MFAFilm
Overview
Make an impact on the future of cinema
Explore Film - @ccafilm
Studios and 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.
Michele Turnure-Salleo, Chair of Film
Michele Turnure-Salleo is chair and assistant professor of Film at CCA, teaching since 2016. She is principal at Feracious Entertainment, producing films with Bus Stop Films, WeirAnderson, and Sibel Films. Her EP credits include Blueback (TIFF/Sundance), Farewell Amor, Before You Know It, The Sound of Silence, and Buoyancy. Turnure-Salleo previously ran Filmmaker 360 at SFFILM; she also mentors globally and serves on The Redford Center board.
Faculty stories
Interview with film faculty Tenzin Phuntsog
Tenzin Phuntsog on his film Next Life, commitment to 35mm, the power of sound design, and protecting the creative process.
High expectations
Renowned artist Jim Campbell has been working with Lynn Marie Kirby and Jeanne Finley's students since 2019, giving them the opportunity to showcase their art at astounding heights.
Faculty spotlight: Grammy nominee Rob Epstein
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.
Success stories
Student spotlight: Qadir Parris’s creative practice knows no limits
The CCA Film student discusses his time as an artist in residence at San Francisco’s Recology, his interdisciplinary practice, and how family inspires his work.
CCA Film alum Hong Sang-soo explores family dynamics in What Does That Nature Say to You
The Hollywood Reporter reviews Hong Sang-soo's (BFA Film/Video 1985) 33rd feature What Does That Nature Say to You, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and follows a young poet's awkward first meeting with his girlfriend's family.
Paul Trillo (BFA Film/Video 2007) explores human loneliness through AI in Thank You for Not Answering
The New Yorker features the filmmaker's AI-generated short film Thank You for Not Answering, which uses Runway's Gen-2 technology to explore memory and lost love through dreamlike, surreal imagery.
