From full-funded MFAs to LED walls for new virtual production curriculums, these film programs are trying to entice and educate the next generation of blockbuster directors and award-winning auteurs.

These 25(ish) programs offer students the best chance at navigating Hollywood’s changing terrain.

Over half of the incoming students are women, and nearly half are filmmakers of color — all are eligible for new funds like the Halyna Hutchins Memorial Scholarship.

TUITION $65,800 (graduate).

The Tisch School of the Arts will launch an academic and production institute in honor of alumnus Martin Scorsese thanks to a gift from George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

In the coming academic year, the graduate program will continue its mentorship program, which pairs students with filmmakers — the inaugural year brought in Isabel Sandoval and Raven Jackson.

TUITION $63,000 (undergraduate); $68,000 (graduate).

The School of Cinematic Arts places an emphasis on virtual production and digital content creation.

Former EA president John Riccitiello gave $14 million to the Interactive Media & Games program, while Sony Electronics helped develop virtual production capabilities, like LED walls and in-camera VFX.

TUITION $63,468 (undergrad); $37,149-$54,461 (graduate).

The school opened a new career center to help with the post-graduate transition into the industry, but students are succeeding while still in school, like Phumi Morare, who took home the top narrative prize at the most recent Student Academy Awards.

TUITION $60,290 (undergrad); $46,936 TO $49,788 (graduate).

CalArts, known for both traditional and experimental mediamaking, offers unique equipment for students, like Blackmagic’s Cintel Film Scanner, along with standard setups like edit bays.

Back in Beantown, a new Visual and Media Arts directing studio was inaugurated in 2021, and curriculum additions include such classes as The Art of Anti-Racist Media Making and Accessible Cinema, the latter of which teaches students to produce captions and audio descriptions for non-auditory and low-vision audiences.

TUITION $51,264 (undergrad); $1,322 (per credit graduate).

The graduate film program was recently scrutinized for the massive amount of student loan debt incurred over the course of earning the expensive degree, but the school graduates top talent that finds success quickly.

TUITION $69,152 (undergrad); $65,620 (graduate).

This summer, LMU brought in former UNC School of the Arts program head Joanne Moore as the long-awaited replacement for Peggy Rajski, and the Westchester campus appointed Charles Swanson as associate dean of DEI.

Recently, LMU hosted a pitch event for individuals who completed their Film Independent Story Development Incubator Lab, a one-year program that preps alumni to dive headfirst into the industry. .

TUITION $54,630 (undergrad); $26,226-$34,968 (graduate).

UCLA has long been the top public university option among film programs: A fair price point, along with grants and scholarships directed at students from underrepresented communities, makes this school an attractive choice.

After a pause, the school has begun accepting graduate applications for its MFA program.

TUITION (undergrad) $13,804 resident, $31,026 nonresident; (graduate) $17,756 resident, $32,858 nonresident.

America’s first public arts conservatory, UNCSA now has Deborah LaVine leading the filmmaking program.

TUITION (undergrad) $6,497 resident, $23,731 nonresident; (graduate) $9,196 resident, $23,899 nonresident

TUITION (undergrad) $11,230 resident, $39,756 nonresident; (graduate) $9,996 resident, $18,816 nonresident

As for its Chicago campus, students can occupy the media production centers (two soundstages, a motion capture studio, and production design workshop), television studio (three multicamera studios and two control rooms), animation suites, and postproduction audio suites

TUITION $31,026 (undergrad); $35,000 (graduate)

A small liberal-arts school with a vast alumni roster of boldfaced names, Wesleyan’s film studies are primarily focused on analysis, which breeds auteurs

With a big private school price tag, the school additionally offers three filmmaking grants for first-generation and BIPOC film majors as well as Career Transition Grants

A track in immersive virtual production, teaching students how to manage motion capture and run virtual production stages, will debut soon

TUITION (undergrad) $6,517 resident, $21,683 nonresident; (graduate) $14,379 resident, $33,300 nonresident

Thanks to an eight-figure donation, the School of Cinematic Arts is rich with resources to help students with tuition and state-of-the-art equipment

TUITION $42,189 (undergrad); $23,400-$32,000 (graduate)

The construction comes as Ithaca changes one of its degree names from Television-Radio to Television & Digital Media Production to reflect the state of Hollywood. Liz Tigelaar, showrunner of Little Fires Everywhere, still treasures her time in Elisabeth Nonas’ writing class: “We wrote a group Seinfeld script, and I loved the process of pitching jokes.”

