VARIETY -- We look not only at top universities offering cutting-edge instruction in everything from cinematography to costume design, but also at speak to educators and look at educational tools that build knowledge of multi-ethnic music, art, writing and film. Entertainment education has never been more important.
San Francisco State University
San Francisco
The School of Cinema may have been founded back in the swinging ’60s but it has evolved right along with San Francisco’s transformation from the center of the hippie movement to a modern-day tech mecca. The school still believes in the old-fashioned value of a liberal arts education for its undergrads but students can specialize in three forms of filmmaking (fiction, experimental and documentary) along with the option of a minor in animation. The graduate program consists of a Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Cinema. Facilities include a soundstage, digital cinema lab, edit bays, sound mixing stages and a post-production lab. In memory of the avant-garde feminist filmmaker, the school has inaugurated the Barbara Hammer Awards, which celebrate student films with LGBTQ themes.