MFAFilm
Develop your vision in a film program that goes beyond training and convention.
Overview
Make an impact on the future of cinema
The MFA Film program prepares you to create and thrive in the rapidly changing landscape of contemporary film and cinematic arts. Our unique multidisciplinary culture provides the ideal conditions for exploring the themes and topics you care about from many perspectives, including artist, director, craftsperson, or entrepreneur. With the mentorship of our award-winning faculty, you’ll strengthen your conceptual capabilities, refine your working methods, and expand your understanding of the moving image. Like CCA Film on Facebook for the latest updates.
Explore Film
@ccafilm
March 19, 2025
Join Bay Area artist, filmmaker, and educator Lynn Marie Kirby (professor emerita from the Film program!) for the insufficient frame, a special screening/performance event sponsored by Canyon Cinema celebrating Kirby’s multifaceted practice at the Roxie on Sunday, March 30 at 3:40pm. The event features a selection of films and videos, live performance, and a post-screening talk. The 2024 publication Time and Place: on the work of Lynn Marie Kirby will be available. Learn more and buy your ticket on the Roxie website!
March 14, 2025
Cynthia Ángel talks to CCA Film seniors about the film that had the biggest impact on her, and her indirect journey to pursuing a career in film.
Cynthia Ángel is a filmmaker and producer working across film, TV, and commercial production. Born and raised in Queens, NY to Colombian parents, she is passionate about telling stories about the Immigrant, Latinx and Indigenous communities she identifies with. She has won Clios and Cannes Lions for her campaigns for Spotify, Google, Nike, Vevo and Amazon.
Her deep rooted love for film led her to found her own creative studio- D L A Films. Focusing on diversity in front of and behind the camera, Cynthia’s goal is to bring cinematic and compelling stories to life all while giving a voice to the voiceless.
SUN is Cynthia’s first feature length film project and a continuation of her intention to tell the stories of those who come from backgrounds similar to her own.
March 14, 2025
Looking for an Upper-Division studio class to fill out your schedule in the fall? Consider The Theory and Practice of Photographing the Supernatural, taught by film faculty Don Matthew Smith!
Photography has been around for 183 years. Used extensively as evidence of the natural world and events held there within. It’s ubiquitous and that fact has made it the perfect medium to define, not only what is natural, but what is supernatural as well. From the start - superimpositions were employed to expand the realm of photographic evidence into the realm of the supernatural. Spirit Photography, UFO’s, flourished in this dual “tradition” and has been energized by digital technology. Moreover, digital advances have made their way into the hands of the most novice image-makers. Instagram, SnapChat, used by millions, are the method of imaging a new collective history, whose sensibilities lean toward manipulating the ambiance of the past rather than documenting it. A sweeping, supernatural reality of deep fakes swirl about us now. We will ask a basic question - has photography lost its mantle as the gold standard of truthiness? Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studios extend a student’s cross-school experience from Core Studio up into their upper division years. 3 units of Interdisciplinary Studio are required of all majors and must be completed in the junior or senior year. This advanced level studio is thematic in nature. Technical demonstrations are paired with thoughtful readings, seminar discussions and ambitious projects. Collaboration, experimentation and presentation skills are developed in concert with critical thinking.
March 13, 2025
SURPRISE! We will be hosting TWO tabling days from B&H! If you can't make it to the event on Tuesday, try stopping by on Wednesday! They will be set up in the Nave on the wall outside the Production Stage from 2-4pm. See you there!
Studios & Shops
Explore a range of filmmaking modes and production methods
Our facilities support a wide range of filmmaking modes and production methods, from experimental and improvisational techniques to more formal narrative, documentary, and hybrid models. Graduate students have 24-hour access to film studios, editing suites, and a sound mixing room.
Multidisciplinary experiences
As an MFA Film student, you’ll enhance your studio practice through coursework in cinema history and theory. Taught by experts in filmmaking and critical studies, these courses push you to see your work in a broader cultural context, overcome challenges, define your artistic voice, and interrogate creative decisions in your own work. Electives round out the program experience, giving you opportunities to incorporate other artistic disciplines. Our lecture series and CCA Film Week offer students connection and dialogue with filmmakers and artists who are making groundbreaking new work.
Internships and teaching assistantships
CCA Graduate students in Film have interned with Frameline, producers of the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival; San Francisco Film Society, which organizes the San Francisco International Film Festival; Bay Area Video Coalition; and SoMArts, a cultural center for multidisciplinary events and exhibitions, among others. Internships provide you with hands-on experience and help you build a professional network in the Bay Area and beyond. With mentorship in pedagogy from faculty, you may also work as a CCA teaching assistant for undergraduate film courses.
Facilities and resources
- Film Cage for equipment check-out
- Media Center
- Collaborative studio space for meeting and auditions
- Production stage with green screen
- Audio suite
- Post-production lab
Faculty
Learn filmmaking from award-winning artists
Our faculty are working filmmakers and media artists with backgrounds in various practices, including directing, cinematography, sound design, and installation. Faculty work with graduate students one on one to expand their conceptual thinking and aesthetic approaches to film.
