Emerson College has expanded its Department of Visual and Media Arts into the new School of Film, Television, and Media Arts, marking an exciting new chapter in the institution’s 130-year legacy. The College has a reputation for punching above its weight, including earning more Oscar wins and nominations in 2023 than any film school worldwide — and continuing to stand out among top film programs through alumni successes at Sundance, Cannes, and other international festivals.
Undergraduate and graduates receive a world-class education in Boston and satellite campuses located in the Netherlands, Paris, and Los Angeles. The interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes hands-on training across the entire spectrum of filmmaking, from shooting on 16mm to extended reality, paired with one-on-one mentorship from award-winning faculty and professional networks such as the Association of Screenwriting Students.
In 2025, Emerson welcomed prolific new faculty, including award-winning writer-director Ekwa Msangi (“Farewell Amor"), who will be teaching Screenwriting. Not only that, but Emerson also became the first film school in New England, and just the second in the US, to earn Certified Film School Accreditation from ARRI, a global leader in the development of film equipment and technologies.
In this exclusive interview for FilmSchool.org, Alexa Pellegrini explores Emerson’s vision for film education, film school admissions tips, and what it takes to become an Emersonian storyteller, speaking with the following faculty and staff:
Shaun Clarke is the Interim Dean of the School of Film, Television & Media Arts; Associate Professor; Director of Photography. Clarke brings both academic leadership and professional cinematography experience, providing vision for the film school’s launch and mentorship for student filmmakers.
Hanadi Elyan is the Associate Professor of Visual & Media Arts and the director of the Film and Media Arts MFA. Elyan contributes expertise in global film perspectives and creative practice, adding an international and interdisciplinary dimension to Emerson’s film education.
James Lane is the Senior Scholar-in-Residence II and Graduate Program Director of the Low-Residency Writing for Film and Television MFA. Lane is a longtime faculty leader in media arts, recognized for shaping Emerson’s graduate curriculum and mentoring storytellers with distinctive voices.
Barbara Selmo is the Director of Graduate Admissions at Emerson. Dr. Selmo, an Ed.M. ’94 and Ed.D. ’04 graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education, brings years of admissions leadership from institutions including Babson College, Boston University School of Law, Columbia Business School, and HGSE Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Editor's note: This interview is approximately 21 pages. Part 2 (10 pages) is available exclusively to 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.
Outside of the classroom, students can gain invaluable experience by participating in film- and media-related student organizations. Students will dive right in and start working with talented mentors, collaborators, and crew members from day one. And one super power that we heard referenced over and over, is the ability to try out new approaches, technologies, and ideas — with guidance and support from faculty who are teachers, doers, and industry players.
Shaun Clarke: There's never a dull moment at Emerson; there's always activity happening. Every weekend of the semester, an Emerson student can work on creative projects with their peers on and off-set. So, I think that that is distinct to the culture here, which is that students have so many opportunities to create. Usually, we try to coach them on how to prioritize taking advantage of those opportunities so that they're not burning themselves out.
That's really the kind of typical Emerson experience: coming here and getting involved with any number of the different filmmaking opportunities that exist on our campus, whether it's film production or stage productions, or collaborating with students in the School of Communications on producing a news piece from the Journalism Department.
Credit: Emerson College
SC: The SOF will continue, as always, to invest in these areas to ensure students are receiving a top of the line education. Specific to career readiness, the new school will create new pathways for students to the creative industry through strategic industry partnerships, which are underway.
SC: The Emerson LA campus is housed in an impressive building right on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. So, the location alone gives students proximity to all those resources that you mentioned, from production companies to agents.
We try to be really intentional, both for our low-residency program and also for the undergraduate population at Emerson LA. We bring folks from the city and from the industry […] onto campus for guest speaking opportunities, networking, and establishing internships for their own companies or major studios. These students are on campus at the heart of the industry experience, but it's really about all those connections that are being made with people in the city who can help advance their careers.
SC: A priority in the College’s new strategic plan, Extraordinary Emerson 2030, is to enhance Emerson Los Angeles, which includes expanding mentorship opportunities and industry connections. A search for the inaugural Dean of the Emerson Los Angeles campus is underway and critical to that process.
The College just launched a new partnership at Emerson Los Angeles in summer 2025 with The Gersh Agency and Gersh Gives. The Gersh U. Summer Institute, in partnership with Emerson Los Angeles, provides participants with an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at talent agencies and the ever-evolving entertainment industry. The institute includes industry-specific workshops, networking opportunities, and hands-on experiences. Five spots are reserved for Emerson students at no cost.
Exterior shot of the center from West Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Thom Mayne (Flickr)
SC: The inter- and multidisciplinary curriculum that the College offers gives our students a broad skill set equipping them for careers now and in the future, which demands this type of versatility and broad knowledge. The College’s Emerging Media Lab hosts curriculum in multiple areas of new media, including but not limited to: virtual production, 3D modeling & animation, analytical drawing, artistic anatomy & 2D animation, character design, rigging & animation, game design, development & coding, virtual reality & augmented reality, 360 cinema, photogrammetry & LiDAR scanning.
Thanks to a generous gift, Emerson will open the new Gaming and Immersive Media Lab in the Fall of 2025. This new state-of-the-art lab will support our growing Game Design & Development and e-Sports curriculum.
SC: We have an expensive selection, so I'll give you the highlights. There's just so much equipment in our Equipment Distribution Center. We're a very well-resourced program with professional, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. In terms of that, we distribute for off-campus productions, and our flagship is the five-area ALEXA 35 camera. Most students complete their thesis on those cameras. But we also have a very large fleet of Canon C70 cameras — we have about 70 of those. It's rare that graduate students can't get their kind of first-choice desired packages for their projects.
