Many pursuing degrees to join the entertainment industry have been asked the same question over and over again: “Do you need a degree for that?”.
Granted, most entertainers are usually without one, but in the film industry, a degree is an added advantage, especially if you earn one from the best film schools.
Film school offers a structured curriculum in an environment that covers all aspects of filmmaking. From pre-production to post-production, you’ll learn the ins and outs of filmmaking, including directing, cinematography, editing, and screenwriting.
Studying in the best film schools will also grant you access to some of the most advanced film equipment you can find, typically used in Hollywood sets.
Some might even let you operate Panavision cameras, the Arri Alexa, the RED Digital Cinema, or even an IMAX 65mm camera. These high-tech cameras probably account for most of the films you see in cinemas today.
This kind of training matters because the industry backing it is enormous and continues to grow. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics counted 167,000 producer and director jobs in the US in 2024, with employment projected to grow 5% through 2034 and roughly 12,800 openings a year, faster than the average across all occupations.
On the business side, the Motion Picture Association’s 2024 industry report puts the American film and television industry at 2.01 million jobs, US$202 billion in total wages, and more than 162,000 businesses nationwide. Numbers like these explain why a formal film education still carries weight heading into the next admissions cycle.
Beyond all these, the most helpful benefit you’ll receive when attending film school is the network.
Here, you’ll build professional relationships with peers, mentors, and industry contacts who can jumpstart your career and become valuable throughout. Because the film industry is a tightly-knit community, you are almost guaranteed to work with each other, especially when making your first movie.
TL;DR? Here’s the summary:
- The article highlights the 10 best film schools that could help build your filmmaking skills in 2026.
- Top film schools offer hands-on experience, mentorship from industry professionals, and access to cutting-edge production facilities.
- Many renowned filmmakers graduated from film school, though some successful directors built their careers through self-directed learning.
Film director Quentin Tarantino never went to any film schools but has won two Academy Awards.
Do you really need to go to the best film schools?
Some of the greatest in the scene did not attend film school or have any higher education.
One notable self-taught film director would be Quentin Tarantino, who, at first, aimed to become an actor.
But when nobody would hire him, he wrote and directed a movie to star in it. That movie was 1992’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
Another is Steven Spielberg, who was supposedly turned down by the University of Southern California three times, then dropped out of California State University, Long Beach, to work professionally for Universal Studios.
He eventually re-enrolled at his former university several decades later and graduated with a degree in Film and Electronic Arts.
The hard truth is not everyone’s a Spielberg or Tarantino.
It takes immense talent to teach yourself how to make films — by going to film school, you’ll have the support of professors, instructors, and peers alongside well-designed, well-structured programmes that cover every aspect of the art.
Academy Award winners — like Martin Scorsese, Bong Joon-ho, and the Coen brothers — are proof that going to film school is a necessary step to a good career in this field.
For Bong’s placing on the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2020, fellow Academy Award winner, actress Tilda Swinton, wrote: “This is the filmmaker who, this year, has risen into the 2020 vision of the entire cinepassionate planet like a new sun. Whip-smart, highly skilled, supremely cineliterate, exuberant, irreverent, self-determining, deeply romantic, with a voracious delight in the absurd, highly principled, precision-tuned, compassionate to the last: his films have always been all this.”
10 best film schools in the world
The AFI is known for hosting festivals and star-studded events throughout the year. Source: AFI Conservatory/Facebook
1. American Film Institute
Perhaps the most famous of all is theAmerican Film Institute (AFI), a US film school that guarantees you will make movies upon attending here.
Its campus sits in the centre of professional filmmaking communities in Hollywood, allowing easy access to studios, networks, and post-production facilities. So it’s no wonder this institution stays true to its learn-by-doing approach, in which you will learn to create four to 10 films of your own.
The AFI also encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary learning as you work with students from different tracks like Cinematography,Directing,Editing,Producing,Production Design, andScreenwriting.
Beyond that, you’ll get to attend the many festivals and star-studded events hosted by AFI throughout the year too. For film fanatics, AFI releases a top 10 best films annually as well — the 2024 list features “Anora,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “Wicked.”
2. California Institute of the Arts
TheCalifornia Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is well-known as the school that Walt Disney helped found in its early days.
It is the first degree-granting US institution of higher learning created specifically for visual and performing arts students. Better yet, CalArts’sSchool of Film/Video boast an entire faculty working as artists, filmmakers, and technicians to guide you through the processes.
Fitting for a school that Disney co-founded, CalArts excels in animation. From John Lasseter to Tim Burton, the roster of animation power players who studied here is undoubtedly impressive.
To follow their steps, you can opt for bachelor’s and master’s programmes in Experimental Animation and Film and Video. There’s a bachelor’s degree in Character Animation and a master’s degree in Film Directing available, too.
With tuition costing up to US$74,000, the School of the Arts at Columbia University is one of the most expensive film schools. Source: Columbia University School of the Arts/Facebook
3. Columbia University
If you wish to graduate from an Ivy League,Columbia University is the place to go. ItsSchool of the Arts is one of the world’s leading art institutions where you can find theFilm MFA programme that offers three concentrations:Screenwriting & Directing,Creative Producing, andWriting for Film & Television.
Tuition is not cheap, though, as it will cost up to US$74,000 to attend, making Columbia University one of the most expensive film schools around. However, if you’re willing to think of it as an investment into your future, you’ll find that joining the school and its programmes will lead you to many opportunities in the film industry.
If you need financial help, the school awards over US$13 million in student aid each year through tuition scholarships, paid service positions, teaching appointments, and institutional awards.
4. New York University
Out of all film schools, theKanbar Institute of Film & Television atNew York University has the most prolific graduates who have become award-winning filmmakers. Big names include Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Chloé Zhao, Vince Gilligan, and Martin Scorsese.
The latter even has his own department, theMartin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies, in the institute. There, you’ll find a place dedicated to film history, theory, and aesthetics, now including broadcast television, video art, and digital media in its curriculum.
The institute’s location on Broadway, New York, also adds to the learning experience as the city itself can become a film set and a place for professional opportunities to happen.
From visionary director George Lucas to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the list of distinguished graduates is a long one. Source: USC School of Cinematic Arts/Facebook
5. University of Southern California
Out of all the film schools, theSchool of Cinematic Arts at theUniversity of Southern California has the most graduates working in Hollywood today. From visionary director George Lucas to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, the list of distinguished graduates is a long one.
The school boasts of being the only one in the world that teaches all the major disciplines of cinema. Students here will take classes across seven divisions that cover everything you need to know about film, television, and interactive media.
These divisions include theJohn C Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts,Division of Cinema & Media Studies,Film & Television Production,Interactive Media & Games,Media Arts + Practice,Peter Stark Producing Programme,John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television,John H Mitchell Business of Cinematic Arts Programme, andExpanded Animation Research + Practice.
As part of the nation’s leading public research university, the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television equips diverse artists and scholars to shape the future through education, research, and public service. Source: UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television/Facebook
6. University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is the only university in the country to combine theatre, film, television, and digital media into a single professional school, allowing students to cross disciplines rather than remain siloed in a single track.
Its list of graduates includes directors, writers, and producers who now shape the entertainment industry from the inside.
The school counts over 11,000 alumni working across the performing arts industries today. Among them is Francis Ford Coppola. He earned his MFA in theatre arts at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television in 1967 and returned in 2016 to lead a monthlong workshop testing his “Live Cinema” concept alongside more than 75 theatre, film and television students and faculty.
Its 2026 commencement speakers include Pixar Executive Vice President Jonas Rivera, reflecting the strength of its ties to the animation and studio world.
For more than 50 years, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) has nurtured some of Britain’s and the world’s most accomplished creative talent. Source: National Film and Television School/Facebook
7. National Film and Television School (UK)
Based in Beaconsfield, England, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) has been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s international rankings every year the list has run. It remains the only UK film school to hold that distinction.
