New York Film Academy
Locations: New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Abu Dhabi, UAE
Degrees: Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's
Programs: Filmmaking, Screenwriting, Photography, Cinematography, 3D Animation, Actin, Game Design and others
Tuition Range: 16,000 - 18,000 per Semester
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World-renowned for its various film programs, the New York Film Academy has two locations in New York City, plus locations at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and in Abu Dhabi. The school offers a wide array of media related programs, including one- and two-year conservatory programs, associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s programs in fields that include Filmmaking, Screenwriting, Photography, Cinematography, 3D Animation, Game Design, Acting, Musical Theatre and more. (Specific courses depend on location.) NYFA also offers numerous workshops in locations around the globe.
NYFA’s degree programs offer an accelerated approach which includes summer semesters, allowing students to complete a bachelor’s program in three years and a master’s program in two years. Regardless of program, tuition typically ranges between $16,000-$18,000 per semester (not including fees), amounting to roughly $140,000 for a bachelor’s degree.
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Student Reviews
World-renowned for its various film programs, the New York Film Academy has two locations in New York City, plus locations at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and in Abu Dhabi. The school offers a wide array of media related programs, including one- and two-year conservatory programs, associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s programs in fields that include [...]
Review by Al H.
January 23, 2012 1.8I graduated from the New York Film Academy in LA with a “one year diploma in Filmmaking”
I found the program to be good, but the school doesn’t help you outside of the class!! It doesn’t connect you with the industry, it is very hard to make it in Hollywood if you don’t have contacts! they don’t really care, they take the money, teach you what they know, and let you out!! too bad for them, because this will not help their reputation!! what kills me is that they choose my movie to be the best in the year, and put it on youtube without even asking me, and when I went there and asked them for help to find a job, they said we don’t have a job for you!! I don’t get it, why they loose a talent like that, they don’t really care!!
Since graduation I have found some work, but not a full time job, I found just gigs, couldn’t get a full time job, although I was the best in my class!!
If I could go back in time I wouldn’t do it again. Instead I would learn what I could online and by working some gigs.
Debt Accrued: Greater than $50,000
Found work after graduation? No
Review by Baiba A.
January 16, 2012 4In 2008 I attended 8-week course for screenplay writers, organized by New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. I wanted to study the basics of screenplay writing.
First, I learnt the basics of writing screenplays. This kind of knowledge and practice I was exposed to I could not get in Latvia. Of, course, it is possible to study filmmaking in Latvia or Europe also, but in the USA it is something different.
Second, I got an opportunity to live (stay) in the cultural environment I do not have in my homeland. I must say that it was really a wonderful opportunity for me as a translator, too.
Third, our group was a very small one. I had been a teacher and a university lecturer. It was interesting for me to observe and take part in the study process in the USA. It differs from the one we used to have here.
Fourth, our group was really international. There were ten students in it. Seven were from different states of the USA, one young man was from Spain, one – from the Netherlands, and I was from Latvia. I had graduated several study programs in Latvia at different levels, but never had experience of being a member of an international team.
Yes, I would certainly recommend NYFA. It is really practical approach to the filmmaking process, wonderful and qualified teachers, and the experience you never forget. Besides, it is very useful for working people to attend such courses of, for example, 8 weeks. It is possible to find opportunities financially and concerning participation even if you live across the ocean.
Review by Rafael C.
January 14, 2012 1I signed up for the 2 year acting program but ended up only doing one. You can say I dropped out or didn’t graduate. I am currently in over twenty thousand dollars in debt because of this choice to go to film school. It didn’t meet my expectations at all as I felt I wasn’t learning what I had already known. I am currently getting background roles and extra work. I wouldn’t recommend film school to anyone unless they are a beginner and still aren’t sure if they are serious about acting or making films. I wouldn’t do it all over again because of the money I owe and I feel it took my future and career nowhere.
Debt Accrued: $10,001 - $25,000
Found work after graduation? No
Review by Melissa P.
