Film School and Acting School at New York Film Academy

ABOUT US

The Academy was founded in 1992 on a belief that a top quality education in filmmaking should be accessible to anyone with the drive and ambition to make films. The Academy opened its doors in 1992 in Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Center. Since that time we have grown into our own facilities in Manhattan’s Union Square and Soho. We also opened Film Academies at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and London UK, England. We hold One-Year and short-term programs throughout the year in these locations. During the summer we offer our short-term programs at a number of additional locations, including Harvard University; Disney-MGM Studios-Florida; Paris, France; and Florence, Italy.

Each year hundreds of students of all occupations, races, ethnicities, and of a wide range of ages from around the world benefit from the extraordinary education offered at the New York Film Academy. Today, little more than a decade after the first students graduated, the New York Film Academy is considered one of the most prominent fixtures of film education in the world.


Workshop Length

The New York Film Academy was designed for a new generation of filmmakers, screenwriters, actors, producers and animators who share a passion for motion pictures and want to learn by making their own projects in a hands-on, intensive program.

Filmmaking demands the integration of many kinds of knowledge. It is the integration of knowledge that distinguishes the New York Film Academy from many other film schools. In our courses students learn not only how to operate a camera, light a scene, or edit film. They learn how all the aspects of filmmaking relate to, interact with, and depend upon each other.

The many different programs of the New York Film Academy share a philosophy that balances in-class instruction by award-winning filmmakers with an intense exploration of the medium through practical, hands-on work. For us, learning by doing means requiring each student to make a series of short films. This takes them through the entire filmmaking process.

Each student writes, produces, directs, and edits each film, then screens it and engages in constructive discussion and critique.

The student applies the experience gained through this process to the next project, and the learning process continues.

Orson Welles once stated, « If you give me three days, I can show you the ABCs of film. » The New York Film Academy gives our students a bit more time – our programs run from four, six, and eight weeks to one year. Our goal is to give students the basic tools and practical hands-on experience needed for filmmaking. This lays a solid foundation for future work. The students themselves will apply what they have learned to whichever path they take.

For many students, the time and tuition required to complete a four-year university program are impractical burdens. We believe that students provide the talent; we provide the instruction, equipment and structure. It is the students‘ drive and creative ability that carries them forward.

We provide students with the opportunity to learn directing by doing just that – directing. Students are challenged to make creative decisions that in some way, great or small, contribute to the drama of their films. We encourage students to explore the various ways of expressing an idea or a thought through moving images.

The New York Film Academy believes that the correct paths for filmmakers is to immediately start making their own films in a hands-on intensive working environment.

Towards this end, all students begin making their own films in the first week of all our workshops. « Every film has a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order. » – Jean Luc Godard