Graduates include Aardman’s Oscar-winning animator Nick Park, creator of Wallace & Gromit, alongside Harry Potter movie director David Yates and acclaimed filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, known for We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The school runs more behind-the-camera courses than any other film school in the world and operates its own fully equipped film and television studios, which is not common among UK institutions.
For more than 70 years, the Beijing Film Academy has built a comprehensive filmmaking education system that combines production, teaching, creative practice and research to develop highly skilled film talents. Source: Wikimedia Commons
8. Beijing Film Academy (China)
Founded in 1950, the Beijing Film Academy is the only film academy in China and the largest in Asia. It’s the training ground behind China’s Fifth Generation filmmakers, a movement that put Chinese cinema on the world festival circuit.
The Beijing Film Academy grants degrees through the PhD level across directing, acting, cinematography and animation.
Zhang Yimou, who went on to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of both the 2008 and 2022 Beijing Olympics, alongside Chen Kaige, director of Farewell My Concubine, and Jia Zhangke, known for A Touch of Sin and Still Life.
The school moved most operations to a new Huairou campus in 2021, six times the size of its original Haidian site, with eight cinemas and five sound stages.
La Fémis specialises in training students across the diverse fields of filmmaking, equipping them with expertise in directing, cinematography, production, screenwriting, editing, sound, design, distribution and cinema management. Source: La Fémis/Facebook
9. La Fémis (France)
La Fémis, officially the École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l’Image et du Son, operates under France’s Ministry of Culture and receives funding from the CNC, the country’s National Centre of Cinematography.
The Paris-based school accepts fewer than 5% of applicants each year, admitting only a handful of students across its directing, producing, and screenwriting tracks.
Filmmaker Claire Simon documented the school’s brutal admissions process in her 2016 film The Graduation (Le Concours), following candidates through written, practical, and oral exams while faculty members dissect each applicant’s strengths and weaknesses.
La Fémis keeps no permanent faculty. Instead, working directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers — drawn from a pool of more than 500 industry professionals — teach every class.
SCAD equips talented students for creative careers through engaged learning and teaching in a supportive academic environment. Source: SCAD – The University for Creative Careers/Facebook
10. Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) runs one of the largest and most industry-embedded entertainment programmes in the US, spread across campuses in Savannah and Atlanta, plus Lacoste, France.
The school leans hard on Georgia’s status as a major production hub: its Savannah campus houses an 11-acre backlot with 17 street facades, an LED volume stage, and multiple soundstages, while its separate Atlanta facility adds a 60,000-square-foot studio with its own LED volume/XR stage.
More than 130 SCAD alumni contributed credits to 18 Academy Award-nominated films in 2024, including Best Picture winner Anora and every one of that year’s Best Visual Effects nominees.
The school also operates the only on-site, professionally run casting office in higher education, which placed more than 700 students and alumni with Netflix, Disney, NBC, and other major players in a single year.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a film degree to work in Hollywood?
No. Directors, including Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg, built careers without completing a film degree at the time. That said, most working directors, cinematographers, and producers today have formal training, and film school offers structured access to equipment, mentorship, and industry contacts that self-teaching doesn’t easily replicate.
How competitive is admission to the top film schools?
Extremely, though the odds vary by school and format. La Fémis admitted 58 students out of roughly 1,591 applicants in 2025, an acceptance rate of under 4%. US MFA programmes tend to be similarly selective within a smaller applicant pool, since most require a portfolio, a personal statement, and often an interview in addition to academic transcripts.
Do I need to study in the US to break into Hollywood or the wider industry?
No. Graduates of National Film and Television School, La Fémis, Beijing Film Academy and more work across Hollywood, European cinema, and their home industries alike. Where you study tends to shape which industry you break into first, rather than closing off Hollywood entirely, since strong festival work and a finished thesis film travel further than the school’s home country.
Disclaimer: This article was last updated on July 30, 2026.