November 23, 2011 4.3Being a recent graduate of the MFA Screenwriting program I can say that this wonderful program (NYFA) forces you to work that much harder to differentiate yourself and brings you constant satisfaction from being taught by brilliant instructors who are presently working in the field. You will not only be learning how to create solid stories and unforgettable characters but you will also be part of a creative environment, that will most definitely hone your craft.
Review by Burt Love
November 13, 2011 2.8I attended the NYFA New York Film Academy – One Month Acting Programme. It took me almost a year to get the loans for that, I lived on a low limit credit card during that time and i haven’t paid off either yet. This was about 10 years ago.
While it was a good time, the teachers were good people and it was fairly diverse as much as content went, I think it would be better for students who are well off or have more constructive planning ability. I think I saw more potential acting talent rather than participated. But I was rather delusional to think I was going to be an Actor! To make money that way, it would be better to have studied film! Nevertheless, the students received good advice and if my world was not out of control, probably, i could have been successful with that one month training.
I have found about a dozen extra roles on tv & film. this pays very little but also 2 free big meals with the crew and networking opportunities. Llet me note, this was after spending apx. $20K of my own money earned from low paying jobs around the city, pouring it into acting and really getting nothing but soaking up time i could’ve used constructively.
Review by Kim K.
November 11, 2011 4.5Really, this place is pretty great. I’ll be getting my degree a year faster than you would at any other college. The facilities are in need of an upgrade, for sure. Walking between the 3 buildings can be a pain. But you get access to great teachers and Universal. The guest speakers are sometimes amazing too.
Review by Yoriko L.
October 10, 2011 1I wish I could give 0 stars. My daughter signed up to go to camp there and the living conditions were disgusting. They tried to cram 6 girls in a tiny 2 room apt. and because she came for the 2nd session, the place looked like a crack den and gross. They offered nothing to change the situation and I am STILL trying to get my money back. It is unsupervised, unsafe and a downright ripoff. STAY AWAY!!!
Review by Angela S
September 23, 2011 1I went to a film/acting school here, and while I have worked feverishly to obtain jobs, i did not get them because of that school. In fact, that school actually took what was instintual to me and f****d with my head…creating more insecurities and not teaching me a damn thing about the real world on a film set. I found myself taking class after class that were useless and the teachers were even worse, having ne3ver really worked in the business and not being able to fully express to us what actually happens on a real film set. Additionally, the equipment that was used to teach us was extremely out dated and archaic in the real world of film and television. I spent $30,000 on an education I received in a onths worth of PA’ing and a $25.00 acting class.
Review by John M.
September 16, 2011 3Film schools are, for the most part, perfect environments for students to learn the nuts and bolts of the film industry. Most film schools teach every aspect of film-making, from script to editorial. What sucks about film schools are the students, for the most part. They assume that when they graduate they will walk right into feature films as a Director or Director of Photography, because they have a degree. When they discover that no one will give a kid $10,000,000 to make a film, and instead offer them jobs as Production Assistants, they start to whine and throw tantrums… “But I’m a DIRECTOR”…
Virtually every career path out there requires some span of time at entry-level positions… think that getting your Law Degree means you get the corner office and a million a year? It probably gets you a Honda and a slot in the Law Library for a few years… think getting your Medical License gets you the house in the hills and a Mercedes? It gets you years of 24 hour shifts in crappy hospitals as you complete your residency… film school should be viewed in the same light… for every M. Night Shyamalan, who directed “The Sixth Sense” just after film school, there will be thousands of film school graduates who will never get that opportunity, but will find happiness working in the Crafts…
Film schools offer the tools needed to succeed in the industry, and often work for their graduates to get them internships on television series and feature films… what happens after that is all up to the student.
Review by Mary N.
September 5, 2011 1I’m a recent graduate of the MFA documentary program at New York Film Academy. I graduated a few weeks ago with about 50 grand in debt and I don’t have job yet, no surprise there, huh? I addition to that, I have so many issues with my school… My school doesn’t really cares about education, just money; and it’s so obvious… I have so many stories from my classmates and I… I actually thought of doing my thesis documentary film about NYFA ‘s dirty business, with their own equipment and if they tried to shut down the project then sue them for censorship… Yea, I almost did that! I backed out because I knew I wasn’t gonna get my degree if I did it.
