Ithaca College was ranked 17th in a roundup of the Top 50 film schools in the United States, from entertainment outlet The Wrap. It’s the second straight year the school has been included in the rankings. Other institutions in the list include the University of Southern California, New York University, and UCLA.
The film program is housed in Roy H. Park School of Communications, and offers undergraduate degrees in cinema and photography; documentary studies and production; film, photography and visual arts; and writing for film, TV and emerging media. There is also the recently-created MBA in Media and Entertainment Management, a specialized degree program that provides students with the knowledge to manage, distribute and develop creative content and run media and entertainment businesses.
In their writeup of the program, The Wrap cited how “film students plunge into hands-on production with RED Weapon Helium 8K cameras and dream of becoming like alum Disney CEO Bob Iger.”
Student work was highlighted in the write-up as well, particularly the student-produced documentary With Infinite Hope: MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, which aired on 75 PBS stations across the country and was nominated for a Midsouth Regional Emmy Award.
“It’s always very validating to be recognized for the things that we do,” said Diane Gayeski ’74, dean of the Park School of Communications. “We are not just a film school or just a journalism school, we’re much more comprehensive than that, so the fact that we get on anybody’s list as a top film school and a top journalism school is amazing, because most other places, you’re either in one or the other, you’re not doing well at both, and we really are.”