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School of Film and Animation

During their third year at RIT, the pair unexpectedly enrolled in the same partner-based sound recording classand worked together on a quarter-long project. The assignment provided a golden opportunity to learn more about each other while exploring the Rochester region.

City speaks to Amy Adrion, assistant professor of film and animation, about representation in Hollywood and the Academy Awards, including how limited diversity among filmmakers and decision-makers affects which stories are funded and recognized.

Cartoon Brew interviews Christine A. Banna, assistant professor in the School of Film and Animation, about her creative process for animating Moira Smiley's "Haiku" music video.

WXXI's Connections with Evan Dawson includes Amy Adrion, assistant professor in the School of Film and Animation, in a discussion about how to work with students who are distracted by their phones and unable to keep their focus.

Democrat and Chronicle speaks to Daniel Swinton, assistant director of University Video Productions; Juilee Decker, director of museum studies; and museum studies students Lauren Anderson and Elise Noyes about the project and the process of cataloging and digitizing the materials.

Recognizing the growing demand for globally fluent creatives, RIT has partnered with Prague’s Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts to launch a new student exchange program designed to prepare students for the realities of globalized creative industries.

Tehran Is Ours by HamideH Azimi '24 MFA (film and animation) was honored by CILECT as the recipient of the 2025 SCEDI Award (Standing Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) for Best Animation. The film, through a combination of 2D, 3D, and experimental animation, challenges the ongoing repression of women’s rights in Iran.

Forward-thinking faculty; curriculum that fuses technology, the arts, and design; and a legacy of priming students with a maker mentality helped RIT’s School of Film and Animation maintain its place on TheWrap’s list of Top 50 Film Schools of 2025.

Ricky Figueora taking over as the new director of RIT's School of Film and Animation headlines exciting promotions and additions to the College of Art and Design faculty.

Animation is most often viewed on a screen. But when animators break traditional rules and abandon the “almighty rectangle,” Christine Banna says artistic magic can happen.

The Character Mosaic Project is a recently revived initiative that aims to build a library of 3D characters — diverse in their ethnicities and backgrounds — that are open source for animators to seamlessly use as a broader range of subjects in their films. The project is led by Kevin Bauer, graduate director of the film and animation MFA program.

Having the right networking connections can make or break a career in the film industry. Thankfully for Marica Joseph, there are plenty of RIT alumni who she can learn from.