Media ArtsFilm
BFA and BS in FilmTell your story.
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and the Bachelor of Science in Film offer students a comprehensive experience in the creation of independent motion pictures through a rigorous, hands-on production centered curriculum.
The JU Film program strives to create master visual storytellers who can connect with their audiences intellectually and emotionally.
Important Dates
Portfolio Reviews
Check-in for each audition or portfolio review will be at Terry Concert Hall.
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For audition dates, learn more about the audition and portfolio review process.
Why Film at 小蓝视频?
JU's Film program empowers the creative innovators of tomorrow by training them in all aspects of the arts and crafts of the moving image, from the aesthetic to the technological. We affirm the importance of storytelling as the form in which human beings give weight and meaning to the most important passage of their lives.
Tell your story, your way.
JU Film Sizzle Reel
Music.
There is no speech in this video. An instrumental piece of music plays throughout.
The Film ProgramMajor & Minor
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film empowers students to become complete filmmakers. Through the comprehensive curriculum, BFA students learn every facet of the filmmaking artform: from preproduction and script writing, to directing and cinematography, and including post-production and the business of the film industry. Utilizing special topics classes in documentary and commercial filmmaking and allowing students to customize their curriculum through independent studies, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film students are able to tailor make their education to reflect their own personal and professional goals while becoming marketable industry professionals while in film school.
The Bachelor of Science in Film enables JU students to double major and create the education that will drive their specific career goals. Want to direct? You can double major with Theatre Arts. Are you a screenwriter? You can double major in creative writing. Our degree allows the next generation of cinematographers to hone their skills with a photography degree. Editors can double major in animation or graphic design. Producers gain entrepreneurial experience with in 小蓝视频鈥檚 Davis School of Business. We strive to make you as marketable as possible so when you enter the industry you are ready to make an impact right away.
Faculty Spotlight
Alex WilleminAssociate Professor of Film
Alex鈥檚 films and screenplays have made him an internationally award-winning filmmaker. Notably, his feature screenplay, Home, Free won Best Breakout Screenplay at the Oaxaca Film Fest in Oaxaca, Mexico.
He has directed and shot numerous projects for a plethora of clients including filming portions of the music video for 鈥淪emicircle Song鈥� by UK-based group, The Go! Team. Alex runs the Fiat Lux Film Festival at 小蓝视频 and has served as a judge for the Hispanic Cultural Film Festival, Jacksonville Dance Film Festival and Independent Spirit Awards.
Alex specializes in writing and directing micro-budget films and was one of the 2021 Jacksonville Film and Television Industry鈥檚 Rising Stars. His debut feature film, Albert and Claude, which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and edited, has been screened internationally. Among the accolades have been official selections at the Marina del Rey Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA and the Vero Beach Film Festival and finalist awards at the WorldFest 鈥� Houston International Film Festival and Screen ATX in Austin, Texas. Albert and Claude is now available VOD on Prime Video and Tubi.
Film Faculty
Sonali Udaybabu
Sonali Udaybabu is an Indian filmmaker based. She received her Master of Arts from AJK Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. She has worked in various areas of media and activism including in advertising, publishing, media management, queer feminist activism, and sexual health and rights. She has been a Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow and a Saryu Doshi Graduate Fellow. As a filmmaker, she has contributed to projects as writer, producer, editor, director, and as cinematographer. Her cinematic interests are in the documentary film form and its artistic possibilities in understanding selves.
Dana Schmalenberg
Dana Schmalenberg is a screenwriter with an MFA from Florida State University and a BFA from the Ohio State University. She has sold TV shows to NBC, FOX and the CW, as well as feature films to Disney, Warner Brothers and New Regency. She has recently co-wrote the original movie 鈥淩esort to Love鈥� for Netflix and adapted 鈥淪ex and the City鈥� author Candace Bushnell鈥檚 novel, 鈥淭rading Up鈥� for Lifetime Television.