We have a professional soundstage and a boom soundstage. We have TV studios that are increasingly used for cinema-style production as well. We have high-end sound mixing studios with editing suites. We run all different software. Our classes are mainly taught in Avid, but all students also get access to Adobe Creative Suite.
We also have an emerging media lab, a virtual production wall, and an LED wall, so students who are interested in exploring virtual production can work there. For photographers, we offer both the darkroom and the digital photo lab. We have analog film facilities for our significant analog film curriculum, so students who want to work on 16-millimeter analog film can take multiple classes about that. So, those are the highlights, but there are even more facilities.
SC: We do not charge equipment or lab fees. There are no changes to this policy in consideration. The goal is to create equitable opportunities for making and creating for all of our students.
BS: Students benefit from studying in a city that ranks among the top five US media markets. Boston’s prominence as an increasingly popular location for major feature film shoots provides limitless opportunities for internships, jobs, and freelance assignments. The area also boasts dozens of theaters, television and radio stations, film festivals, and art museums and galleries that offer outlets for students’ work.
BS: Applications to Emerson’s grad programs are reviewed by faculty committees who employ a holistic review of each candidate. Holistic admissions supports the inclusion of multiple data points as they can support and document the qualities, achievements, and attributes that can show a candidate's potential for success in any given program.
SC: We have three degrees on the Boston campus: a BA in Media Studies, BA in Media Arts Production, and a BFA in Media Arts Production.
I'll start with media studies. The BA in Media Studies is smaller — there are fewer students in that program because it is more of an analytical, historical, and theory-based program where students are focused on scholarship, on writing, on research, and on writing about media. Those students still have to take some hands-on production classes.
The vast majority of students in our program, about 90 of them, are in the BA Media Arts Production program. It is a Bachelor of Arts, but it has significant hands-on production experience, more so than the average BA. There are still media studies and theoretical requirements, since we believe that the blending of the theory and practice is really what makes them a strong filmmaker, but the program is generally super hands-on. Many students also use most of their elective credits to take even more hands-on production classes.
At our school, the BFA in Media Arts does have additional requirements around hands-on production, but at the core is the portfolio that's produced. So, students who want to spend a whole year creating a kind of refined, advanced addition to their portfolio tend to be interested in our BFA. Students apply for the BFA when they're juniors in our BA.
So, if you are a BA student and you become a junior, you have the option to apply internally for our BFA. The faculty committee reviews those applications and considers the student's previous academic performance along with their proposed BFA project and its feasibility and quality.
SC: We use a pretty standard application process, but we do ask for a creative portfolio that's also submitted with the application. The creative sample includes either a film or video submission of up to five minutes in length, or a five- to ten-page screenplay, or an audio clip or digital photography. We also review their academic record and extracurriculars. Again, it's what you would see with most colleges. We ask for that additional creative sample as a way of further investigating the applicant's potential.
SC: There's not an exact ratio in terms of GPA versus creative sample and extracurriculars versus letters of recommendation, and I don't think Emerson has an explicit minimum GPA for applications. If applicants face challenges with their academics, the creative sample could show a potential to succeed in our department. But one doesn't negate the other, right? So, if an applicant shows significant challenges with their academics, the creative sample won't completely erase that, and vice versa.
SC: Yes. And again, I don't think that our BFA in Media Production students necessarily take more hands-on classes than our Media Production BA students. It's really that the thesis project is a must for our BFA students, whereas that project isn't a hard requirement for our BA students. Some of them do choose to take the one-semester BA capstone course, which is a popular option.
Credit: Emerson College
SC: The admissions office spends a lot of time making sure that students understand all the details of the program. There's some self-selectivity, where students who apply are confident that they want the adventure and studying on kind of a consolidated timeline — because it's really a three-and-a-half-year program. They're studying during the summers, and moving between 10 different school campuses is a requirement. That naturally limits the number of people who apply.
So, it’s not a traditional undergraduate experience. In that case, you might study abroad for a semester, and for our full-time students in Boston, the majority do a semester in LA in their final year. Their home base is the Boston campus, whereas with the [Global BFA in Film Art], you're constantly on the move. For some students, that is the appeal. For others, that's not what they're looking for.
SC: I think it is a really awesome program — it's a true international experience for our undergraduates. They move between the Emerson campus in Boston and Kasteel Well in the Netherlands, and also the Paris College of Arts campus in Paris. I think that kind of international experience informs our students' work and how they learn about their perspective on art.
The experience of being transient and moving between these different locations is a unique one. It's really a back and forth — they go to Paris, and they come back to Boston, and they go to Paris, and they go to the Netherlands, and they go back to Paris, and they come to Boston. (For the fall and spring semesters, generally they're on the Paris campus, and then in the summer, they're on the Boston campus and the Netherlands campus.) You know, in order to succeed, students need to have that interest in the adventure that comes along with it.
When they're in Paris in their third year, they take a trip to the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. They also do a group visit to the Rotterdam Film Festival. In our art history courses, we make a point of having our faculty take them to the [art] museums in Paris; we incorporate the whole experience of being in each of these cities into the curriculum.
SC: There is housing available to students in all locations. In Paris, the housing is a kind of school-sanctioned dorm that students live in. I believe on-campus housing is optional. In Boston, we have our normal student dormitories.
In Kasteel Well, students both live in and study at our castle in Kasteel Well. For decades, it's been a study abroad opportunity for students studying on the Boston campus. The summer that they spend in Kasteel Well also has a number of coordinated and required outings to film festivals as a group.
SC: The Paris College of Art just moved into a new building, so they have a new campus. Essentially, that has significant upgrades in terms of the resources that they make available to the students. So, new screening rooms, new studio spaces — there's been an all-around expansion of the school and its facilities.
When students are in Boston, they have access to all of the same resources that our full-time Boston students have access to. So they're generally in Boston for the final summer, finishing their thesis. They have access to all the cameras, mixing suites, editing rooms — anything that we have available.
