MICA's MFA Filmmaking is a rigorous, hands-on program focusing on pitching, pre-production, production, editing, sound design, color-correction, audience building, branding and release strategies. Mentoring independent filmmakers to understand and execute all the stages necessary to create and share work is a unique experience in relationship to other filmmaking programs offering specialty tracks. 

Graduate Filmmaking Studio, a course that students take each of the four semesters, is the centerpiece of the curriculum. Developing and executing several projects anywhere on the continuum of non-fiction, narrative and experimental filmmaking is the goal. As cinematic storytelling develops, students will produce a required thesis film that is festival-ready at the end of the two years of study. The thesis film will be a significant asset upon graduation.

Faculty and industry professionals will cover additional aspects of the filmmaking process through workshops and one-on-one mentoring. Student filmmakers also select from various production, fine arts and liberal arts courses to supplement the two years of graduate study. Ultimately, the thesis film will be the stepping stone to securing a job or gaining financing.

Great films are collaborations. While writing and editing are often solitary activities, production is not. Student filmmakers work on each other’s films in a vibrant community committed to supporting each other’s voices. We critique ideas, not people, allowing us to provide feedback and to improve upon our cinematic storytelling.

The choice to study in Baltimore, Maryland USA is to embrace a city made up of many unique neighborhoods. The JHU/MICA Film Centre, MICA's Lazarus Center and the SNF Parkway Theatre, the hubs of MICA's MFA Filmmaking, exist first and foremost in relationship to the traditional ancestral and unceded lands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock tribes. Indigenous people have lived here since the 10th Millennium BC, and their relation to this land was to travel, trade, and to hunt in this region we now call Baltimore.

Learning about and collaborating with the communities of Baltimore requires respect for our neighbors who live, work, and create in the surrounding areas of our 200-year-old Art College. In turn, student filmmakers are expected to be open to storytelling strategies that challenge traditional and colonized biases. To further critical thinking, MICA MFA Filmmaking requires the study of cutting edge film history via our progressive liberal arts courses. 'Contemplating Early Cinema' and 'Contemplating Modern Cinema' are taught by KJ Mohr, Director of Programming of the Maryland Film Festival.

Required Graduate Filmmaking Studio Courses:  

Graduate Filmmaking Studio I, 9 credits

• Non-Fiction Storytelling & Editing Strategies (3-credits)
• Introduction to Pre-Production for Filmmakers (3-credits)
• Screenwriting: Short Form (3-credits)

Graduate Filmmaking Studio II, 9 credits

• Non-Fiction Storytelling & Editing Strategies Part II (3-credits)
• Applied Pre-Production for Filmmakers (3-credits)
• Screenwriting: Long Form (3-credits)

Bookend Summer

Students will continue intensive pre-production work throughout the summer. This includes, but is not limited to, securing interviews, cast, locations, props, costumes, production schedules and crew. Students must complete all aspects before the start of the fall semester. Actual thesis production is recommended to commence during the bookend summer when possible.

Graduate Filmmaking Studio III, 9 credits

• Thesis Film Production (3-credits)
• Thesis Film Editing Strategies (6-credits)

Graduate Filmmaking Studio IV, 9 credits

• Thesis Film Fine-Cut & Picture Lock Strategies (3-credits)
• Film Branding & Audience Building (3-credits)
• Thesis Film Color, Sound, Delivery and Public Screening with Q&A (3-credits)

Note: For elective credits, students may take either graduate or undergraduate courses at MICA.