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Film and Animation BFA

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.

The new MAGIC Spell grants, earmarked for digital media projects in art, games, interactivity, and creativity, provide RIT researchers in any college with funding up to $5,000 to help in their pursuits to secure additional external grants in their fields.

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.

Accomplished alumni, creative technology research, and interdisciplinary program offerings set RIT’s School of Film and Animation apart from others on The Hollywood Reporter’s 2025 top film schools list. RIT was ranked number 22 this year, a leap ahead from the school’s rank in 2024.

Carson Munn '26 has taken advantage of the endless resources available in RIT's School of Film and Animation, including well-equipped facilities, supportive faculty, and an opportunity to spend a semester studying in an entertainment epicenter, Los Angeles.

When RIT students create video games, they don’t just mail it in. A team of students recently won the Grand Prize at GameFest 2025 for developing Pelican Post. The game is about a pelican mailman delivering mail to a small town of unique characters.

Lights, camera, music: Colin O'Brien '25 (production option) blended artforms at RIT, creating film scores for dozens of students while also making his own films. 

Democrat and Chronicle features the work of artist Clara Riedlinger, adjunct faculty in the College of Art and Design.

Friendships formed at RIT helped lay the foundation for Apartment D, an alumni-owned indie stop-motion animation studio. Apartment D specializes in content that packs a visual punch and evokes the unbridled joy of watching Saturday morning cartoons.

The School of Film and Animation's Radical Cinema Workshop class gives students an opportunity to focus on experimental and alternative filmmaking methods.

RIT’s 10th president will be remembered for many things after he retires June 30—construction of the SHED, completion of the 2025 Strategic Plan, creation of the Performing Arts Scholarship program. But a key piece of David Munson’s legacy is the six playful and sometimes wacky videos that welcomed students each year to RIT.