Review by Andy P.
September 1, 2011 4.3I’m a graduate of New York Film Academy, while there I made some short films…even got a permit to film a little film inside grand central station! It gave me the chance to film at the United Nations too! I’d recommend them because it’s a cool place to learn and I’d do it again cause you’re in a busy atmosphere. you work with a lot of people…
Review by Brendan M.
April 18, 2011 1.8I enrolled in the two year screen writing program, but left after a semester once I saw a sea of red flags. They were:
-We never were asked to read a full screenplay. For a screenwriting program this is beyond unacceptable.
-Most of the professors hadn’t broken into the industry themselves.
-Very little organization.
Now, it wasn’t all bad. I did learn some good things there, I met a lot of cool people, and the professors were all very nice.
If you’re serious about becoming a screen writer, your money is better spent elsewhere.
Review by Brandon N.
April 18, 2011 1.3I enrolled in the two year screen writing program, but left after a semester once I saw a sea of red flags. They were:
-We never were asked to read a full screenplay. For a screenwriting program this is beyond unacceptable.
-Most of the professors hadn’t broken into the industry themselves.
-Very little organization.
Now, it wasn’t all bad. I did learn some good things there, I met a lot of cool people, and the professors were all very nice.
If you’re serious about becoming a screen writer, your money is better spent elsewhere.
Yelp
Review by June C.
April 15, 2011 3.5Went here for a screenwriting class. It was fun. A good place to go to study filmaking, acting, and writing. The degrees are useless though and if you want to transfer your credits from here to another school, problems will arise. In the entertainment business you want to achieve a connection into the business not so much a degree but otherwise a top-notch school for studying film.
Review by Pietro M.
December 29, 2010 4.5The hardest part for me was figuring you which location to choose (they have one in New York and one in Los Angeles). I chose New York, because I can’t deal without having a winter.
I have finished my first two semesters and am a little ways into my third. I am really having the time of my life, I debated whether or not to even do the third and fourth semester of my program as I felt I got so much out of my first that I was ready to start making movies on my own.
Yet there are just so many resources available through the school (insurance, equipment, crew, SAG agreements, etc.) that I figured it would be best for me to stay and save that money for after I’d graduated. If you’re considering film school (and even if you’re not looking to get a degree from it) this is the best option that I can recommend.
The other schools under the NYFA umbrella seem to be good too, I’ve only worked with the acting and the producing school though.
Review by Krystal R.
November 29, 2010 4Honestly, anyone who probably says negative things about NYFA probably didn’t work to their full potential, are spoiled and wanted everything handed to them and expected their talent and hard work to be pulled out of the air.
If you don’t work hard, you don’t get good results and that’s obvious. Put in work and get good results.
Review by Gandhi F.
March 5, 2010 1Let me just be brief.
This school sucks. Trust me, they just ripping off people’s money.
I felt I wasted 1 year of my life in this place.
The teacher clearly don’t have enough credits and experience.
I was a film making major and one of the acting teacher literally said to me ” Years I’ve worked here, I haven’t seen a single actor that will make it out there”
And I was like “seriously! Then why are you here?!”
One of the class section has 16 students ended up only 4 of them stayed until the end of the year. The rest of them left, loathing the school.
You get the point.
Review by Julio O.
October 13, 2008 1.8I just finished the Filmmaking One year program. And I have to agree with Jake G.
This school spend all the money in publicity. Almost every bus in the city has an ad of the NYFA.
To be honest, I was expecting a lot more from this school. After all, I gave them a lot of money.
I have to give them 3 stars, because after all, I learned stuff. But, you can easily learn that online or in books! However, you get the chance to work with the equipment. You learn by doing.
