The Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder is a pioneer in avant-garde filmmaking, with a curriculum that emphasizes the technical storytelling skills students need to succeed across genres and formats. With historic roots in experimental film, CU Boulder encourages both undergraduate and graduate students to explore what film means for their creative journeys. Through hands-on production coursework and engaging theoretical discussions, students develop a distinctive artistic voice by the end of the program.
A key figure shaping CU Boulder’s dynamic film school is Kelly Sears, Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studio Arts. An award-winning professor and animator, Sears blends narrative and experimental approaches in her work. Since joining CU Boulder in 2014, she has guided students to break free from artistic conventions while fostering creativity grounded in the creation and analysis of films that explore themes resonating across cultures.
Alexa Pellegrini for FilmSchool.org spoke with Sears about how CU Boulder’s forward-thinking film program honors and reshapes filmmaking traditions, its nationally renowned seminars, and her top tips for acing the application process.
Editor’s note: This interview took approximately 1 hour and is a total of 11 pages. Part 2 (6 pages) is available to our Supporting Members, without whom in-depth articles and interviews like this one would not be possible as FilmSchool.org is 100% advertisement free. Supporting Members also enjoy access to our database that tracks upwards of 4,000 film school applications and the full Acceptance Data statistics for each film program that helps demystify common questions about how to construct a winning portfolio, ideal GPAs and GRE scores, and much more.
KS: I teach the undergraduate Moving Image Foundations course. I've often heard students say, ‘I don't want to make experimental films, I just want to make narrative films.’ My first question is always: ‘Well, how do you define an experimental film?’ Many of them think of experimental film as an absolute abstraction. But that’s actually just one way we can experiment with film when in reality, there are millions of ways we can do that. We're telling a lot of different stories — and we're experimenting with the ways we tell them.
We also have hybrid production electives for upper-level undergraduate and graduate Cinema Studies students. I'm teaching one called Excavation Filmmaking. In this class, we cover digital glitching and down shooting. We discuss translating top-down filmmaking into the frame, and we read about media archaeology and learn about different histories of underground filmmaking.
KS: To break it down, we are the flagship school in the University of Colorado system. We have a lot of in-state students, and we also have a lot of out-of-state students, too. Many of them haven’t had any exposure to experimental film, so I try to build bridges between artist-made film practices and industrial film practices. That way, our students gain exposure to all these different artist-made films while also learning industry-based film production skills.
That’s where something very interesting happens: a unique personalization of film languages begins to pop up between students taking our core production courses. We ask, ‘What can we show with the camera, editing, and sound?’ Then we examine the next layer and say: ‘What can we do with more advanced cinematography, more advanced editing, more advanced sound?’
When they enter their intermediate classes, our students start working with kind of collaborative, crew-based productions. Alongside those courses, they take electives in production, experimental animation, projected light, directing actors — all different kinds of things where they’re learning and creating their own film production language. Discovering and building out that language is at the essence of what we’re trying to accomplish.
KS: I always see lifelong bonds forming between my students in this class. They’re accruing experience by working on each other's films, but they’re also meeting people who they’ll collaborate with for years to come.
Last semester, I watched two of my students become great writing partners. After class, they would leave and go to a café on campus to work on their treatments or their scripts — they became so invested in each other’s work. This happens all the time, and I love it.
KS: To think about the artist-based or experimental filmmaker versus someone who wants to work in large-scale, narrative-based film production, we have pathways for both types of students. Both kinds of filmmakers really thrive in our program.
I see students who take one or two production electives that just sing to them. I've actually been having a conversation over email with one of my students who wants to take a class on digital glitching next semester — that's his thing.
KS: After their second production class, students have the opportunity to apply to our BFA program. The BFA enables them [...] to take more credits, and that means getting to take more production electives. It's very competitive. They learn niche production skills and eventually, you see all those skills start to come together in a very interesting way.
It’s worth mentioning that all our BFA students have to take one additional production elective to get hands-on experience. So, when they're writing about cinematography, a mise en scène, or composition, they reference their lived experience. All of our students take film studies classes so that they can be really informed and have a critical framework when they make their own films.