Jerry Smith
Jerry Smith is the founder and CEO of PineRidge Film & Television, Inc. Smith is an internationally recognized writer, producer, and director of lifestyle television programs, TV commercials, corporate image campaigns and online content. PineRidge鈥檚 program development division, has taken home six National Daytime Emmy Awards and eleven Emmy nominations in the past nine years. Mr. Smith was honored in 2012 as a Film Florida Legend by the Film Florida state film commissioners and, recently, by the City of Jacksonville as the 2016 recipient of the Film and Television Industry Achievement Award.
Bill Hill
Bill Hill holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Electronic Intermedia from the University of Florida with a primary focus on time-based media and interaction. As an independent filmmaker his experimental and narrative works have been exhibited and screened nationally and internationally. His work has also been published in numerous periodicals and newspapers including Computer Arts, Exposure and Leonardo, in addition to the book entitled "Art, Technology, Consciousness: Mind @ Large."
Alumni Spotlight
Natassja Ebert
Natassja Ebert currently works as a freelance cinematographer and photographer based out of NYC. She initially filmed sports, beginning in ESPN3 on campus which led her to employment in the NBA Summer League and the NFL Draft 2019. Since graduating, she has worked with production houses like The Color Production House and Gesundheit Media, working on projects for Associated Press, USA Today, Visa, Morgan Stanley, and Microsoft, among many others.
Now she is focusing on humanitarian story-telling, filming for non-government organizations as they aid crisis zones worldwide. She documented for World Central Kitchen as they fed The Bahamas post- Hurricane Dorian and the COVID19 response in New York City during the lockdown from March-September 2020. While working with World Central Kitchen, her footage was used on The TODAY Show and 鈥淎merica Food Fund鈥� a campaign by Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio to fundraise for food organizations across The United States.
Currently she is in production on a film about Chef Jos茅 Andr茅s, a feature film directed by Ron Howard and partnered with National Geographic. Continuing to lead stories on food scarcity, documenting pivoting moments of this pandemic, and assisting producers as they piece together this narrative of crisis aid.
Visiting Filmmakers
Andre Labous
Andr茅 Labous is a DP/Director for 25+ years whose focus is on cinematic lighting and camera technique for production companies and advertising agencies around the country, and such clients as NASCAR Productions, NFL Films, NBC Golf and the WTA. He specializes in broadcast commercial and documentary work using the Arri Amira package which he owns and operates. His resume of work includes spots for M&M's, Aspen Dental, Lowe's, Menard's, Florida Lottery, 5 Hour Energy, Wounded Warrior Project, Firehouse Subs, Jacksonville Jaguars.
Rita Coburn
Rita Coburn is a Peabody and Emmy Award-Winning Director, Writer, and Producer with nearly four decades in radio, television and film. Beginning her career as a producer and writer for various news outlets across the U.S., Coburn went on to produce for the likes of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Radio, Apollo Live! and Walt Disney Productions. In 2022, Coburn produced and directed "Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands" premiered on PBS, and in 2016, 鈥淢aya Angelou: And Still I Rise,鈥� which was co-directed and co-produced by Coburn, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Festival, and went on to win a Peabody Award in 2017. The documentary featured interviews conducted by Coburn Whack with world-renowned talent and public figures 鈥� President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Quincy Jones, and more.
Rachel Suissa
As an actress, writer and director, Rachel has lived a thousand lives. Through her varied experience in theater and filmmaking, she has cultivated a deep knowledge of narrative production for stage and screen. In addition to authoring and staging theatrical works in Paris, she has starred in French television shows and worked in major feature films alongside the likes of superstars Vincent Cassell and XXX. For Netflix, she wrote and directed the worldwide hit film Dangerous Liaisons, a large production with a budget of six million Euros. And she has recently completed her first American Independent feature film, Greek Mothers Never Die, which she wrote, directed and produced on Amelia Island, Florida, where she lives with her husband and two children.
All Art & Design Programs
The School of Art & Design offers several other programs of study. Learn more about the programs available at 小蓝视频.