The staff in the NYFA is a joke. Sometimes in the editing lab, you have almost to beg them to help you. And if they do, they do it giving you a face.
They guys in the equipment room are assholes too. Sometimes they talk to you like you were insulting them or something. Like they dont like that job.
Some teachers are just pathetic. Our editing classes were horrible, we had in one year, like 3 good classes of writting. And they didnt told us how to writte a script. They told us to get the software to writte it.
etc, etc.,….
If you are thinking of going to the NYFA, think about it twice.
You do learn stuff, but its not worth the money you pay.
Review by Jake G.
October 10, 2008 1I don’t usually like to pooh pooh on anyone, but I wish that I had been given this heads-up before wasting so much of my money.
I completed the one year screenwriting course at the NYFA in New York. What a disgracefully run institution. Classrooms were constantly double-booked. We’d sit and waste class time (which in this case was literally money$) while the teacher found us another classroom.
And the teacher’s were of varied ability and intelligence. The department head was smart and well versed in the industry. However, some of the teachers seemed under-qualified, and their screenplays were sometimes unbelievably awful.
To echo a common complaint among my fellow alumni, NYFA did not prepare us to work in the industry beyond repeating the mantra, “enter contests!” This is mostly because unlike the professors teaching Masters Degree programs who want to pass along their knowledge and experience, most of the teachers here are just trying to make money while they try to break into the industry themselves.
The bottom line is that NYFA spends your money on advertising and polishing their facade. However once they have your money and you step inside, you feel like you just sat into a Ferrari, only to find that It doesn’t have an engine.
Sorry, but that is the honest opinion and experience that I shared with my classmates.
Review by Franc D. (source)
May 19, 2008 5I went to the 4 week program at NYFA and I have a BA, I totally agree. The more you’ll know about life, the more you’ll know about about films! I’m moved by a movie when it has a deep understanding in life and human beings.
Review by Bryan C.
May 16, 2008 3.5At first I wasnt sure if going to film school would be worth the tuition – but I’m SO glad I went for it! New York Film Academy is the real deal – everything you need to know to make it on your own as a filmmaker. The best part was all the great networking opportunities, not just with other students, but with real filmmakers. I took the one year filmmaking program, and am already submitting to festivals!
Pros: Very hands-on, great faculty, great networking opportunity
Cons: a little pricey
Review by Robert S.
March 23, 2008 2I attended the NYFA 1 year film making program with high hopes. Only to find out it is a complete vas-ad. I am a young 22 year old filmmaker and took out a loan which I will be paying off for the rest of my life and I honestly feel like I threw it down the drain. As the year went on teachers stopped showing up to class. By the end of the year I had 4 different directing teachers! They say they have a “strict” policy about attendance. It turns out as long as you pay tuition they don’t care what you do. I have found alot of the staff to be very rude and unwelcoming. Not to mention it is completely unorganized. On the night of graduation, they didn’t even have the right diplomas to hand out, we had some other classes diplomas! When we got the diplomas they were just temporary and the real one was suppose to arrive in the mail a month later. Well from the day I’ve written this It has been 7 months, and I still haven’t received it. I email and call the registrar and its gotten to the point where they don’t even get back to me. They say its because my “grades” haven’t come in, but I never received any sort of report card the whole year I was there. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very VERY great people who work at there school and love there art, and wanna teach the kids. Over all I had a terrible experience at NYFA. I would seriously seek out an alternative to this school if your serious about attending. While there I would always refer to it as “NYFA The rich kids summer camp.” Literally it was filled with kids throwing around there parents money not caring about the quality of the school and say anything, while meanwhile the school doesn’t care because they arent getting any complaints. Thanks for your time.
Review by Max L. (source)
March 18, 2008 4.5I attended in 98 for an 8-week intensive directing program. My decision to go to NYFA was based on making a career change. Kinda like dipping your toe in the pool. The school is no-frills, and we had a camera in our hands on the first day. Their intent is to teach you the very basics, and from there it’s up to you to make a career out of it. Many of my classmates are now working in the industry, and many of them have moved on to other careers.