In the Netherlands things are a little different. They're mostly working on pre-production and prep for their thesis, so there are not as many production facilities. But they don't need those at that time since they're really in preparatory mode. We do have limited cameras and gear in case students want to explore smaller projects. There's the expectation that students are going to explore other parts of Europe while they're there. That is part of the experiential learning component.
SC: First, students working on fast projects can hire and recruit anybody they want to be on their crew. For the first-year or second-year projects, which are much smaller in scale, they usually have much smaller crews. Students might be working with two or three of their friends on a project, while on more advanced projects — like the BFA thesis or our BA capstone — they have larger crews of 20 students or more. Students who want to jump in and be on set can do that every weekend at our school because it's so large and there's so much going on.
The average cinematography class will have students who want to just be cinematographers, and they're being recruited out of that class to work on other students' projects. Or you have students in the class who are, let's say, already planning to become directors but are taking it to learn standard cinematography knowledge. And so they're able to look around and find students in that class who may want to act as their cinematographer. All our classes bring students together.
As for our student organizations, they are places where our students also gain significant hands-on experience. Most of our co-curriculars are active in terms of productions, so students can work on productions that are originating in those co-curriculars. And then there are complementary classes across campus. We have a performing arts department with an acting program, and a lot of our students in the VMA department will cast and recruit those actors, especially for the BFA thesis.
SC: Emerson gets really strong applications from around the world, and our faculty committee that screens all the applications has a very difficult time narrowing down the list of students who are going to be accepted in the program. So, our faculty is more directly involved with selecting students for our graduate program than they are for the undergraduate program, which is run through Emerson's admissions office in collaboration with certain faculty to review some of the portfolios.
BS: When filling out the application, candidates are asked to self-select whether or not they wish to be considered for "Advanced Standing" which is structured as different entry "phases" into the Film and Media Art (MFA) program. Students who do not indicate an interest in "Advanced Standing" will automatically be considered for Phase I.
Should an applicant select "yes" regarding their "Advanced Standing" interest, they will then be prompted to upload a brief document that attests to the skills, academic foundation, and/or industry experience related to film that they believe makes them a good fit for either Phase II or Phase III. The faculty review committee determines which entry phase would be the best fit for an applicant based on the materials that are submitted in an application.
The three phases are generally defined as the following:
Phase I - Foundational Practitioner (64 Credits, three years). Applicant may display a passion for visual storytelling but does not yet demonstrate proficiency in the foundational elements that related academic or professional industry experience can provide. Phase I students are continuing to develop foundational skills as a visual artist through theory, critique, and hands-on practice.
Phase II - Intermediate Practitioner (52 Credits, Two and a half years). Applicant demonstrates proficiency in the foundational skills and concepts that would be outlined during a student's first year in the program (Phase I). Application materials may highlight an undergraduate degree in a related field of film or storytelling, professional experience in commercial media production, and/or a portfolio that demonstrates the applicant's creative inspirations and aspirations, technical proficiency in one or more media modes, and/or previous production experience.
Phase III - Advanced Practitioner (40 Credits, Two years). Applicant demonstrates their technical proficiency and artistic potential through their submitted materials, they have excellent references from both academic and professional contacts, they may have a BFA in Film/TV/Media Production, and/or some professional production experience. An applicant may be teaching film studies or production part-time and wants a terminal degree.
Credit: Emerson College
BS: If an applicant is offered admission to the Film and Media Art (MFA) program with Advanced Standing, they may meet with their Graduate Program Director to discuss the potential of entering the program at an easier phase. This must be done before an admitted student submits their enrollment deposit which holds their spot in the phase they were offered. Requests to advance the phase that is offered are generally not considered.
BS: There is no required or minimum GPA to apply to this program, and the GRE is also not required. Once enrolled, students must maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average in order to remain in good academic standing.
BS: Through our institution's holistic admission process, the [film] program's faculty review committee considers applications using a "growth mindset" rather than a deficit approach. The portfolio, letters of recommendation, essays, and transcripts are intentionally structured as a way for applicants to show the review committee that Emerson College is where they want to learn and grow, that they are ready to handle the rigors of a graduate program, and that they have the necessary creative vision to continue evolving as an artist.
When an applicant is denied admission to the program, it is not because they didn't meet a specific "score" or that they performed poorly in a specific area of the application. Anyone who is interested in reapplying to the program is encouraged to review their portfolio submissions and essay responses to ensure they provide examples that highlight their potential as a graduate student, member of the Emerson community, and as artist. Find ways to deepen your storytelling skills and challenge yourself to practice filming and directing in different ways to hone your creativity.
BS: Those who choose to reapply are welcome to use the same portfolio materials they originally submitted, though it is not recommended. The year-long gap required to reapply is intentional and gives the applicant time to further develop their artistic and creative vision, storytelling, and/or technical skills.
Our Graduate Admission policies state that an applicant who is denied admission must wait one full year before applying again to the same program. For example, if an applicant applies for the Fall 2025 start term and is denied, they must wait until the application for the Fall 2027 start term opens to reapply.
BS: [The Film and Media Art MFA and the Writing for Film and Television MFA] have a priority deadline of February 1. Decisions for applicants who meet the priority deadline are released by mid-March. Applicants will receive an email prompting them to sign into the Emerson Admission Portal to review their decision. We do not mail decision letters for graduate programs.
Regular applicants and waitlisted applicants are traditionally notified at the same time [through the candidate portal], with a decision release of mid-March to late March. Should a spot become available in the program prior to the start of the academic term, only waitlisted applicants that indicated "yes" on their confirmation of interest form will be considered for admission. Students who are offered admission must submit a $400 Enrollment Deposit by May 1st to hold their spot in the program.
