UNCSA School of Filmmaking on Variety’s top film schools list for 11th consecutive year
For the 11th consecutive year, the School of Filmmaking at UNCSA has been recognized by Variety in its annual list of the top film schools in North America.
Twenty-six schools — 25 of which are in the U.S. with one in Canada — are listed as part of the magazine’s annual Education Impact Report in the April 22 issue. “As higher education faces threats from many areas, including AI, institutions adapt and evolve,” wrote Deputy Editor Carole Horst. “The schools on Variety’s Education Impact Report met challenges with creative opportunities for students seeking to break into showbiz.”
Third-year film "Movie Night" / Photo: Connor Ryan
About UNCSA, Variety said: “With the latest in production facilities — including emerging technologies — UNCSA stresses interdisciplinary collaboration in filmmaking, music, performance and visual arts. UNCSA continues to prioritize equity in filmmaking, supporting all student productions with funding and equipment.”
“To be recognized by Variety for the 11th consecutive year is both humbling and profoundly inspiring,” said UNCSA School of Filmmaking Dean Deborah LaVine. “This distinction reflects a community of artists — students, faculty and alumni — who are relentless in their pursuit of artistic truth.
“Founded to create the consummate storyteller, the film school at UNCSA is not simply teaching students how to make films for the industry; we are empowering them to redefine the industry and shape the future of cinema itself,” LaVine concluded.
UNCSA School of Filmmaking The ACE Theatre Complex
The UNCSA Film School’s new initiatives highlighted by Variety include:
- The School of Filmmaking created a new One-Act Festival, producing a series of one-act plays that also become short films. School of Drama students were invited to act in the plays/films.
- The creation of Story Art Studio, which acts as an incubator for cross-disciplinary work in VFX, animation, puppetry, stop motion and immersive technology.
- A nonfiction film expansion led in part by Filmmaking faculty member Molly Bernstein, whose film “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse,” has been nominated for a Peabody Award in the documentary category.
The Variety article also quotes Dean LaVine, who says: “‘One of the strengths of our school is that we embrace the idea of hybridity’ in artists’ and asks, ‘What kind of language does this build if you’re playing with all these different tools?’”
UNCSA will present its popular Fourth-Year Film Showcase on Friday, May 15, at 2 and 7 p.m. in the Main Theatre. The special screening will include more than 18 original works, including 14 live-action narratives, three animated films and one experimental piece in a free screening.
About the School of Filmmaking
Consistently recognized as among the nation’s best training programs for filmmakers, the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts has produced some of today’s most creative storytellers, including Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Brett Haley, Rebecca Green, Jody Hill, Jeff Nichols, Craig Zobel, Vera Herbert, Martha Stephens, Aaron Katz and Zoë White, among many others. Led by independent filmmaker and educator Deborah LaVine, the award-winning faculty in the School of Filmmaking have decades of real-world experience and a passion for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in concentrations that include animation, cinematography, directing, picture editing and sound design, producing, production design and visual effects, and screenwriting.
About Variety
A weekly entertainment trade magazine and website, Variety has been recognized and respected throughout the world of show business as the premier source of entertainment news since 1905. It has over 14.7 million social followers with a total digital reach of 67 million visitors per month.
Get the best news, performance and alumni stories from UNCSA.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERS(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)
April 23, 2026