2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

Film, Video & Photographic Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #84 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 324 master's degrees in film, video & photographic arts during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Film, Video & Photographic Arts School for Your Master's Degree

The film master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality film program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to film, video & photographic arts students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of film, video & photographic arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for film, video & photographic arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized film, video & photographic arts related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for film, video & photographic arts students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Film, Video & Photographic Arts in the Southeast Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts.

Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Film

1

Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA

113 Annual Graduates

$37,493 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to look into Savannah College of Art and Design. SCAD is a large private not-for-profit college located in the medium-sized city of Savannah.

Film, Video & Photographic Arts master's degree recipients from Savannah College of Art and Design get an earnings boost of about $5,548 over the average income of film, video & photographic arts majors.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Savannah College of Art and Design

2

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

23 Annual Graduates

$33,151 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts needs to look into Florida State University. Located in the city of Tallahassee, Florida State is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the film program report average early career wages of $33,151.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Florida State University

3

University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Winston Salem, NC

15 Annual Graduates

$22,901 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts needs to take a look at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. UNCSA is a small public university located in the city of Winston Salem.

After graduation, film master's recipients usually make around $22,901 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from University of North Carolina School of the Arts

4

University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

9 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Miami if you want to pursue a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts. U Miami is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Coral Gables.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from University of Miami

5

University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Wilmington, NC

9 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from University of North Carolina at Wilmington

6

Full Sail University
Winter Park, FL

74 Annual Graduates

$21,973 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Winter Park, Full Sail University is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the film program earn around $21,973 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Full Sail University

Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best film, video & photographic arts colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	107
Georgia	190	93
Virginia	182	46
North Carolina	178	30
Tennessee	166	15
Kentucky	147	13
South Carolina	146	2
Arkansas	121	6

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Film

One of 10 majors within the Visual & Performing Arts area of study, Film, Video & Photographic Arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Film Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Film/Cinema/Media Studies	136
Film & Video Production	133
Photography	37
Documentary Production	13
Other Film/Video & Photographic Arts	5

Majors Similar to Film

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	838
Design & Applied Arts	526
Fine & Studio Arts	362
Drama & Theater Arts	325
Arts & Media Management	310
General Visual & Performing Arts	105
Dance	34
Other Visual Art	4
Community/Environmental/Socially-Engaged Art	1

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.