BS: Applicants may request to defer their start term. However, the approval of such a request is ultimately decided by the Graduate Program Director and/or the Director of Graduate Admission. Deferrals are limited to candidates who present unusual and unexpected circumstances that prevent them from enrolling in the term that they had applied to. It is important to note that scholarship and fellowship awards do not rollover to a future term, should an applicant be approved to defer.
SC: The one thing I want to point out is that we're not a conservatory. So, there are other graduate film programs where you declare a specialization. 'I want to be a director' or 'I want to be an editor.' At Emerson, we're about cultivating and supporting individual artists. That doesn't mean that they don't collaborate, but people are not defined by their area of specialization, and so with that, you get students who explore a wide range of genres and production modes. It's not uncommon for us to have students who are making a documentary and a short fictional narrative film all within the same semester, and students working in both linear film and also virtual reality or installation art.
All students do have to make a singular thesis project as their capstone, and those take many different forms. A lot of them are film projects, but we also have installations every year that are excellent. Students can always wear multiple hats, and they do just that on different film sets. For any given project and their thesis, students are allowed to assemble their own crews, which means that we have a lot of students working on a lot of different configurations throughout a semester. They get to exercise their unique skill sets across different interests.
So, a student might work as a cinematographer one weekend, and then two weeks later, they're acting as the sound recordist. A few weeks later, they might serve as the production designer, and then by the following month, they're directing their own film. That does happen, and students get to experience productions from a whole bunch of different sets of perspectives.
HE: We offer classes that introduce these elements from the beginning. We have the Language of Media Art. There's Experimental Media Production and Advanced Experimental Media Production. There is Space and Sound. It's more of the theory part of the curriculum.
There are many courses that are introduced in the first year that give people the taste of these things. And if they wish to continue on that road, then they can go into the more advanced classes as well. Personally, I'm more of a traditional filmmaker and go back to the straightforward narrative. But some students experiment. And I don't mean experiment as in experimental filmmaking. I mean, they try different things within their assignments and so on within the semester.
These influences are all part of shaping an artist. Even if they're just consuming media and criticizing it and writing about it, it forms them in a certain way — not that they know different things that they might not have been exposed to outside of the school.
James Lane: A lot of our students actually have jobs. They’re full-time parents. So, the age diversity in our program ranges from students who just graduated from college to people who have been out of college for 35 years and everyone in between. I feel like that wide range of backgrounds and ages really does create a very dynamic classroom environment, and we have a lot of regional diversity because of that as well. 80% of our instruction is online, and because students don’t have to disrupt their lives, nobody moves from where they are.
When I teach in a discussion room on Canvas, we have students from California logging in. […] We’ve had students who live [...] as American citizens in Sweden, Iceland — in time zones from the West Coast of the United States to Northern Europe. And that’s really cool. That really does define a lot of who we are. But we cannot accept international students. This has nothing to do with the current atmosphere in the Department of Education. This has been in place since the inception of our program seven or eight years ago. […] We can accept a student who has a work permit here if they don’t have a U.S. passport, but have the legal right to work here — that’s acceptable. But that’s it.
JL: Each residency has a theme attached. The theme of the first residency is writing short-form media, and that residency opens the fall semester. So, all the students converge on the Boston campus in August for a week. The second residency, we’re back on the Boston campus, and the theme is writing [the feature script]. First semester, first- and second-year students convene in Boston for a week. They meet the professors they’ll have for their two classes that semester […] and have a couple of face-to-face classes on campus. The final residency, which takes place in Los Angeles, has the theme about the business of screenwriting.
There are 12 students in each section of the class, and they move through the curriculum in the exact same way. Everyone is taking the same classes. In addition to that, we have a whole bunch of other lectures and workshops that are designed around that theme.
We’re lucky enough that the Semel family endowed a program for screenwriting. So, each semester, we have a VIP film or TV writer who comes and workshops the students’ material. They lecture on their process, what their influences are, and then we have a screening of their work and a Q&A with them afterward. That writer spends two days with our students. They’re working professionals that students get to work closely with, and that is very much a highlight of our residencies.
Upgrade your account to read part two of our interview with the Emerson team. Find out strategies to increase your chances of getting admitted to Emerson’s graduate film program, data about scholarships and financial aid data, insights into how the College prepares students for robust filmmaking careers, and more.
For more information about Emerson, including important deadlines and application instructions, read FilmSchool.org's free "How to Apply" guide:
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Undergraduate and graduates receive a world-class education in Boston and satellite campuses located in the Netherlands, Paris, and Los Angeles. The interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes hands-on training across the entire spectrum of filmmaking, from shooting on 16mm to extended reality, paired with one-on-one mentorship from award-winning faculty and professional networks such as the Association of Screenwriting Students.
In 2025, Emerson welcomed prolific new faculty, including award-winning writer-director Ekwa Msangi (“Farewell Amor"), who will be teaching Screenwriting. Not only that, but Emerson also became the first film school in New England, and just the second in the US, to earn Certified Film School Accreditation from ARRI, a global leader in the development of film equipment and technologies.
In this exclusive interview for FilmSchool.org, Alexa Pellegrini explores Emerson’s vision for film education, film school admissions tips, and what it takes to become an Emersonian storyteller, speaking with the following faculty and staff:
Shaun Clarke is the Interim Dean of the School of Film, Television & Media Arts; Associate Professor; Director of Photography. Clarke brings both academic leadership and professional cinematography experience, providing vision for the film school’s launch and mentorship for student filmmakers.
Hanadi Elyan is the Associate Professor of Visual & Media Arts and the director of the Film and Media Arts MFA. Elyan contributes expertise in global film perspectives and creative practice, adding an international and interdisciplinary dimension to Emerson’s film education.
James Lane is the Senior Scholar-in-Residence II and Graduate Program Director of the Low-Residency Writing for Film and Television MFA. Lane is a longtime faculty leader in media arts, recognized for shaping Emerson’s graduate curriculum and mentoring storytellers with distinctive voices.
Barbara Selmo is the Director of Graduate Admissions at Emerson. Dr. Selmo, an Ed.M. ’94 and Ed.D. ’04 graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education, brings years of admissions leadership from institutions including Babson College, Boston University School of Law, Columbia Business School, and HGSE Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Editor's note: This interview is approximately 21 pages. Part 2 (10 pages) is available exclusively to 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.
How would you describe the spirit of Emerson’s film culture, particularly how it fosters collaboration and artistic growth?
Barbara Selmo: At Emerson, we're all about learning by doing. Whether a student’s passion is film or video, Internet or animation, studio television or audio, our department offers unlimited opportunities to grow, collaborate, and thrive — plus access to sophisticated, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities that help creativity take flight.Outside of the classroom, students can gain invaluable experience by participating in film- and media-related student organizations. Students will dive right in and start working with talented mentors, collaborators, and crew members from day one. And one super power that we heard referenced over and over, is the ability to try out new approaches, technologies, and ideas — with guidance and support from faculty who are teachers, doers, and industry players.
Shaun Clarke: There's never a dull moment at Emerson; there's always activity happening. Every weekend of the semester, an Emerson student can work on creative projects with their peers on and off-set. So, I think that that is distinct to the culture here, which is that students have so many opportunities to create. Usually, we try to coach them on how to prioritize taking advantage of those opportunities so that they're not burning themselves out.
That's really the kind of typical Emerson experience: coming here and getting involved with any number of the different filmmaking opportunities that exist on our campus, whether it's film production or stage productions, or collaborating with students in the School of Communications on producing a news piece from the Journalism Department.
Credit: Emerson College
In what ways will Emerson's new School of Film, Television, and Media Arts expand the curriculum and equip students with the skills they need to be career-ready?
SC: The SOF will continue, as always, to invest in these areas to ensure students are receiving a top of the line education. Specific to career readiness, the new school will create new pathways for students to the creative industry through strategic industry partnerships, which are underway.
What do Emersonians gain from studying at the Los Angeles campus?
SC: The Emerson LA campus is housed in an impressive building right on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. So, the location alone gives students proximity to all those resources that you mentioned, from production companies to agents.
We try to be really intentional, both for our low-residency program and also for the undergraduate population at Emerson LA. We bring folks from the city and from the industry […] onto campus for guest speaking opportunities, networking, and establishing internships for their own companies or major studios. These students are on campus at the heart of the industry experience, but it's really about all those connections that are being made with people in the city who can help advance their careers.
Do you see the expansion of the Los Angeles campus opening new pathways for students to build industry connections and strengthen relationships with their mentors?
SC: A priority in the College’s new strategic plan, Extraordinary Emerson 2030, is to enhance Emerson Los Angeles, which includes expanding mentorship opportunities and industry connections. A search for the inaugural Dean of the Emerson Los Angeles campus is underway and critical to that process.
The College just launched a new partnership at Emerson Los Angeles in summer 2025 with The Gersh Agency and Gersh Gives. The Gersh U. Summer Institute, in partnership with Emerson Los Angeles, provides participants with an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at talent agencies and the ever-evolving entertainment industry. The institute includes industry-specific workshops, networking opportunities, and hands-on experiences. Five spots are reserved for Emerson students at no cost.
Exterior shot of the center from West Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Thom Mayne (Flickr)
This year, Emerson added new courses around virtual reality and other emerging technologies. How will these courses support the skills that filmmakers need to thrive in a digital-first industry?
SC: The inter- and multidisciplinary curriculum that the College offers gives our students a broad skill set equipping them for careers now and in the future, which demands this type of versatility and broad knowledge. The College’s Emerging Media Lab hosts curriculum in multiple areas of new media, including but not limited to: virtual production, 3D modeling & animation, analytical drawing, artistic anatomy & 2D animation, character design, rigging & animation, game design, development & coding, virtual reality & augmented reality, 360 cinema, photogrammetry & LiDAR scanning.
Thanks to a generous gift, Emerson will open the new Gaming and Immersive Media Lab in the Fall of 2025. This new state-of-the-art lab will support our growing Game Design & Development and e-Sports curriculum.
What kinds of film equipment do Emersonians use?
SC: We have an expensive selection, so I'll give you the highlights. There's just so much equipment in our Equipment Distribution Center. We're a very well-resourced program with professional, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. In terms of that, we distribute for off-campus productions, and our flagship is the five-area ALEXA 35 camera. Most students complete their thesis on those cameras. But we also have a very large fleet of Canon C70 cameras — we have about 70 of those. It's rare that graduate students can't get their kind of first-choice desired packages for their projects.
We have a professional soundstage and a boom soundstage. We have TV studios that are increasingly used for cinema-style production as well. We have high-end sound mixing studios with editing suites. We run all different software. Our classes are mainly taught in Avid, but all students also get access to Adobe Creative Suite.
We also have an emerging media lab, a virtual production wall, and an LED wall, so students who are interested in exploring virtual production can work there. For photographers, we offer both the darkroom and the digital photo lab. We have analog film facilities for our significant analog film curriculum, so students who want to work on 16-millimeter analog film can take multiple classes about that. So, those are the highlights, but there are even more facilities.
Do you expect any increases to equipment and/or lab fees in 2025 and beyond?
SC: We do not charge equipment or lab fees. There are no changes to this policy in consideration. The goal is to create equitable opportunities for making and creating for all of our students.
What are some of the unique perks of studying in Boston?
BS: Students benefit from studying in a city that ranks among the top five US media markets. Boston’s prominence as an increasingly popular location for major feature film shoots provides limitless opportunities for internships, jobs, and freelance assignments. The area also boasts dozens of theaters, television and radio stations, film festivals, and art museums and galleries that offer outlets for students’ work.
In what ways will Emerson ensure that the admissions process and classroom environment continue to incorporate principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion?
BS: Applications to Emerson’s grad programs are reviewed by faculty committees who employ a holistic review of each candidate. Holistic admissions supports the inclusion of multiple data points as they can support and document the qualities, achievements, and attributes that can show a candidate's potential for success in any given program.
Can you give us an overview of Emerson’s undergraduate film program?
SC: We have three degrees on the Boston campus: a BA in Media Studies, BA in Media Arts Production, and a BFA in Media Arts Production.
I'll start with media studies. The BA in Media Studies is smaller — there are fewer students in that program because it is more of an analytical, historical, and theory-based program where students are focused on scholarship, on writing, on research, and on writing about media. Those students still have to take some hands-on production classes.
The vast majority of students in our program, about 90 of them, are in the BA Media Arts Production program. It is a Bachelor of Arts, but it has significant hands-on production experience, more so than the average BA. There are still media studies and theoretical requirements, since we believe that the blending of the theory and practice is really what makes them a strong filmmaker, but the program is generally super hands-on. Many students also use most of their elective credits to take even more hands-on production classes.
At our school, the BFA in Media Arts does have additional requirements around hands-on production, but at the core is the portfolio that's produced. So, students who want to spend a whole year creating a kind of refined, advanced addition to their portfolio tend to be interested in our BFA. Students apply for the BFA when they're juniors in our BA.
So, if you are a BA student and you become a junior, you have the option to apply internally for our BFA. The faculty committee reviews those applications and considers the student's previous academic performance along with their proposed BFA project and its feasibility and quality.
Can you walk us through Emerson’s undergraduate film application process?
SC: We use a pretty standard application process, but we do ask for a creative portfolio that's also submitted with the application. The creative sample includes either a film or video submission of up to five minutes in length, or a five- to ten-page screenplay, or an audio clip or digital photography. We also review their academic record and extracurriculars. Again, it's what you would see with most colleges. We ask for that additional creative sample as a way of further investigating the applicant's potential.
How can Media Arts Production BA and BFA applicants boost their chances of acceptance, particularly if they have a lower GPA?
SC: There's not an exact ratio in terms of GPA versus creative sample and extracurriculars versus letters of recommendation, and I don't think Emerson has an explicit minimum GPA for applications. If applicants face challenges with their academics, the creative sample could show a potential to succeed in our department. But one doesn't negate the other, right? So, if an applicant shows significant challenges with their academics, the creative sample won't completely erase that, and vice versa.
Do most Media Arts Production BA students graduate with a portfolio?
SC: Yes. And again, I don't think that our BFA in Media Production students necessarily take more hands-on classes than our Media Production BA students. It's really that the thesis project is a must for our BFA students, whereas that project isn't a hard requirement for our BA students. Some of them do choose to take the one-semester BA capstone course, which is a popular option.
Credit: Emerson College
The Global BFA in Film Art is a distinctive and highly immersive film degree. How competitive is it?
SC: The admissions office spends a lot of time making sure that students understand all the details of the program. There's some self-selectivity, where students who apply are confident that they want the adventure and studying on kind of a consolidated timeline — because it's really a three-and-a-half-year program. They're studying during the summers, and moving between 10 different school campuses is a requirement. That naturally limits the number of people who apply.
So, it’s not a traditional undergraduate experience. In that case, you might study abroad for a semester, and for our full-time students in Boston, the majority do a semester in LA in their final year. Their home base is the Boston campus, whereas with the [Global BFA in Film Art], you're constantly on the move. For some students, that is the appeal. For others, that's not what they're looking for.
Throughout the Global BFA in Film Art, how do undergraduates benefit by rotating their studies at the Paris College of Art, Kasteel Well, and the Boston campus?
SC: I think it is a really awesome program — it's a true international experience for our undergraduates. They move between the Emerson campus in Boston and Kasteel Well in the Netherlands, and also the Paris College of Arts campus in Paris. I think that kind of international experience informs our students' work and how they learn about their perspective on art.
The experience of being transient and moving between these different locations is a unique one. It's really a back and forth — they go to Paris, and they come back to Boston, and they go to Paris, and they go to the Netherlands, and they go back to Paris, and they come to Boston. (For the fall and spring semesters, generally they're on the Paris campus, and then in the summer, they're on the Boston campus and the Netherlands campus.) You know, in order to succeed, students need to have that interest in the adventure that comes along with it.
When they're in Paris in their third year, they take a trip to the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. They also do a group visit to the Rotterdam Film Festival. In our art history courses, we make a point of having our faculty take them to the [art] museums in Paris; we incorporate the whole experience of being in each of these cities into the curriculum.
What accommodations do Global BFA in Film Art students receive across all campuses?
SC: There is housing available to students in all locations. In Paris, the housing is a kind of school-sanctioned dorm that students live in. I believe on-campus housing is optional. In Boston, we have our normal student dormitories.
In Kasteel Well, students both live in and study at our castle in Kasteel Well. For decades, it's been a study abroad opportunity for students studying on the Boston campus. The summer that they spend in Kasteel Well also has a number of coordinated and required outings to film festivals as a group.
How are the facilities at each Global BFA in Film Art campus designed to help students create and learn?
SC: The Paris College of Art just moved into a new building, so they have a new campus. Essentially, that has significant upgrades in terms of the resources that they make available to the students. So, new screening rooms, new studio spaces — there's been an all-around expansion of the school and its facilities.
When students are in Boston, they have access to all of the same resources that our full-time Boston students have access to. So they're generally in Boston for the final summer, finishing their thesis. They have access to all the cameras, mixing suites, editing rooms — anything that we have available.
In the Netherlands things are a little different. They're mostly working on pre-production and prep for their thesis, so there are not as many production facilities. But they don't need those at that time since they're really in preparatory mode. We do have limited cameras and gear in case students want to explore smaller projects. There's the expectation that students are going to explore other parts of Europe while they're there. That is part of the experiential learning component.
Through what experiences do Emerson undergraduate film students collaborate inside and outside the classroom?
SC: First, students working on fast projects can hire and recruit anybody they want to be on their crew. For the first-year or second-year projects, which are much smaller in scale, they usually have much smaller crews. Students might be working with two or three of their friends on a project, while on more advanced projects — like the BFA thesis or our BA capstone — they have larger crews of 20 students or more. Students who want to jump in and be on set can do that every weekend at our school because it's so large and there's so much going on.
The average cinematography class will have students who want to just be cinematographers, and they're being recruited out of that class to work on other students' projects. Or you have students in the class who are, let's say, already planning to become directors but are taking it to learn standard cinematography knowledge. And so they're able to look around and find students in that class who may want to act as their cinematographer. All our classes bring students together.
As for our student organizations, they are places where our students also gain significant hands-on experience. Most of our co-curriculars are active in terms of productions, so students can work on productions that are originating in those co-curriculars. And then there are complementary classes across campus. We have a performing arts department with an acting program, and a lot of our students in the VMA department will cast and recruit those actors, especially for the BFA thesis.
How competitive is Emerson's graduate film program?
SC: Emerson gets really strong applications from around the world, and our faculty committee that screens all the applications has a very difficult time narrowing down the list of students who are going to be accepted in the program. So, our faculty is more directly involved with selecting students for our graduate program than they are for the undergraduate program, which is run through Emerson's admissions office in collaboration with certain faculty to review some of the portfolios.
Emerson offers three points of entry for graduate students: Phase I, Phase II, or Phase III. How does the Office of Admission determine the best phase of entry for each applicant?
BS: When filling out the application, candidates are asked to self-select whether or not they wish to be considered for "Advanced Standing" which is structured as different entry "phases" into the Film and Media Art (MFA) program. Students who do not indicate an interest in "Advanced Standing" will automatically be considered for Phase I.
Should an applicant select "yes" regarding their "Advanced Standing" interest, they will then be prompted to upload a brief document that attests to the skills, academic foundation, and/or industry experience related to film that they believe makes them a good fit for either Phase II or Phase III. The faculty review committee determines which entry phase would be the best fit for an applicant based on the materials that are submitted in an application.
The three phases are generally defined as the following:
Phase I - Foundational Practitioner (64 Credits, three years). Applicant may display a passion for visual storytelling but does not yet demonstrate proficiency in the foundational elements that related academic or professional industry experience can provide. Phase I students are continuing to develop foundational skills as a visual artist through theory, critique, and hands-on practice.
Phase II - Intermediate Practitioner (52 Credits, Two and a half years). Applicant demonstrates proficiency in the foundational skills and concepts that would be outlined during a student's first year in the program (Phase I). Application materials may highlight an undergraduate degree in a related field of film or storytelling, professional experience in commercial media production, and/or a portfolio that demonstrates the applicant's creative inspirations and aspirations, technical proficiency in one or more media modes, and/or previous production experience.
Phase III - Advanced Practitioner (40 Credits, Two years). Applicant demonstrates their technical proficiency and artistic potential through their submitted materials, they have excellent references from both academic and professional contacts, they may have a BFA in Film/TV/Media Production, and/or some professional production experience. An applicant may be teaching film studies or production part-time and wants a terminal degree.
Credit: Emerson College
If a Phase II or Phase III admitted student wants to take additional credits, is that ever an option?
BS: If an applicant is offered admission to the Film and Media Art (MFA) program with Advanced Standing, they may meet with their Graduate Program Director to discuss the potential of entering the program at an easier phase. This must be done before an admitted student submits their enrollment deposit which holds their spot in the phase they were offered. Requests to advance the phase that is offered are generally not considered.
Is there a minimum GPA and/or GRE requirement for graduate film applicants?
BS: There is no required or minimum GPA to apply to this program, and the GRE is also not required. Once enrolled, students must maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average in order to remain in good academic standing.
Can you speak to the most challenging part of the graduate film application and offer a few tips to streamline the process?
BS: Through our institution's holistic admission process, the [film] program's faculty review committee considers applications using a "growth mindset" rather than a deficit approach. The portfolio, letters of recommendation, essays, and transcripts are intentionally structured as a way for applicants to show the review committee that Emerson College is where they want to learn and grow, that they are ready to handle the rigors of a graduate program, and that they have the necessary creative vision to continue evolving as an artist.
When an applicant is denied admission to the program, it is not because they didn't meet a specific "score" or that they performed poorly in a specific area of the application. Anyone who is interested in reapplying to the program is encouraged to review their portfolio submissions and essay responses to ensure they provide examples that highlight their potential as a graduate student, member of the Emerson community, and as artist. Find ways to deepen your storytelling skills and challenge yourself to practice filming and directing in different ways to hone your creativity.
Does the College allow undergraduate and graduate film applicants who reapply to reuse their creative samples?
BS: Those who choose to reapply are welcome to use the same portfolio materials they originally submitted, though it is not recommended. The year-long gap required to reapply is intentional and gives the applicant time to further develop their artistic and creative vision, storytelling, and/or technical skills.
Our Graduate Admission policies state that an applicant who is denied admission must wait one full year before applying again to the same program. For example, if an applicant applies for the Fall 2025 start term and is denied, they must wait until the application for the Fall 2027 start term opens to reapply.
When do regular and waitlisted graduate applicants receive their admissions decisions?
BS: [The Film and Media Art MFA and the Writing for Film and Television MFA] have a priority deadline of February 1. Decisions for applicants who meet the priority deadline are released by mid-March. Applicants will receive an email prompting them to sign into the Emerson Admission Portal to review their decision. We do not mail decision letters for graduate programs.