Some say that at a 4-year program, you’ll at least end up with a bachelor’s degree. Well, from accounts from friends with Film BA’s, the degree is pretty much useless in the corporate world. It gives you no leverage at all. My suggestion is to study something like political science, anthropology, economics, or journalism and get a minor in film if you want to go the 4-year route. A film BA is worthless, the only value comes when you get an MFA from a bigger school.
My teacher at NYFA (Dylan Kidd, who went on to direct the brilliant ‘Roger Dodger’) told me a profound thing at the end of our term. Fortunately I had my undergrad degree, so he told me”you have a solid education, I’ve seen your films and you have a grasp of the fundamentals. The best thing for you now is not to go back to film school, but rather go out and use that money to make a film.” And I did, I made a feature for $98,000, it won some awards, did about 29 festivals, and got my foot in the door. I learned far more on set than I would have in any classroom, be it NYFA, USC or NYU. And most importantly, I started a network. There are a ton of talented people on this industry, so it’s not your talent that will sell you, its how you package that talent and who’s hands you get it into.
I’m an award-winning filmmaker and the shorts I made at NYFA are an embarrassment to the craft. But what we have to understand is that we are learning – nobody makes art straight out of the gate. Student films are horrible, that’s why they’re called student films. If you see the shorts coming out of USC or NYU, most of them are just as bad as the ones from NYFA. There are always diamonds in the rough, but that’s just par for course. NYFA stresses that you get a reel out of the education, and to be honest, my reel was pretty worthless. But my fundamentals were strong, and I used them to become a PA on many indie productions, I worked my way up to become an AC, and I started to make a real reel. I used that to get the funding for my first feature.
So a school won’t define your career- YOU DO. You’ll have to work hard and in many non-glamorous positions, but if you stick with it, you can make a career out of it. We delude ourselves by thinking we can be P.T. Anderson or Jean-Luc Godard tomorrow. It doesn’t work that way for most of us. You are honing a skill, which takes time. And the best thing you can bring to any table is experience, a damn good work ethic, passion, and innate vision and talent. Schools can’t teach you any of those requisites.
So go to NYFA if you have bigger plans and are willing to put in the work for it. It will save you money, as it is cheaper than the 4-year schools, but you will not get a network out of it. You should not consider NYFA if you do not have a bachelor’s degree, and you shouldn’t get a major in film regardless. Study something that will expand your thinking, experience, and understanding of the world. Film doesn’t do that. Why do you think most film students write screenplays about filmmaking? Because that’s all they know. If you study economics, you’ll see the world in a different light. If you study psychology, you’ll have an insight into human behavior that most filmmakers won’t have. You’ll be separating yourself from the pack because you have ideas and perspectives, not just basic technical skills. If you’ve already got a BA, then by all means, NYFA is perfect for you, because you’ll learn the basic fundamentals of your craft at a significantly less cost.
Review by Marcus V.
November 12, 2007 3I actually studied at the New York Film Academy in an intensive digitial filmmaking program a couple of years ago. For each major aspect of filmmaking studies (camera/lighting, directing, writing, and editing) with exception to the business production end of it (which I didn’t focus on), I thought all the instructors were very competant and knowledgable, but overall I felt that certain things could’ve been meticulously covered in more depth. Moreover, I thought the timing to complete certain film projects was too short, expecially in terms of postproduction. Also, the editing room is very tight and cramped, and dreadfully hot in the summer, and can get so busy that it becomes impossible to find an available work station in which to edit. I had to rectify that problem quickly by setting myself up at home with a computer and applicable software (i.e., FinalCut) to make things easier and more practical.
I’ve heard mixed reviews from other students who’ve studied at NYFA, and overall it doesn’t have the best of reputations, with film programs at schools like the School of Visual Arts and New York University probably getting better praise. In short, the instructors are definitely the best part of NYFA, and if you happen to be in classes with less than 15 people or so, you’re apt to get more individual attention, which is needed in something as intensive as filmmaking.