I consider the real kind gift of our BFA program our capstone course in advanced filmmaking. This is a two-semester sequence course where the first semester focuses on pre-production and production, and the second semester focuses on post-production — like creating websites and thinking about how to get their films into the world.
KS: For the BFA, you can submit up to two applications. If you don't get in the first round, we do give feedback on the application. It’s rare that you get any feedback on applications, but we like to give that. We explain what might make their application stronger and might offer a few notes about the creative sample or writing sample.
For the MFA application, we've had repeat applicants who basically say, ‘I know this is my program and I really want to be here.’ We can take so few students, so we have people who apply multiple times — I’ll recognize their name. That really shows me that they are very, very interested in our program. We don't give feedback on the MFA application simply because it’s so competitive, so it’s rare that something majorly needs to be improved, but instead that someone else was just a slightly better fit.
KS: For the portfolio, we require two four-minute excerpts from two different moving image works that they've made. At this point, applicants will have only been in two core production courses at CU Boulder, and they've probably taken a lower level production elective — like an analog filmmaking class or a computer imaging foundations class. So, they're applying with at least three production courses under their belt, and they can provide excerpts from any of the films they created in them. They should be the most representative of their creative vision.
I host information sessions about applying, and I always emphasize that for the writing portion, we just want to get a sense of you as an author. We're interested in hearing about your personal vision. You know, we changed our application because it used to ask, ‘Who influences you?’ and we found that it was almost always either Wes Anderson or Christopher Nolan, and that didn't tell us too much about what the person was thinking. We’ve started asking applicants to share sources of inspiration from something that they've seen in a class in our department, and that has really opened things up.
The application also has community-based questions, such as what students will bring to their BFA cohort. We think about not only selecting students who have really strong potential and a solid artistic vision, but also about how they’ll move through each semester with other students.
KS: To get admitted to the film program, you need to be accepted into CU Boulder and you can self-select. So, if you get admitted to the University as a freshman, come on over sign up for our first-year Introduction to Cinema Studies course.
The BFA also has two GPA requirements: a cumulative GPA of 2.3, and for internal students transferring into Cinema Students, a CINE GPA of 3.2 or higher. If you check off those markers — which I think is very feasible — then you can apply.
KS: It’s a large lecture hall-style course that basically serves as the gateway to our production classes. Students build critical film analysis skills — learning to interpret films, understand mise en scène, and identify various cinematography styles. They explore the reasons behind editing choices and why sound leads storytelling. This course lays the foundation for everything that follows in the program.
KS: We have our core production curriculum, which starts off with two different moving image foundations courses. In the first course, we want students to come out with every understanding of every manual camera function so that they can start to carve out their artistic abilities. They're used to shooting everything on auto, so we want to dismantle that thinking and show them how they can actually sculpt their aesthetic with a camera.
We like to think about sound and how it can be more subjective instead of always being a linear connection to the image. So, our students take a second moving image foundation class based on exploring interpretive cinematography and interpretive editing. That’s when they start to really learn good editing habits and get their first taste of [...] non-synchronous sound. They have to think about really designing every element of their set.
Then we start moving into synchronous sound and collaborative workflows in our Beginning/Intermediate Filmmaking course. Students start working in crew-based structures to get a sense of every single role on the crew. They begin to holistically understand how a set works.
KS: We work so intimately with our graduate students that we need to make sure that they're a really good fit. So, here’s an example: I remember one year, we had a graduate student on our admissions committee, and we had a wait list between two people. I asked the graduate student who would be a better fit, and she weighed in. I advise three graduate students right now and I meet with them all the time.
When we look at applications, the weakest ones come across like they could be for any film department in the country or very resource-heavy ones that say, ‘I want to make narrative feature films with huge crews that will require a lot of funding.’ That type of applicant is not the best fit for our program, which is extremely hands-on and experiments with different processes over traditional filmmaking. We want to get a sense that they’re uniquely interested in our graduate program instead of any film program anywhere.
