For an aspiring movie director, attending a film school, no matter how well regarded, is no guarantee of Hollywood success. However, film schools will give students a solid grounding in all aspects of film making. In fact, the short film directed by a film school student can often serve as a calling card to Hollywood studios. Studying areas such as sound, editing, writing, acting and cinematography can all provide a valuable foundation for a future directing career.
According to the website Film School.org, the four most prestigious U.S. film schools for the study of cinematography are the University of Southern California's (USC's) School of Cinematic Arts, the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University's (NYU's) Tisch School of the Arts, the University of California, Los Angeles's (UCLA's), School of Theater, Film and Television and Columbia University's School of the Arts Film Division. At Filmmaking.net, these four are also listed among its top five film schools, with the addition of the American Film Institute (AFI).
The website FilmSchools.com offers its own list of the top 12 American film schools, described as "our nation's finest film schools." These are Full Sail University (located in Winter Park, Florida), the San Francisco Art Institute, NYU, San Francisco State University, the University of Texas -- Austin, Florida State University, USC, UCLA, Ohio University, the American Film Institute Conservatory (based in Los Angeles), the San Francisco-based Art Academy and Boston University.
In addition to these well-regarded American schools, students who wish to study film directing outside of the United States have a variety of options. According to Filmmaking.net, the only two non-American schools that have managed to build reputations equal to their U.S. counterparts are the United Kingdom's National Film and Television School (NFTS) and the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School (AFTRS). Other international choices highlighted as top film schools by FilmSchool.org are India's Mumbai Film Academy, the International Film School of Paris (also known by its acronym, EICAR) and the Vancouver Film School, located on the west coast Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia.