We are a MFA program area in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, UCLA School of Theater Film and Television. The MFA Animation Program is popularly known as the UCLA Animation Workshop. Approximately 12 new students are admitted each year in the fall quarter. There are approximately forty students in all in the Workshop, and the population is internationally diverse. While primarily a MFA program, the Department (Film Television and Digital Media), offers a two-year undergraduate film degree program (junior – senior years), from which it’s possible to do a Senior Concentration in Animation. We have a number of undergraduate level courses available to non-majors (both undergraduate and graduate), and to film minors.
In 1948 the UCLA Animation Workshop was founded by William Shull, as part of the newly established Department of Theater. Since that time it has become the leading university animation workshop in the world. Bill Shull, a former Disney animator, set the basic philosophy of the Workshop: one person, one film – one person does the entire film. This philosophy allows each filmmaker complete control over his or her film: its concept, purpose, content, viewpoint, art, form, audience, and value.