We've had people who are making documentary films, but they're really experimenting with what a documentary can be. We have animators and analog film enthusiasts. We have students experimenting with narrative films, too. Ultimately, people who really know the legacy of our department and the filmmakers we’ve taught are the best fit.
KS: While we’ve admitted people who have had a ton of filmmaking experience, we've also admitted people who don’t even have film degrees but made films that resonate with us.
KS: Well, instead of just making it this gigantic thing, I often ask, ‘What's one element that could take on more subjective qualities?’
We can think about more overt experimental forms, like hand-painted film. We can also think about experimenting with ideas of continuity and editing. Maybe it's not a story or a character that's leading the audience through something — maybe it's some other element. Maybe it's multiple stories coming together at once.
In terms of animation, it could even be a question of how using time in a different way can create a unique aesthetic language. In general, we think about ways to find each student's inspiration and what makes them excited, and the film that only they can make. That's what I try to bring out in our students.
Wondering how to make your application to CU Boulder stand out in a competitive pool — and what perks graduate students receive? Become a Supporting Member to read Sears’s admissions advice, details on undergraduate full-ride scholarships, and insights into filmmaking resources that set CU Boulder apart.
FilmSchool.org is 100% advertisement-free, and Supporting Memberships make articles and interviews like this one possible. Supporting Members also enjoy FULL access to the application database (GPAs, test scores, portfolios...), our full Acceptance Data statistics, private student clubs and forums, and other perks.
A key figure shaping CU Boulder’s dynamic film school is Kelly Sears, Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studio Arts. An award-winning professor and animator, Sears blends narrative and experimental approaches in her work. Since joining CU Boulder in 2014, she has guided students to break free from artistic conventions while fostering creativity grounded in the creation and analysis of films that explore themes resonating across cultures.
Alexa Pellegrini for FilmSchool.org spoke with Sears about how CU Boulder’s forward-thinking film program honors and reshapes filmmaking traditions, its nationally renowned seminars, and her top tips for acing the application process.
Editor’s note: This interview took approximately 1 hour and is a total of 11 pages. Part 2 (6 pages) is available to our Supporting Members, without whom in-depth articles and interviews like this one would not be possible as FilmSchool.org is 100% advertisement free. Supporting Members also enjoy access to our database that tracks upwards of 4,000 film school applications and the full Acceptance Data statistics for each film program that helps demystify common questions about how to construct a winning portfolio, ideal GPAs and GRE scores, and much more.
AP: What courses do you teach at CU Boulder?
KS: I teach the undergraduate Moving Image Foundations course. I've often heard students say, ‘I don't want to make experimental films, I just want to make narrative films.’ My first question is always: ‘Well, how do you define an experimental film?’ Many of them think of experimental film as an absolute abstraction. But that’s actually just one way we can experiment with film when in reality, there are millions of ways we can do that. We're telling a lot of different stories — and we're experimenting with the ways we tell them.
We also have hybrid production electives for upper-level undergraduate and graduate Cinema Studies students. I'm teaching one called Excavation Filmmaking. In this class, we cover digital glitching and down shooting. We discuss translating top-down filmmaking into the frame, and we read about media archaeology and learn about different histories of underground filmmaking.
What makes CU Boulder’s approach to experimental filmmaking unique compared to other film schools?
KS: To break it down, we are the flagship school in the University of Colorado system. We have a lot of in-state students, and we also have a lot of out-of-state students, too. Many of them haven’t had any exposure to experimental film, so I try to build bridges between artist-made film practices and industrial film practices. That way, our students gain exposure to all these different artist-made films while also learning industry-based film production skills.
That’s where something very interesting happens: a unique personalization of film languages begins to pop up between students taking our core production courses. We ask, ‘What can we show with the camera, editing, and sound?’ Then we examine the next layer and say: ‘What can we do with more advanced cinematography, more advanced editing, more advanced sound?’
