Upcoming Events
Virtual SCA Graduate Information Session
March 16, 2020 - April 1, 2021, Varies
Online - Access Information Sent Via Email
Join the SCA Admissions staff for an online information session to learn more about applying to the SCA graduate programs for the Fall 2022 semester. Topics will include an overview of the school, programs and facilities, financial aid, Q&A with staff and more!
This session is for prospective graduate applicants only. Please note that the Zoom link to the online session will be sent via email the morning of the session you register for.
Virtual SCA Transfer Information Session
September 18, 2020 - January 31, 2021, 11:30 AM Pacific Standard Time
Online - Access Information Sent Via Email
Join the SCA Admissions staff for an online information session to learn more about applying to the SCA undergraduate programs for the Fall 2021 semester. Topics will include an overview of the school, programs and facilities, financial aid, Q&A with staff and more!
This session is for prospective transfer applicants only. Please note that the Zoom link to the online session will be sent via email the morning of the session you register for.
CTCS-467: Television Symposium Spring 2021
January 18, 2021 - May 10, 2021, 7:00 P.M. PST
Live on ZOOM
A four-unit elective class open for enrollment to ALL USC STUDENTS OF ANY MAJOR that brings you face-to-face with the leading television writers, producers, directors and actors working today. Recent guests include Jon Favreau (The Mandalorian), Adam McKay (Succession), Alena Smith (Dickinson), Stephen Williams (Watchmen), Chris Mundy (Ozark), Susannah Grant (Unbelievable), David Mandel (Veep), Steven Canals (Pose), Sam Levinson (Euphoria), Raphael Bob-Waksberg & Kate Purdy (Undone), Joel Karsberg & Jesse Daniels (Surviving R. Kelly), Aline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Marti Noxon (Sharp Objects), David Kajganich (The Terror), Tanya Saracho (Vida), Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer (Stranger Things), Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch (Glow), Hiro Murai (Atlanta), Noah Hawley (Fargo), Ron Moore (Outlander), and Kenya Barris (black-ish).
CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium Spring 2021
January 21, 2021 - May 6, 2021, Thursday nights from 6:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.
Live on ZOOM
This Spring 2021 semester, the School of Cinematic Arts will offer a very special course called CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium, a four-unit elective class open for enrollment to ALL USC STUDENTS OF ANY MAJOR that brings you face-to-face with leading film directors, writers, producers, and actors working today. Each week, students will have exclusive Q&A with the creative team behind the films being released in Spring 2021. The class is taught by film critic LEONARD MALTIN and meets every Thursday night online from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. on Zoom.
OSCAR® Qualified Shorts Showcase
January 26, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
A screening of 8 new short films competing for the 2021 Academy Awards®, including AUGUSTUS, KAPAEMAHU, ELO (TIE), THE SOUND OF A WILD SNAIL EATING, PURPLEBOY, LOST & CROWNED, CARNE (FLESH), and GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC.
GIVING VOICE: A Live Q&A with Director/Producers James D. Stern & Fernando Villena, and Film Subject Nia Sarfo
January 27, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
A new generation of performers is discovered in Giving Voice, which follows the emotional journey of six students as they advance through the high-stakes August Wilson Monologue Competition, an event which celebrates one of America’s preeminent playwrights. Every year, thousands of students from twelve cities across the United States perform the Pulitzer Prize winner’s work (Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, etc.) for a shot to perform on Broadway. Directors James Stern and Fernando Villena capture students discovering themselves and the world around them through Wilson’s The American Century Cycle, a canon of ten plays portraying the 20th century African American experience. Executive producer Viola Davis, along with “Fences” co-star Denzel Washington, share the impact that Wilson’s timeless artistry and legacy has had on their careers and their hopes for the young people carrying it forward.
