USC School of Cinematic Arts


The USC School of Cinematic Arts —formerly the USC School of Cinema-Television, otherwise known as CNTV—is a private media school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The school offers multiple undergraduate and graduate programs covering film production, screenwriting, cinema and media studies, animation and digital arts, media arts + practice, and interactive media & games. Additional programs include the Peter Stark Producing Program and the Business of Entertainment.
It is the oldest, largest, and arguably most reputable such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Having been ranked as one of the best film schools in the world on several occasions, SCA has most notably topped THR's ranking for seven consecutive years. As such, admission into the school is extremely competitive, with an estimated 2–3% acceptance rate.

History

The school's founding faculty include Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, William C. DeMille, Ernst Lubitsch, Irving Thalberg, and Darryl Zanuck. Notable professors include Drew Casper, the Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Professor of American Film; Tomlinson Holman, inventor of THX; Howard Rodman, screenwriter, author and former President of the Writers Guild of America ; film critic and historian Leonard Maltin; and David Bondelevitch, President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors.
In April 2006, the USC Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
On September 19, 2006, USC announced that alumnus George Lucas had donated US$175 million to expand the film school with a new facility. This represented the largest single donation to USC and the largest to any film school in the world. His previous donations resulted in the naming of two buildings in the school's previous complex, opened in 1984, after him and his then-wife Marcia, though Lucas was not fond of the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture used in those buildings. An architectural hobbyist, Lucas laid out the original designs for the project, inspired by the Mediterranean Revival Style that was used in older campus buildings as well as the Los Angeles area. The project also received another $50 million in contributions from Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company.
In fall 2006, the school, together with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan, created the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Aqaba, Jordan. The first classes were held in 2008, and the first graduating class for the university was in 2010.

Facilities

Donations from film and game industry companies, friends, and alumni have enabled the school to build the following facilities:
At the center of the new television complex is a statue of founder Douglas Fairbanks. He is seen holding a fencing weapon in one hand to reflect his strong ties with the USC Fencing Club.

Distinctions

;Awards for USC Cinema short films
The USC School of Cinematic Arts announced it would remove an exhibit devoted to actor and former USC student John Wayne, after months of insistence from a small number of students denouncing the Hollywood star’s views and the portrayal of Indigenous Americans in his films. A large case of the exhibit was removed, and displays were expanded to include elements of Indigenous filmmaking, feminism and critical race theory, according to the school’s Daily Trojan newspaper.

Notable SCA alumni

See also List of University of Southern California people
SCA has more than 10,000 alumni. Among the most notable are: