Filmmaking and Moving Image Arts

Sarah Lawrence College’s filmmaking and moving-image arts (FMIA) is a rigorous intellectual and creatively vibrant program where students are free to select classes without the confinement of majors. Through a wide range of classes, we offer students the opportunity to imagine themselves as a community of storytellers who are willing to take risks and break boundaries. With classes in screenwriting for film and television and hands-on production courses in narrative fiction, documentary/nonfiction, experimental, and animated film, students define and resolve artistic, historical, and analytical problems on their own while also learning to work in collaboration.

Working with departments throughout the College, students learn to consider film and the spatial arts within a variety of contexts. The program fosters open inquiry, community and social engagement, and enables students to think critically about form and the choices that filmmakers and screenwriters must face. With all of the richness of New York City at our fingertips and a host of opportunities for students to study abroad and travel to Los Angeles, FMIA at Sarah Lawrence offers a unique, experience-based learning environment for students at all levels. After graduation, our students go on to win prestigious awards for their work, attend competitive graduate programs around the world, and become professionals in a range of film, animation and screenwriting careers.

Sarah Lawrence College offers state-of-the-art facilities for the FMIA program, including the Donnelly Film Theatre that seats 185 people and has a 4K digital cinema projector, an intimate 35-person screening room, several teaching/editing labs, a 1,400 square-foot soundstage, an animation studio, and a sound and Foley recording booth. Our equipment room offers Sony, Canon, Blackmagic, RED, and ARRI cameras, along with sound, grip, and lighting packages.

Animation

Postproduction

Preproduction

Production

Screenwriting