Regular applicants and waitlisted applicants are traditionally notified at the same time [through the candidate portal], with a decision release of mid-March to late March. Should a spot become available in the program prior to the start of the academic term, only waitlisted applicants that indicated "yes" on their confirmation of interest form will be considered for admission. Students who are offered admission must submit a $400 Enrollment Deposit by May 1st to hold their spot in the program.
Can undergraduate or graduate film applicants defer acceptance for any reason?
BS: Applicants may request to defer their start term. However, the approval of such a request is ultimately decided by the Graduate Program Director and/or the Director of Graduate Admission. Deferrals are limited to candidates who present unusual and unexpected circumstances that prevent them from enrolling in the term that they had applied to. It is important to note that scholarship and fellowship awards do not rollover to a future term, should an applicant be approved to defer.
How does the Film and Media MFA provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to pursue a diverse range of careers?
SC: The one thing I want to point out is that we're not a conservatory. So, there are other graduate film programs where you declare a specialization. 'I want to be a director' or 'I want to be an editor.' At Emerson, we're about cultivating and supporting individual artists. That doesn't mean that they don't collaborate, but people are not defined by their area of specialization, and so with that, you get students who explore a wide range of genres and production modes. It's not uncommon for us to have students who are making a documentary and a short fictional narrative film all within the same semester, and students working in both linear film and also virtual reality or installation art.
All students do have to make a singular thesis project as their capstone, and those take many different forms. A lot of them are film projects, but we also have installations every year that are excellent. Students can always wear multiple hats, and they do just that on different film sets. For any given project and their thesis, students are allowed to assemble their own crews, which means that we have a lot of students working on a lot of different configurations throughout a semester. They get to exercise their unique skill sets across different interests.
So, a student might work as a cinematographer one weekend, and then two weeks later, they're acting as the sound recordist. A few weeks later, they might serve as the production designer, and then by the following month, they're directing their own film. That does happen, and students get to experience productions from a whole bunch of different sets of perspectives.
The MFA curriculum blends interdisciplinary training with fostering each student’s authentic creative voice. How is this reflected in the coursework?
HE: We offer classes that introduce these elements from the beginning. We have the Language of Media Art. There's Experimental Media Production and Advanced Experimental Media Production. There is Space and Sound. It's more of the theory part of the curriculum.
There are many courses that are introduced in the first year that give people the taste of these things. And if they wish to continue on that road, then they can go into the more advanced classes as well. Personally, I'm more of a traditional filmmaker and go back to the straightforward narrative. But some students experiment. And I don't mean experiment as in experimental filmmaking. I mean, they try different things within their assignments and so on within the semester.
These influences are all part of shaping an artist. Even if they're just consuming media and criticizing it and writing about it, it forms them in a certain way — not that they know different things that they might not have been exposed to outside of the school.
‘Low-residency’ can mean different things at different schools. What type of student thrives in Emerson’s low-residency Writing for Film and Television MFA?
James Lane: A lot of our students actually have jobs. They’re full-time parents. So, the age diversity in our program ranges from students who just graduated from college to people who have been out of college for 35 years and everyone in between. I feel like that wide range of backgrounds and ages really does create a very dynamic classroom environment, and we have a lot of regional diversity because of that as well. 80% of our instruction is online, and because students don’t have to disrupt their lives, nobody moves from where they are.
When I teach in a discussion room on Canvas, we have students from California logging in. […] We’ve had students who live [...] as American citizens in Sweden, Iceland — in time zones from the West Coast of the United States to Northern Europe. And that’s really cool. That really does define a lot of who we are. But we cannot accept international students. This has nothing to do with the current atmosphere in the Department of Education. This has been in place since the inception of our program seven or eight years ago. […] We can accept a student who has a work permit here if they don’t have a U.S. passport, but have the legal right to work here — that’s acceptable. But that’s it.
What are the key differences between each writing residency, and what size are the cohorts?
JL: Each residency has a theme attached. The theme of the first residency is writing short-form media, and that residency opens the fall semester. So, all the students converge on the Boston campus in August for a week. The second residency, we’re back on the Boston campus, and the theme is writing [the feature script]. First semester, first- and second-year students convene in Boston for a week. They meet the professors they’ll have for their two classes that semester […] and have a couple of face-to-face classes on campus. The final residency, which takes place in Los Angeles, has the theme about the business of screenwriting.
There are 12 students in each section of the class, and they move through the curriculum in the exact same way. Everyone is taking the same classes. In addition to that, we have a whole bunch of other lectures and workshops that are designed around that theme.
We’re lucky enough that the Semel family endowed a program for screenwriting. So, each semester, we have a VIP film or TV writer who comes and workshops the students’ material. They lecture on their process, what their influences are, and then we have a screening of their work and a Q&A with them afterward. That writer spends two days with our students. They’re working professionals that students get to work closely with, and that is very much a highlight of our residencies.
Continue reading…
How to Get Into Emerson’s School of Film, Television and Media Arts: Admissions Advice and Program Insights (Part 2)
In part two of our interview, Alexa Pellegrini continues the conversation with Shaun Clarke, Hanadi Elyan, James Lane, and Barabara Selmo about the nuances of Emerson College's graduate film degrees. The team touches on hands-on production and portfolio development; admissions and financial aid...
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For more information about Emerson, including important deadlines and application instructions, read FilmSchool.org's free "How to Apply" guide:
Emerson College: How to Apply for 2026, Acceptance Rate, and Life as a School of Film, Television, and Media Arts Student
Emerson College combines a strong liberal arts foundation with hands-on training in visual and media arts, from 16 mm film to emerging technologies. Its alumni, including recent Academy Award winners and members of the long-standing “Emerson Mafia” network, reflect the College's commitment to...
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