LMU School of Film and Television (SFTV) was ranked 7th by The Hollywood Reporter (THR) in its annual listing of the top 25 film schools in the country. It’s the eighth year in a row that LMU SFTV has been ranked among THR’s top 10 film schools, and it’s the highest ranking that SFTV has achieved to date.
Under the leadership of Peggy Rajski, Oscar-winning filmmaker and Dean of SFTV, the school has expanded its facilities, launched new programs, enlarged and diversified its faculty, and strengthened its career support and industry connections to benefit students and alumni.
In the past year SFTV established specialization tracks for film and TV production students in the areas of creative producing; directing (narrative and documentary); cinematography; and editing. Rajski has also brought on 10 new full-time faculty, half of whom are faculty of color, to accommodate steady growth in the school’s enrollment. New and expanded partnerships with respected industry groups Film Independent and Village Roadshow Entertainment Group offer critical financial support and mentorship for SFTV students and recent alumni to help them polish their creative projects and launch their entertainment careers.
And in fall 2021, SFTV is slated to open the Howard B. Fitzpatrick Pavilion, a four-story, 24,000-square-foot building on LMU’s Westchester campus. It will include state-of-the-art flexible classrooms and technical spaces adaptable to the ever-changing nature of the entertainment industry, and among its standout features will be an 86-seat theater with high-definition 4K projection capabilities. The new building will add much-needed space to SFTV, which currently occupies the Com Arts building and Mayer Theater (both adjacent to the Pavilion) and LMU’s Playa Vista Campus, the 50,000-square-foot home of the school’s graduate programs, which opened in 2018.
LMU began formally teaching film and television curriculum in 1964 and SFTV was formally established as its own entity in 2001. The school will commemorate its 20th anniversary next fall in concert with the planned opening of the Pavilion.
