NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Overview

NYU Tisch School of the Arts is a private university film program in Greenwich Village, New York City, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in film, television, and related disciplines. The film program operates within the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television and accepts 36 students per year into its graduate MFA program, with an overall acceptance rate of approximately 13%. In 2025, TheWrap ranked NYU Tisch first among the top 50 U.S. film schools, citing its new virtual production center funded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

Tisch differs from Los Angeles-based programs in orientation. Where USC and UCLA feed heavily into the studio system, Tisch has historically cultivated an independent and auteur filmmaking sensibility. The faculty includes working filmmakers such as Spike Lee, who teaches graduate directing courses. Students shoot on location throughout the five boroughs, giving them access to New York's density of actors, crew, post-production facilities, and production companies from day one.

The school offers joint degrees with NYU's Stern School of Business, including a BFA/BS and an MFA/MBA dual degree. In 2024, NYU announced that undergraduates from families earning less than $100,000 per year can attend tuition-free, which significantly reduces the financial barrier for low-income applicants.

Programs Offered

• BFA in Film and Television - a four-year undergraduate program combining production, screenwriting, and critical studies. Students begin making films in their first year.
• MFA in Film - a three-year graduate program in the Kanbar Institute. Accepts 36 students per year. Students may graduate after three years or maintain matriculation for a fourth year to complete their thesis.
• MFA in Documentary - a specialized track within the graduate program for nonfiction filmmaking.
• MPS in Virtual Production - a one-year master's program launched recently, supported by the Lucas/Hobson virtual production center.
• MA in Media Producing - a graduate program connecting creative training with entertainment business education.
• BFA in Drama - acting, directing, and playwriting for stage and screen.
• MFA in Animation and Digital Arts - graduate animation program.
• BFA in Game Design - the Game Center program focused on interactive storytelling.
• PhD in Cinema Studies - a scholarly program in film history, theory, and criticism.

Tuition and Cost of Attendance

Tisch is among the most expensive film schools in the United States. For the 2025-2026 academic year:

• Undergraduate tuition: $68,978 per year. Total cost of attendance including room, board, and fees: approximately $104,412 per year for on-campus students, $85,272 for commuters.
• Graduate MFA tuition (flat rate, 24-36 credits): $79,712 per year. Total cost of attendance including health insurance and fees: approximately $122,652 per year.
• Film production lab and equipment insurance fee: approximately $879 per semester, charged on top of tuition.
• Additional student production costs: NYU estimates directors spend $2,000 to $5,000 in first year, $5,000 to $15,000 in second year, and $15,000+ for thesis films. The school provides cameras, equipment, soundstage facilities, and post-production rooms, but directors cover costs beyond what the school supplies.

NYU offers merit and need-based financial aid. Since 2024, undergraduates from families earning under $100,000 per year qualify for free tuition if they meet the financial aid deadline. Graduate students can receive both merit scholarships and need-based aid. The application fee is $65 plus a $12 SlideRoom fee. Fee waivers are available on a case-by-case basis.

Equipment and Facilities

Tisch provides student directors with cameras, lighting equipment, soundstage facilities, and post-production rooms for editing and sound mixing at no additional charge beyond the lab fee. The school recently opened a large-scale virtual production center funded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, which supports the MPS in Virtual Production program and is available to graduate students working on advanced projects.

Students shoot throughout New York City's five boroughs rather than on a contained campus backlot. This means Tisch students navigate real-world permitting, location management, and urban production logistics as part of their regular coursework. The school maintains relationships with New York-based production companies, networks, and distributors, and its proximity to Discovery, Paramount Global, and NBCUniversal provides internship and networking opportunities for students oriented toward television.

Standout Faculty

Tisch's graduate film faculty is composed of working filmmakers who teach core directing, writing, cinematography, and producing courses. The roster includes both tenured professors and industry professionals on multi-year appointments.

• Spike Lee - Artistic Director of the Graduate Film program and a Tisch alumnus (MFA 1982). Teaches graduate directing courses. Director of Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, BlacKkKlansman, and She's Gotta Have It. In 2025, he was invited to a Vatican audience on cinema hosted by Pope Leo XIV.
• Julia Solomonoff - Chair of the Graduate Film program. Argentine filmmaker with an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University, a Fulbright Scholarship, and a Milos Forman Grant. Directed The Last Summer of La Boyita and Nobody's Watching. Teaches graduate directing.
• Todd Solondz - Writer-director of Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes, and Dark Horse. Teaches Writing and Directing II, Spring Narrative Directing IV, and Thesis Production in the graduate program.
• John Canemaker - Tenured professor who headed the Animation program for 30 years. Received NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009. Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005).
• Kasi Lemmons - Director of Eve's Bayou (the highest-grossing independent film of 1997, Independent Spirit Award winner), Talk to Me, and Harriet. Actress in The Silence of the Lambs and Candyman. Teaches in the graduate program.
• Tatjana Krstevski - Head of the Cinematography Department at Tisch Graduate Film. ICG Local 600 cinematographer, Belgrade-raised and New York-based.
• Michael Burke - Associate Arts Professor and Associate Dean of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. Former Chair of the Grad Film program at Tisch Asia (2010-2015). Teaches Writing I, Directing II, and Sight and Sound Filmmaking.
• Antonio Monda - Associate Professor in Undergraduate Film and Television. Novelist, critic, and curator. Invited to the 2025 Vatican cinema audience alongside Spike Lee.

What Students Should Know

The undergraduate film program is larger than most graduate programs at other schools. Students begin production exercises in their first year and progress through increasingly complex projects culminating in a thesis film. Graduate students work in cohorts of 36 and produce multiple short films before their thesis.

The retention rate exceeds 99%. Tisch's alumni network has strong representation in independent film, documentary, television, and theater. The school's location in Greenwich Village places students at the center of New York's cultural landscape, but the cost of living in Manhattan is a significant financial factor. Students should calculate their total debt load against realistic income expectations in the film industry before committing.

Application deadlines for 2026 entry: Early Decision II for undergraduates closes January 1, 2026. Regular Decision closes January 5, 2026. The MBA/MFA dual degree application closes December 15, 2025. The MA in Media Producing application closes February 15, 2026.

Notable Alumni

Tisch alumni include Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas), Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi), Joel Coen (Fargo, No Country for Old Men), Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Dee Rees (Mudbound), and Brett Morgen (Moonage Daydream). The school has also produced prominent writers, producers, and showrunners working in television.

Student Film Examples

Tisch student films screen at the First Run Film Festival, the school's annual showcase of undergraduate and graduate thesis work, and regularly win Student Academy Awards. My Nephew Emmett (2017), the graduate thesis film of Kevin Wilson Jr. (MFA 2018), won the Student Academy Award gold medal for narrative and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards. Door God (2014), the thesis short of Liu Yulin, won the Student Academy Award silver medal for narrative and the DGA Student Film Award for Best Woman Student Filmmaker. Opera of Cruelty (2017), by Max R. A. Fedore (BFA 2017), won the Student Academy Award gold in the alternative category. In the 2026 Student Academy Awards, Lara Dihmis won for The Last People of Petra.

The Frame and Sequence class, a core undergraduate production course, produces short narrative exercises each semester. A recent example from the Fall 2024 class:

See Also

For comparing film school options and self-taught paths, see Film School vs Self-Taught and Film Schools With Best Industry Placement Rates. To estimate your student film production costs, use the Budget Breakdown Allocator or the Shooting Day Cost Estimator. For planning your post-production schedule after shooting your thesis, use the Post Production Timeline Estimator.