News
Film and Animation BFA

RIT’s School of Film and Animation is once again ranked among the top animation schools in the country by Animation Career Review, a leading online resource of information for aspiring animation and game design professionals.

The extensive renovation of RIT’s College of Art and Design—with keen focuses on key areas within the internationally recognized School of Photographic Arts and Sciences (SPAS) and School of Film and Animation—made significant strides in 2021.

Assistant professor Amy Adrion—whose work has screened at South by Southwest, Sundance, and Tribeca film festival—recently directed and produced videos for an online streaming series featuring actors reading children’s books brought to life through animation.

Angélica Agélviz, Shana Dixon and Chloe Hayes — all 2019 School of Film and Animation graduates — worked on Nuevo Rico, an award-winning film seen as a potential Academy Award winner.

MAGIC Spell Studios, RIT’s world-class digital media research and production facility, is bringing the latest in virtual production (VP) technology to RIT students. VP blends filmmaking, 3D graphics, computational photography, and real-time game engine rendering to produce in-camera visual effects similar to those seen in the groundbreaking work on Disney’s The Mandalorian and Marvel’s Avenger films.

Tisa Zito ’09 (film and animation) is making her directorial debut with her film, ForeverMoore; The Angelo Project. The film is a character study on Los Angeles native Angelo Moore, lead singer of the band Fishbone, and asks questions about the legacy and process of an artist.

The sixth annual event featured presentations on the latest virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies that are driving various fields, from health care to theater to education. 

My Burbank features Max Lopez '12 (film and animation), executive producer, and Sean Malony '12 (film and animation), creative supervisor, founders of stop motion animation studio Apartment D Films.

Nick Nicely '12 (3D Digital Design), founder of Video Plates and Backings, is providing all RIT students access to his library of more than 5,000 driving plates and moving set backdrops for use in films and media projects.

RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios is partnering with Pure Imagination Studios, an award-winning independent entertainment studio best known for combining proprietary technology with groundbreaking storytelling, to launch a satellite office and spatial computing studio in Rochester.

RIT's Schools of Art, American Crafts, Film and Animation, and Photographic Arts and Sciences are all under new leadership.

Shanti Thakur—who began her new role as director of RIT’s School of Film and Animation in the College of Art and Design earlier this month—is an award-winning fiction and documentary filmmaker who has taught for nearly two decades.