Elsewhere, the program has added a class that partners film and TV students with BU’s School of Theater to write and produce a sitcom, and another that focuses on entertainment analytics

Alum Jay Roewe, senior vp incentives and production planning at HBO, says that in the program, “I discovered that I had a passion for my business and economic classes beyond my film and TV production classes, which opened my mind to finding a career path on the studio side of the business

The Newhouse School now allows students to spend a semester working at Lionsgate Studios

TUITION $58,440 (undergrad); $32,436 (graduate)

TUITION $48,942 (undergrad); $51,726 (graduate)

The school has an expansive arts program and graduates professionals specializing in below-the-line positions like VFX and sound

The school also capitalizes on its state’s tax status that lures numerous projects, with students working on local productions like Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad

TUITION $39,105 (undergrad) $40,050 (graduate)

Best known for experimental and digital arts, RISD offers high-minded courses on topics like the relationship between music and moving images and how technology can be used to engage remote audiences with live performance

Over half the school’s students are minorities, many from the local community, and the price tag is a fraction of other New York-based film programs

The film program at Howard is the only MFA offered at an HBCU

Since 1983, the school has had an independent filmmaking focus, pairing practical production with film theory courses that cover African Cinema and postcolonial Third Cinema

TUITION $33,860 (graduate)

The L.A.-area school charges one-tenth the tuition of other film programs

While it may not have the donor base of other programs, the school’s facilities include high-tech amenities like a LED wall that will help with the virtual production that has started being incorporated into the curriculum

Film producer and IFTA chair Clay Epstein lauds Northridge’s “diversity of the student body and focus on a practical skill set.” New additions on the horizon include a master’s degree in Entertainment Media Management, where students will be graduating with the training for studio executive ranks

TUITION $7,064 (undergrad); $8,498 (graduate)

As documentaries continue to dominate Netflix’s most-watched lists, Northwestern, with a famed journalism program, offers the courses to help students navigate the nonfiction boom

Taking a step toward making graduate degrees in the arts more attainable, especially for students of color, the university is fully funding its MFA programs beginning with the 2022-23 school year

In order to decide which programs make up The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 25 American Film Schools list— and then where they end up within the list — calls are made to knowledgable industry players to determine what each school’s reputation is within greater Hollywood

Also taken into consideration are the changes the school has made year-over-year (for example, whether an Oscar winner was hired to teach screenwriting students about story structure)

Many of the top film programs in North America are housed inside private colleges and universities, meaning tuition costs are an outsized financial factor when students are pursuing an education in filmmaking

The only BFA in film offered in New York City, the program at City College sees 25 students follow a two-year curriculum focused on single-camera fiction production and documentary filmmaking

Students, who pay an in-state tuition of $7,340, will produce thesis films that can be either narrative or doc shorts

Christine Vachon and her Killer Films helped to build out the curriculum for the MFA film program, while the school’s MFA in Television Writing was built by TV writing instructor Alan Kingsberg

Students have had their work screened in the Atlanta Film Festival, DOC NYC and the New York Short Film Festival

The Film and Media Studies program offers B.A

After learning the basics of production, students choose a specialization in narrative, documentary or experimental film

Yes, it’s in New Jersey, but the school is NYC-adjacent and houses a BFA in filmmaking program, where students learn with high-end cameras, and a dedicated Documentary Film Lab

and a minor from the Department of Film & Electronic Arts, where students can focus on theory or narrative production

CSU has a yearly tuition of $6,781 for in-state students, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees

Industry partners include Adobe and the Sundance Institute, and its Television, Film & Media Center houses a 2,300-square-foot soundstage, a 20-camera full-body motion capture system and sound recording rooms

Associate degrees in film production and film studies are offered from the West L.A

campus, with the film program having launched in 2010

Forty graduate students and 900 undergraduates make up the program, with Oscar-nominated film historian Steven Kovacs among the faculty

A version of this story previously listed Joanne Moore as the former dean of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts