fall 2026 film school applications - Has anyone gotten interview invites yet? (3 Viewers)

ryanv · Jan 21, 2026

soom said:
Hi, got my interview invite from UCLA on the 16th! Hope this helps

Congrats! For what program at UCLA?

Sunny Choi · Jan 22, 2026

Hi, I received an interview invite from UCLA TFT Scenic Design on the 16th!
But I'm still waiting for the result from AFI Production Design.
Is there anybody who got the interview invite from AFI Production Design?

doctoranthony · Jan 24, 2026

Just had my AFI interview, went well i think! More casual than I was expecting, they told me it was more of a 'vibe check'.

Pryde Pierce · Jan 24, 2026

doctoranthony said:
Just had my AFI interview, went well i think! More casual than I was expecting, they told me it was more of a 'vibe check'.

Congrats! Do you remember any of the questions you were asked?

doctoranthony · Jan 24, 2026

Pryde Pierce said:
Congrats! Do you remember any of the questions you were asked?

I'd say half the questions were very application specific and half more general.

So the general ones were like:
- tell us about some films/shows you watched recently that left an impact
- why AFI

And the application-specific ones picked out things I mentioned like my Psychology background or my goal of improving the way anime adaptations are done and just asked me to expand on that.

Pryde Pierce · Jan 24, 2026

doctoranthony said:
I'd say half the questions were very application specific and half more general.

So the general ones were like:
- tell us about some films/shows you watched recently that left an impact
- why AFI

And the application-specific ones picked out things I mentioned like my Psychology background or my goal of improving the way anime adaptations are done and just asked me to expand on that.

Thanks for sharing! Crossing fingers you get in!

goldilocks · Jan 26, 2026

jordanrosephotos said:
Hi all, I am a current directing fellow at AFI, just wanted to say I'm here for any questions you may have!! Currently on my 2nd cycle film, it's madness haha. Good luck to you all!

That's so kind of you. I just have one...How many waves of interviews do they schedule?

kingofsweaters · Jan 27, 2026

goldilocks said:
That's so kind of you. I just have one...How many waves of interviews do they schedule?

It’s usually 2 to 3 waves.

tomutube · Jan 27, 2026

Hi everyone! This is my first time applying to film school MFAs. Is it fair to assume that one didn't get in if they did not get an interview invite during this past week? I'm assuming they don't admit without interviewing, but would interview invites come in at different times for everyone or was this week the giveaway for the application result?

Chris W · Jan 27, 2026

tomutube said:
Hi everyone! This is my first time applying to film school MFAs. Is it fair to assume that one didn't get in if they did not get an interview invite during this past week? I'm assuming they don't admit without interviewing, but would interview invites come in at different times for everyone or was this week the giveaway for the application result?

Hey! No worries... interview invites are still rolling out for many programs (some schools send them in waves or later), so it's definitely too early to assume anything if you haven't heard yet. Also, a bunch of programs don't even do interviews... which ones they are I'm totally blanking on now though. Our admissions stats for each school will tell you, though. (no admitted w/interview stats)

Out of curiosity, where did you apply? Always fun to see the lists people are going for this cycle.

Also, if you haven't already, it'd be awesome if you logged your applications in our database here:

Application Database

A database of thousands of film school applications to calculate acceptance rates to film programs and the minimum GPAs, minimum SAT and GRE scores, experience of accepted applicants, and much more....

www.filmschool.org

Even just the basics (schools, dates submitted, etc...) helps build the admissions stats for everyone as film schools don't share this information. Right now, we're at over 4,800 total entries, but only ~57 for the 2026 cycle so far. Your entry could help others see patterns on invites, acceptance rates, etc. Super quick to do, and most details stay private for members only. Logging even basic info helps balance the dataset (not just accepts) and gives future applicants that much-needed "peek behind the curtain."

Fingers crossed for good news soon!

tomutube · Jan 27, 2026

Chris W said:
Hey! No worries... interview invites are still rolling out for many programs (some schools send them in waves or later), so it's definitely too early to assume anything if you haven't heard yet. Also, a bunch of programs don't even do interviews... which ones they are I'm totally blanking on now though. Our admissions stats for each school will tell you, though. (no admitted w/interview stats)

Out of curiosity, where did you apply? Always fun to see the lists people are going for this cycle.