Giselle Bailey, Chair of MFA Film
Giselle Bailey is a Jamaican American director whose work blends documentary, narrative, and contemporary art to create content that is explosively visual and metaphorical. She is listed in DOC NYC’s celebrated 40 under 40 list and is a Concordia directorial fellow. Her recent directorial work includes HBO’s two-part documentary Seen & Heard (TBA 2025) that features icons that are transforming the TV industry, including Oprah Winfrey, Swizz Beatz, Terence Nance, Shonda Rhimes, Cord Jefferson, Lena Waithe, and Issa Rae; Netflix docu-series Ladies First; Hulu/ONYX docu-series Hair Tales; and the HBO feature documentary The Legend of the Underground, which was EP’d by John Legend and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her work has been honored with awards and nominations by IDA, NAACP, and Critics’ Choice, among others.
Curriculum
Push the boundaries of your craft
The MFA Film curriculum covers the full spectrum of filmmaking, from cinema history and theory to experimental modes that depart from traditional ways of thinking and making. In addition, we encourage you to choose electives from other disciplines, such as studio art, writing, and curatorial practice, to expand your skill set and push the boundaries of your craft. In this environment of diverse professional and alternative practices, you'll be well positioned to create work that exhibits your own distinctive voice.
MFA Film
Year 1: Fall Semester
- Graduate Film Studio 1
- 3.0 units
- Film Language and Form
- 3.0 units
- Writing for the Moving Image
- 3.0 units
- Production 1
- 3.0 units
- Nonfiction Studio
- 3.0 units
Year 1: Spring Semester
- Graduate Film Studio 2
- 3.0 units
- Production 2
- 3.0 units
- Directing Studio
- 3.0 units
- Graduate Film History
- 3.0 units
- Elective
- 3.0 units
Year 2: Fall Semester
- Thesis Development Seminar 1
- 3.0 units
- Graduate Film Studio 3
- 3.0 units
- Film Aesthetics and Theory
- 3.0 units
- Individual Studio Critique
- 3.0 units
- Elective
- 3.0 units
Year 2: Spring Semester
- Thesis Project Seminar
- 3.0 units
- Outside the Box
- 3.0 units
- Graduate Film Studio 4
- 3.0 units
- Individual Studio Critique
- 3.0 units
- Elective
- 3.0 units
Total 60.0 units
Careers
Developing a thriving practice
Our students graduate with conceptual skills, technical dexterity, and professional networks that enable them to pursue lifelong careers in filmmaking. As they enter the field, alumni draw from their robust experiences at CCA, including teaching undergraduate film students and collaborating with curators and visual artists, to forge unique creative paths. Whether they choose commercial film or expanded cinema or experimental media, alumni find exciting opportunities that challenge them to redefine contemporary cinema.
Potential career paths
- Filmmaker/Director
- Cinematographer
- Screenwriter
- Film editor
- Writer/Critic
- Educator
- Curator
- Visual artist
News & Events
CCA's cinema culture
How to Apply
Submit sample reels that tell your story
Our two-year program is designated for those with a bachelor’s degree in film, visual studies, or a related fine arts field. Most of our applicants are self-driven filmmakers who are excited to join a collaborative community. Overall, admission is based on the strength of your portfolio and transcripts.
Start your application
You’ll apply to CCA and submit all required application materials via SlideRoom. Afterward, you may be contacted for an interview with a faculty member as part of the application process. Being selected for an interview doesn’t indicate applicant status or increase or decrease an applicant’s chances of being admitted into their desired graduate program. Interviews are conducted at the program’s discretion and are used to gain more insight into an application.
MFA Film application requirements
- Application and $70 nonrefundable application fee
To be completed and submitted on SlideRoom. - Resume/curriculum vitae
Please outline your educational and professional background and relevant experiences and activities, including community work. Resumes/CVs must be in PDF document format. - Two recommendation letters
You’ll request two letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources in SlideRoom by entering the contact information for your recommenders/references. They will then receive an automated email from SlideRoom with instructions for uploading their letter of recommendation. - Unofficial college transcripts
You are required to provide your complete undergraduate academic history. Students who have already taken graduate courses are encouraged to submit those transcripts, too. For international applicants, all transcripts must be in English or accompanied by a certified English translation.
Please provide an unofficial transcript from the college where you will receive or have received your bachelor’s degree, as well as unofficial transcripts for all other undergraduate coursework. Unofficial transcripts will be used for review purposes.
Once you have been admitted and enrolled, all students will need to submit official, sealed transcripts showing the completion of a bachelor’s degree to our graduate admissions office by August 1 of the fall semester they begin enrollment at CCA. - Proof of English proficiency (international applicants only)
Review and plan to meet our English proficiency requirements for graduate students. - Personal essay
In a personal essay, submitted as a PDF, write 500 to 1,000 words about your work within the context of contemporary artistic practice and why you want to study at the graduate level. - Portfolio
We encourage you to submit at least one completed recent work. You may also submit a five-minute sample reel that the review committee will watch in its entirety. The five-minute sample reel should be labeled clearly with the title, date, running time, and description of the piece, or pieces, it contains. Your role in the production of each piece must be clearly labeled as well.
You have the option to also submit: supplemental reels of up to 10 minutes in length, which will be viewed at the discretion of the committee; additional video files (we encourage you to submit at least one completed recent work); and up to 10 still images, written work, and links to web-based work.
Technical specs are as follows:- Images (up to 5 MB each)
- Videos (up to 250 MB each)
- Audio (up to 30 MB each)
- PDFs (up to 10 MB each)
- Links to media from YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud are also acceptable
For prospective student inquiries, including questions about the program or how to apply, please contact us
Explore new modes of cinematic expression
