Ranked #117 in popularity, film & video production is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 140 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of film & video production. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 7,768 degrees in film & video production during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The cinematography program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Film & Video Production rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for film & video production schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Film & Video Production Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Film & Video Production in the United States
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the cinematography degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student who is interested in film & video production needs to take a look at University of Southern California. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 216 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year.
New York University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in film & video production. Located in the large city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #27 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means NYU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 396 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at NYU in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student pursuing a degree in film & video production needs to take a look at Columbia University in the City of New York. Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were approximately 48 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in film & video production needs to check out Washington University in St Louis. Located in the suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #17 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means WUSTL is a great university overall.
There were about 5 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at WUSTL in the most recent year we have data available.
Chapman is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Orange. This university ranks 32nd out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 166 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Chapman in the most recent data year.
The American University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington. A Best Colleges rank of #129 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means The American University is a great university overall.
There were about 15 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at The American University in the most recent year we have data available.
Loyola Marymount is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles. This university ranks 20th out of 168 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 99 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Marymount in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Dallas, SMU is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #73 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means SMU is a great university overall.
There were about 27 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at SMU in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Philadelphia, Temple is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 11th out of 109 colleges for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were about 173 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Temple in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 36th out of 168 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 91 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at UCR in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of San Francisco, Academy of Art University is a private for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 37th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 79 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Academy of Art University in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, MSMU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 52nd out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 21 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at MSMU in the most recent data year.
Syracuse is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Syracuse. A Best Colleges rank of #132 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were roughly 44 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Chicago, Columbia is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population. This college ranks 16th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 176 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of Boston, Emerson is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population. This college ranks 17th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were about 355 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Emerson in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Boston, Massachusetts College of Art and Design is a public college with a small student population.
There were approximately 18 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Tallahassee, Florida State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #121 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Florida State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 52 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Florida State in the most recent data year.
Columbia College Hollywood is a fairly small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Tarzana.
There were approximately 105 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at Columbia College Hollywood in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Tucson, University of Arizona is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 26 schools for overall quality in the state of Arizona.
There were approximately 2 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at University of Arizona in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Coral Gables, U Miami is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #91 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means U Miami is a great university overall.
There were about 53 film & video production students who graduated with this degree at U Miami in the most recent year we have data available.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
college factual
The cinematography program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Film & Video Production rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for film & video production schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
