“The City of College of New York has created its first film advisory board, featuring a number of acclaimed, award-winning filmmakers and individuals who work in the film industry, all of whom are committed to public education. Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams will lead the board, with Oscar winner Laura Poitras, Emmy winner Dawn Porter”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams will lead the board, with Oscar winner Laura Poitras, Emmy winner Dawn Porter, Oscar nominee and CCNY alum Stanley Nelson, Apollo Theater executive producer Kamilah Forbes, actress and CCNY professor Ally Sheedy, Bushwick Film Festival founder Kweighbaye Kotee and acclaimed director Nancy Savoca as board members.
The board will promote and support the college’s BFA and MFA film programs and offer exclusive student master classes each year.
Master classes this fall include Porter on the director-dp relationship, Savoca on working with actors and guest and MFA alum Claire Shanley (a producer on The Gilded Age and Task) on producing TV and life after film school. Masterclasses from other advisors, including Williams, will take place in the spring.
“The City College MFA is having a Renaissance moment. We are not only thrilled to welcome our incredibly accomplished board of advisors but also feel immense pride for the recent achievements of our hard-working students, many of whom hold down jobs while earning this terminal degree in film,” professor and MFA co-director Andrea Weiss said in a statement. “We are the most affordable and most diverse graduate film program in New York City.”
Professor and BFA director Deirdre Fishel added, “We’re the only BFA in film in the CUNY system where students follow a hands-on, conservatory style program in both fiction and documentary production. Our diverse students, many first generation, have critical stories to tell and go on to work in every aspect of the industry. In June, Camila Carrillo took home the inaugural Roger Ross Williams Award for her film Arrangedearning not only a cash prize but also an internship with Williams’ company, One Story Up. Alumna Ana Maldonado was the associate editor on Academy Award–winner Laura Poitras’ new documentary Cover-Upco-directed by Mark Obenhaus which premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival as well as on the New York Film Festival Main Slate. And alumna Kilpatry Montes de Oca was nominated for a New York Emmy for her work on the PSA Asi Somoswhich celebrates the vibrant identity and solidarity of the Latino and queer community.”
CCNY’s BFA film and video program was originally the Institute of Film Techniques, founded by Dada artist Hans Richter in 1941.
The MFA film program began in 1999, with Chantal Akerman serving on the faculty from 2011-2015. Alumni have received recognition from the National Board of Review, Student Academy Awards and Emmys.