Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema is once again receiving accolades from two major industry publications.
Earlier this month, the college was recognized by both the Hollywood Reporter and MovieMaker magazine.
“We are extremely excited that Feirstein continues to be recognized as one of the best film schools,” said Richard Gladstein, executive director of the school.
“The combination of being the only film school operating on a working film lot at Steiner Studios, our accomplished and experienced faculty, and mentoring programs with industry leaders, coupled with our affordable tuition allows our incredibly diverse student body to succeed and stand out as the new voices in film today,” he continued.
On Aug. 11, the Hollywood Reporter published its 2023 Top 25 American Film Schools, Ranked. For the third year, Feirstein was included in the list.
The publication selected the college as one of the best in the country because of its incoming student scholarships, thesis film projects and its affordable tuition.
The publication wrote: “The CUNY graduate program, which boasts a 500,000-square-foot production hub, has not raised tuition in three years, with a focus on affordability for local talent, with the majority of students Brooklyn residents. … The program, which has seen enrollment increase year-over-year since its 2015 inception, has an impressive board of advisors, including Steven Soderbergh and Ethan Hawke, and just added Participant CEO, David Linde.”
MovieMaker magazine also recently listed Feirstein to its list of Best 25 Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada. It is the fourth year the publication has included the Brooklyn school on the list and praises the college for its outstanding film production offerings.
“It’s a great low-tuition option for students from New York who want to live and learn in the Big Apple, a glorious nexus of cultures, people, and ideas. … Another attractive perk of the school is its location at Steiner Studios, so students are immersed in the hustle and bustle of a working production lot,” wrote MovieMaker.
Both publications noted the college’s ability to connect the film industry to students and its students to the industry. For example, the college recently held a masterclass seminar with Franklin Leonard.
Leonard is a Feirstein Advisory Council member and founder and CEO of the Black List. The Black List supports screenwriters through film production, an annual survey of the best unproduced screenplays, an online marketplace, as well as screenwriter labs.
Notably, more than 400 scripts from the annual Black List survey have been produced as feature films. Those films have accumulated 250 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins including four Best Pictures — "Spotlight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "The King’s Speech" and "Argo."
Leonard has worked in feature film development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack, Anthony Minghella and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Feirstein will continue with its masterclass series on Aug. 21 when it hosts Steven Soderbergh.
Soderbergh is an advisory council member with the college. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Traffic. His films include "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "Out of Sight" and "Erin Brockovich."
Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema opened in 2015 as a result of a $30 million public-private partnership.
The school is based at Steiner Studios in Downtown Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and offers M.F.A. degrees in cinema arts — with specializations in cinematography, digital animation and visual effects, directing, post-production, producing and screenwriting.
The college is part of Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. For more information, click here.
