News
Film and Animation BFA

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Aaron Gordon ’13 (film and animation), CEO of Optic Sky, an advertising and digital experience production company.

When audiences head to Cinemark theaters to catch a movie this July, they’ll also see a commercial produced by students from RIT and NTID. The short film, Say Cheese, was awarded the grand prize in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Films (CCRF) program.

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps to hit the market in a decade. Billions of social media users have found both community and entertainment in the vertical short videos that are central to TikTok’s format. With a combined nearly 1 million followers and 25 million “likes” between them, four RIT alumni are establishing themselves as social media influencers.

Three games created by RIT students were honored at the RPI GameFest 2022 April 30.

Kiki Johnson '22 (film and animation) had demonstrated a commitment to communicating real-world issues in her storytelling. The latest example is her capstone film, The Walk to School.

Aaron Gordon ’13, CEO of Optic Sky, an advertising and digital experience production company; Franklyn Athias ’85, CTO and senior vice president for Xfinity Mobile Retail Convergence; and Erin Sarofsky ’98, ’00 MFA, an award-winning creative visionary, discussed how the pandemic opened up the eyes of many industries to the future.

Alexandra McDonald ’22 showcased her experimental film, "Amalgamate," at the Academy Award-qualifying festival, and is set to also display it at Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival April 23.

Accomplished alumni are returning to campus to discuss the future of technology, art, and design as part of the Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 23. The Imagine RIT Futurists Symposium is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Wegmans Theater, RIT MAGIC Center. It will also be available to watch as a livestream.

Jahaad Shairi, a School of Film and Animation sophomore, has been selected as a 2022 CIEE Frederick Douglass Global Fellow—an honor awarding him a full scholarship to represent RIT at a four-week leadership program for students of color that is set in Ireland and focused on peace, social justice, and conflict resolution.

It was a memorable and historic Academy Awards for Hollywood and a number of RIT alumni at the 94th Oscars from Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre.

Diverse subjects involving safety and autonomous automobiles, Black women in computing, and Italian cinema are just some of the winning entries for this year’s student writing awards, sponsored by RIT’s College of Liberal Arts.

Film and Animation students Anna McClanahan (BFA) and Gabriel Ponte-Fleary (MFA) are finalists in Coca-Cola's Refreshing Films program. They are producing what is thought to be the program's first finalist film dealing with deaf and hard-of-hearing themes.