When they enter their intermediate classes, our students start working with kind of collaborative, crew-based productions. Alongside those courses, they take electives in production, experimental animation, projected light, directing actors — all different kinds of things where they’re learning and creating their own film production language. Discovering and building out that language is at the essence of what we’re trying to accomplish.
For applicants unfamiliar with CU Boulder and Colorado’s film landscape, how would you describe the program’s culture?
KS: I always see lifelong bonds forming between my students in this class. They’re accruing experience by working on each other's films, but they’re also meeting people who they’ll collaborate with for years to come.
Last semester, I watched two of my students become great writing partners. After class, they would leave and go to a café on campus to work on their treatments or their scripts — they became so invested in each other’s work. This happens all the time, and I love it.
Would you say CU Boulder’s film program is better suited to independent filmmakers, or does it also support creatives aiming for larger-scale productions?
KS: To think about the artist-based or experimental filmmaker versus someone who wants to work in large-scale, narrative-based film production, we have pathways for both types of students. Both kinds of filmmakers really thrive in our program.
I see students who take one or two production electives that just sing to them. I've actually been having a conversation over email with one of my students who wants to take a class on digital glitching next semester — that's his thing.
How does the undergraduate application process work?
KS: After their second production class, students have the opportunity to apply to our BFA program. The BFA enables them [...] to take more credits, and that means getting to take more production electives. It's very competitive. They learn niche production skills and eventually, you see all those skills start to come together in a very interesting way.
It’s worth mentioning that all our BFA students have to take one additional production elective to get hands-on experience. So, when they're writing about cinematography, a mise en scène, or composition, they reference their lived experience. All of our students take film studies classes so that they can be really informed and have a critical framework when they make their own films.
I consider the real kind gift of our BFA program our capstone course in advanced filmmaking. This is a two-semester sequence course where the first semester focuses on pre-production and production, and the second semester focuses on post-production — like creating websites and thinking about how to get their films into the world.
Just how competitive is the film program? And is there a cap on applications?
KS: For the BFA, you can submit up to two applications. If you don't get in the first round, we do give feedback on the application. It’s rare that you get any feedback on applications, but we like to give that. We explain what might make their application stronger and might offer a few notes about the creative sample or writing sample.
For the MFA application, we've had repeat applicants who basically say, ‘I know this is my program and I really want to be here.’ We can take so few students, so we have people who apply multiple times — I’ll recognize their name. That really shows me that they are very, very interested in our program. We don't give feedback on the MFA application simply because it’s so competitive, so it’s rare that something majorly needs to be improved, but instead that someone else was just a slightly better fit.
In what ways can applicants make their portfolio and writing sample stand out?
KS: For the portfolio, we require two four-minute excerpts from two different moving image works that they've made. At this point, applicants will have only been in two core production courses at CU Boulder, and they've probably taken a lower level production elective — like an analog filmmaking class or a computer imaging foundations class. So, they're applying with at least three production courses under their belt, and they can provide excerpts from any of the films they created in them. They should be the most representative of their creative vision.
I host information sessions about applying, and I always emphasize that for the writing portion, we just want to get a sense of you as an author. We're interested in hearing about your personal vision. You know, we changed our application because it used to ask, ‘Who influences you?’ and we found that it was almost always either Wes Anderson or Christopher Nolan, and that didn't tell us too much about what the person was thinking. We’ve started asking applicants to share sources of inspiration from something that they've seen in a class in our department, and that has really opened things up.
The application also has community-based questions, such as what students will bring to their BFA cohort. We think about not only selecting students who have really strong potential and a solid artistic vision, but also about how they’ll move through each semester with other students.
How much weight does GPA carry in the undergraduate application process?
KS: To get admitted to the film program, you need to be accepted into CU Boulder and you can self-select. So, if you get admitted to the University as a freshman, come on over sign up for our first-year Introduction to Cinema Studies course.
The BFA also has two GPA requirements: a cumulative GPA of 2.3, and for internal students transferring into Cinema Students, a CINE GPA of 3.2 or higher. If you check off those markers — which I think is very feasible — then you can apply.
