met while in their respective graduate film programs, swept through awards season with their hit Sinners. Never one to pass up a synergistic opportunity, the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) then introduced a course focused on Sinners — an in-depth exploration of the making of the movie that will include talks from creative heads and executives, many of whom are (you guessed it!) USC alumni. As for favorite classes, alum Shawn Levy name-checks a course called Directing Actors taught by Heroes filmmaker Jeremy Kagan, saying, “Jeremy [taught] us about the cornerstone aspect of directing that so many filmmakers fail to learn: Decisive leadership is bedrock, it’s essential; without it, a director — hell, a cast, crew and shoot — is screwed.” Elsewhere, alum and Marvel head Kevin Feige has made a monetary gift that will go toward faculty, students and programming at the newly named Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production. And while SCA’s curriculum has always kept up with industry trends and interests (a new production lab will be focused on vertical dramas), it is impossible to future-proof a rapidly changing entertainment industry. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t trying, as is the case with a funding increase for the SCA First Jobs Program, which is meant to place grads in paid entertainment jobs and is available to alums five years out from graduation.
TUITION $75,384 (undergraduate); $49,495 to $65,726 (graduate)
ALUMNI Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians); Warner Bros. president of production Mike Ireland
