Why Study Cinema at SFSU?
Founded amid the political activism and artistic experimentation of the 1960s, the SFSU School of Cinema continues to celebrate cinematic expressions that challenge social and artistic norms.
Our mission is to encourage you to research cinema and to pursue all forms of production. Regardless of what focus our students choose, our program is rich in hands-on experience and robust facilities and labs. Our alumni are well-trained, going on to win Emmy and Academy awards for their work. Our faculty have a rich expertise in animation, documentary, social justice fiction filmmaking, screenwriting, experimental filmmaking, African American cinema studies and much more. We are committed to providing you with a broad liberal arts education focused on three interconnected values: creative expression, critical thinking and social engagement.
Our Programs
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- Minor
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- Major
- Minor
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Cinema and Media Studies, M.A.
- Master’s Degree
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- Master’s Degree
Creative Expression
Our faculty places a high premium on fostering the creative voice of the individual student. Although we teach the “rules” of fictional, documentary, experimental and interactive cinema using all media platforms — from 16-millimeter celluloid to high-definition digital video, from screenwriting to animation — we encourage you to take creative risks, imbue your work with an artistic sensibility and to expand your work beyond established approaches and paradigms in the way you tell stories and experiment with moving images.
Critical Expression
Our faculty places an equally high premium on developing your critical consciousness, whether your interests are in production, animation and screenwriting or history, theory and criticism. We encourage you to challenge your assumptions and the assumptions, methods and traditions of others. Our curriculum emphasizes the rigorous study of cinema as an art form, an industry, a technology and a form of mass entertainment that reflects and shapes culture.
Social Engagement
The School of Cinema is vested in SFSU’s core values of equity and social justice. Like our faculty and alumni, you can expect to engage in meaningful discourse and activity, connect with your communities and challenge the artistic, social and political practices of your audiences. In other words, we encourage our students to channel their creative expression and critical thinking toward the communities and audiences they are engaging in their work. We believe this is equally possible for students aspiring to enter Hollywood and for those engaged in experimental film or critical theory.
From Our Community
Going to San Francisco State was the great stepping stone into my career.
