MFA Master Screenwriting/Directing

The mission of the Film MFA in Screenwriting/Directing is to rigorously train storytellers in film, television, and digital media.

The course of study at our film school includes two years of creative workshops and related courses, followed by one-to-two years of thesis and Research Arts work. Students are immersed in the principles and working methods of a variety of genres and dramatic forms. Through multiple exercises and short film and script projects (both short and feature-length), they are encouraged to explore their understanding of the medium, with the ultimate goal of establishing each student’s personal voice.

Students in the Creative Producing MFA concentration share the first-year curriculum and some of the second-year electives. In bringing these programs together, the faculty actively encourages the development of professional collaborations that last throughout film school and beyond, and fosters the environment of mutual support that we believe is essential to the creation of film.

Columbia University School of the Arts recognizes that Manhattan is part of the ancestral and traditional homeland of the Lenni Lenape and Wappinger people. The School also acknowledges that we are part of an institution whose spaces are funded, governed by, and named for families who derived their wealth from the transatlantic slave trade and plantation slavery. By acknowledging the legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that have enabled us to gather here today, we are taking a small first step toward the long and overdue process of healing and repair.

The School of the Arts will continue to confront and address issues of exclusion, erasure, and systemic discrimination in our community through ongoing education and responsible representation. As a School, it is essential that we foster a truly creative environment where all are seen, heard, represented, and understood, so that our artists can focus their energy on doing what they are called to do: to hold a mirror up to society to interpret the world as they see it, while helping humanity envision a better future.