What do students learn in Introduction to Cinema Studies?
KS: It’s a large lecture hall-style course that basically serves as the gateway to our production classes. Students build critical film analysis skills — learning to interpret films, understand mise en scène, and identify various cinematography styles. They explore the reasons behind editing choices and why sound leads storytelling. This course lays the foundation for everything that follows in the program.
Can you walk us through additional core components of the undergraduate curriculum?
KS: We have our core production curriculum, which starts off with two different moving image foundations courses. In the first course, we want students to come out with every understanding of every manual camera function so that they can start to carve out their artistic abilities. They're used to shooting everything on auto, so we want to dismantle that thinking and show them how they can actually sculpt their aesthetic with a camera.
We like to think about sound and how it can be more subjective instead of always being a linear connection to the image. So, our students take a second moving image foundation class based on exploring interpretive cinematography and interpretive editing. That’s when they start to really learn good editing habits and get their first taste of [...] non-synchronous sound. They have to think about really designing every element of their set.
Then we start moving into synchronous sound and collaborative workflows in our Beginning/Intermediate Filmmaking course. Students start working in crew-based structures to get a sense of every single role on the crew. They begin to holistically understand how a set works.
Let’s turn to CU Boulder's film MFA. What do successful applicants tend to have in common?
KS: We work so intimately with our graduate students that we need to make sure that they're a really good fit. So, here’s an example: I remember one year, we had a graduate student on our admissions committee, and we had a wait list between two people. I asked the graduate student who would be a better fit, and she weighed in. I advise three graduate students right now and I meet with them all the time.
When we look at applications, the weakest ones come across like they could be for any film department in the country or very resource-heavy ones that say, ‘I want to make narrative feature films with huge crews that will require a lot of funding.’ That type of applicant is not the best fit for our program, which is extremely hands-on and experiments with different processes over traditional filmmaking. We want to get a sense that they’re uniquely interested in our graduate program instead of any film program anywhere.
We've had people who are making documentary films, but they're really experimenting with what a documentary can be. We have animators and analog film enthusiasts. We have students experimenting with narrative films, too. Ultimately, people who really know the legacy of our department and the filmmakers we’ve taught are the best fit.
Can someone without a film degree still stand out as an MFA candidate?
KS: While we’ve admitted people who have had a ton of filmmaking experience, we've also admitted people who don’t even have film degrees but made films that resonate with us.
What kinds of experimental film techniques do students engage with at CU Boulder?
KS: Well, instead of just making it this gigantic thing, I often ask, ‘What's one element that could take on more subjective qualities?’
We can think about more overt experimental forms, like hand-painted film. We can also think about experimenting with ideas of continuity and editing. Maybe it's not a story or a character that's leading the audience through something — maybe it's some other element. Maybe it's multiple stories coming together at once.
In terms of animation, it could even be a question of how using time in a different way can create a unique aesthetic language. In general, we think about ways to find each student's inspiration and what makes them excited, and the film that only they can make. That's what I try to bring out in our students.
Thank you for reading! Continue to Part 2...
How to Get Into CU Boulder’s Film Program: Tips from Kelly Sears, Associate Chair (Part 2)
In part 2 of our exclusive interview with filmmaker and Professor Kelly Sears, we discuss how to navigate CU Boulder’s competitive admissions process, portfolio tips, scholarship opportunities, equipment film students use, and more.
Read part 1 here:
Is there a GPA requirement for film MFA...
- Alexa P.
- Category: Supporting Member Exclusives
Wondering how to make your application to CU Boulder stand out in a competitive pool — and what perks graduate students receive? Become a Supporting Member to read Sears’s admissions advice, details on undergraduate full-ride scholarships, and insights into filmmaking resources that set CU Boulder apart.
FilmSchool.org is 100% advertisement-free, and Supporting Memberships make articles and interviews like this one possible. Supporting Members also enjoy FULL access to the application database (GPAs, test scores, portfolios...), our full Acceptance Data statistics, private student clubs and forums, and other perks.