Also, if you haven't already, it'd be awesome if you logged your applications in our database here:

Application Database

A database of thousands of film school applications to calculate acceptance rates to film programs and the minimum GPAs, minimum SAT and GRE scores, experience of accepted applicants, and much more....

www.filmschool.org

Even just the basics (schools, dates submitted, etc...) helps build the admissions stats for everyone as film schools don't share this information. Right now, we're at over 4,800 total entries, but only ~57 for the 2026 cycle so far. Your entry could help others see patterns on invites, acceptance rates, etc. Super quick to do, and most details stay private for members only. Logging even basic info helps balance the dataset (not just accepts) and gives future applicants that much-needed "peek behind the curtain."

Fingers crossed for good news soon!

Hey Chris!

Thank you for the detailed reply (and for running this deeply helpful site)! I'll go ahead and put my stats into the database for sure. For this cycle I've applied to AFI, UCLA, NYU, Columbia, UT Austin all for directing/writing&directing; as well as Chapman for the Showrunner MFA. So far I've only received an interview offer from Chapman, which I'm extremely excited about!

Chris W · Jan 27, 2026

tomutube said:
So far I've only received an interview offer from Chapman, which I'm extremely excited about!

Nice! I've only heard good things about Chapman.

Arbyrnes · Jan 28, 2026

I will update my stats soon too. Any one else receive an interview from Chapman yet (for Directing)?

luckylayda · Jan 29, 2026

Just received an interview invite from Columbia! I clicked the link 3 hours after I received the email, and saw that the interview slots for feb 4th and 11th are full (apparently they do interviews on Wednesdays).So I chose feb 18th. Do you think this is a late date and that it will be a disadvantage for the application?

21powells · Jan 30, 2026

Hi! Just wondering if anyone has heard from Chapman for screenwriting yet?

Sunny Choi · Jan 30, 2026

I received an interview invite from AFI Production Design on the 28th!
My interview is scheduled on the 6th of February.

iwannamakemovies · Feb 3, 2026

jordanrosephotos said:
Hi all, I am a current directing fellow at AFI, just wanted to say I'm here for any questions you may have!! Currently on my 2nd cycle film, it's madness haha. Good luck to you all!

hey! had my AFI directing interview and kinda feel like i bombed it. did you feel like that when you had yours?

has anyone else had their interviews yet? how did they go? also, do people send follow up "thank you's" to admissions for the AFI interview?

Arbyrnes · Feb 3, 2026

I had mine last week. I felt really good about it, except I didn't do very well on the "do you have a story you are burning to tell?" I had a story, but it wasn't as well thought out as I would like and I did a poor job communicating about it. And since then I've been questioning everything about it.

Why do you think you bombed?

Pryde Pierce · Feb 3, 2026

I had my interview last week (screenwriting). I'm still crossing fingers that I also get one for directing too (if you remember the questions you were asked in the directing interview I'd love hearing them).

My interview started off with a ton of anxiety because my zoom said "Scheduled 2PM" when I got in but my interview was scheduled for 3:30 PM. After no one was there by 3:31 I started getting stressed at the thought that maybe there was a mix up and they'd think I was a no show for my interview. Right before panic set in they arrived.

After that it went really well (for the most part). It started with me being told that my narrative statement was probably her favorite that she'd read from the applicants this year (definitely made me feel good - I'd put a lot of time working on it and editing it down). After that we had a very fun talk though I did kick myself about one thing.

She asked if I had any feature story ideas that I would want to work on at AFI. I scrambled to remember my ideas and told her about 3.... just the first 3 I could think of. And I felt I took way too long describing 2 of them (though she didn't seem to mind). She really liked one of them a lot. We all laughed a lot and when it came to an end it felt like it went very well but I was pissed at myself because I thought of exactly what I would have said for that feature idea question once I got off the zoom.

Arbyrnes · Feb 3, 2026

That would be very anxiety producing! Sound like it went really well. Congrats! Fingers crossed for you and that a directing interview comes your way.

The questions I got were:
1) How did you come to your narrative world? (My work has a heavy bent towards families and coming of age)
2) Why AFI?
3) How do you feel about the commitment required to attend? (I am an older applicant and have kids so they were asking about my ability to juggle it all)
4) How does being a father inform your work?
5) Any stories burning inside you that you want to tell?
6) Any questions for us?
7) What are the things you want to improve as a director?

I really enjoyed the conversation and, except for #5 - which I think I did okay on but not as well as I would have liked - I think it went well. But we'll see come March 16th. Such a long wait.

fall 2026 film school applications - Has anyone gotten interview invites yet? (3 Viewers)

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