College of Art and Design News
Film and Animation MFA

Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Film and Animation is among the top 25 film schools in the United States, according to the most recent list published by The Hollywood Reporter. RIT was ranked number 21 this year, marking a continued rise in rank from previous years.

Louisa Duchin '26 MFA (film and animation) has been a licensed practical nurse, worked in theater production management, and tried her hand at being a psychic, librarian, clown, and standup comic. But to her, nothing compares to being a filmmaker, a title she is using to blend her life experiences into stories that have been recognized at film festivals around the country.

RIT’s School of Film and Animation has been continuously recognized as being among the best film and animation schools in the country. The latest recognition comes from Variety magazine’s 2026 Education Impact Report.

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.

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.

Ryan Adriandhy '19 MFA (film and animation) speaks to Deadline about his directorial debut for the movie Jumbo, which features a boy attempting to stage a play in a local talent show after feeling underestimated by his peers.

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