Sundance 2021: A Live Panel Discussion with SCA Alumni
January 28, 2021, 3:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
Join SCA Alumni Geraud Brisson, Ross Dinerstein, Judy Korin, Sev Ohanian, and Nina Yang Bongiovi for a lively discussion with SCA Professor Doug Blush about their Sundance Film Festival experiences, and insight into the 2021 Virtual Edition running from January 28th - February 3rd, 2021.
LIFT LIKE A GIRL: A Live Screening and Q&A with Writer/Director/Producer Mayye Zayed
January 28, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
On a busy, noisy high-traffic street corner in Alexandria, Egypt, a seemingly vacant corner lot surrounded by chain link fencing is the training site of Egypt’s most elite champions – female weightlifters. Zebiba (Arabic for “raisin”) has been training at the site for five years, since she was 9, following in the footsteps of Egypt’s most famous athletes of all time – including the first Arab, female, two-time Olympic medalist, Abeer Abdel Rahman, and World champion and Olympic athlete, Nahla Ramadan. Nahla’s father, the visionary Captain Ramadan, has bred champions, female champions, from his makeshift corner–lot training site for over two decades – 4 Olympic, 9 World and 17 Pan African champions. Now it is Zebiba’s turn. But can Zebiba put aside her youthful instincts, and direct her focus to be the weightlifting champion the Captain is sure she is?
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE: A Live Screening of Dario Argento's Debut 'Giallo' Thriller
January 29, 2021, 7:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
Sam (Tony Musante, WE OWN THE NIGHT) is an American writer living in Rome, and witnesses a brutal attack on a woman (Eva Renzi, FUNERAL IN BERLIN) in a modern art gallery. Powerless to help, he grows increasingly obsessed with the incident. Convinced he saw something that night which holds the key to identifying the maniac terrorizing Rome, Sam launches his own investigation parallel to that of the police, heedless of the danger to him and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall, SPASMO.)
THE MILKMAID: A Live Screening and Q&A with Writer/Director/Producer Desmond Ovbiagele and Executive Producer Seun Sowemimo
January 30, 2021, 7:30 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
In rural sub-Saharan Africa, Aisha, a Fulani milkmaid, is searching for her younger sister, Zainab. Dire personal circumstances force her to approach the religious militants who were responsible for their separation in the first instance, but she is determined to find her despite the compromises she must make to do so. However, her quest to recapture her blithe past proves to be unexpectedly complicated in a world whose festering conflict provides several paths to becoming a victim with typically irreversible consequences.
WILLOW: A Live Screening of North Macedonia's Official Entry for the 2021 Academy Awards®
February 1, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
Three women cope with issues of control over their bodies, tradition and adoption. They have not set out to change the world, but their struggle to become mothers makes them unlikely heroines. Three stories set in Macedonia - one medieval, two contemporary - exploring themes of love, trust and motherhood.
SONG WITHOUT A NAME: A Live Screening and Q&A with Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Melina León
February 2, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
Song Without a Name is a haunting, heartbreaking account of baby trafficking and the plight of disenfranchised indigenous women in 1980’s Peru. The film is an adaptation of real events investigated by director Melina León’s father, Ismael Leon, to whom the film is dedicated. In the early 1980’s, Leon was one of the journalists that broke an investigative story on child trafficking and children being sold to European and American couples in La República, one of the country’s largest newspapers.
LITTLE FISH: A Live Q&A with Director Chad Hartigan
February 3, 2021, 6:00 P.M. PST
Live Online Webinar
Little Fish opens in the midst of a global epidemic: Neuroinflammatory Affliction (NIA), a severe and rapid Alzheimer’s-like condition in which people’s memories disappear, in some cases fading over weeks or months, in others vanishing in an instant. The film centers on couple Jude Williams and Emma Ryerson as they grapple with the realities of NIA, interspersed with glimpses from the past as the two meet and their relationship blooms. But as NIA’s grip on society tightens, blurring the lines between the past and the present, it becomes more and more difficult to know what’s true and what’s false.