About

The Filmmaking Summer Intensive at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a four-week residential program immersing high school students and rising college freshmen in narrative filmmaking on one of the most distinctive conservatory campuses in the country. It runs June 21 through July 18, 2026 on UNCSA's campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina — Monday through Saturday, 9:30am to 5:30pm daily — and gives students direct access to Studio Village, UNCSA's on-campus working movie set, along with the School of Filmmaking's professional-grade production equipment and facilities. UNCSA's undergraduate filmmaking program is routinely ranked among the top conservatory film programs in the United States, and the summer intensive draws on that same faculty and infrastructure.

The curriculum covers all primary disciplines of narrative filmmaking: screenwriting, cinematography, directing, producing, and digital editing. Students develop individual projects and serve in crew positions across each other's productions, participating in screenings and offering structured feedback throughout the four weeks. The program operates at two levels — Rising Filmmakers, designed for students with no prior experience, and Advanced Filmmakers, for returning students or those with prior coursework — allowing both first-time and experienced student filmmakers to participate meaningfully in the same cohort. All projects are screened in a culminating two-day film festival. Both domestic and international students are eligible.

Admission is rolling, with spaces filled in the order applications are received until the program is full. The application opens November 15 and the deadline is May 1, but the program consistently fills well before that date — applying early is strongly recommended. Total cost for residential students is $5,329 ($3,102 program fee plus $2,177 room and board); commuter students pay $3,152. Students living within 25 miles of UNCSA are required to attend as commuters. UNCSA does not offer general financial aid for the summer intensive, but offers the Cori Gross Memorial Scholarship — a single full-cost award given to one filmmaking student each year, with a separate application deadline in late March. The Anthony Quinn Foundation also offers competitive arts scholarships for high school students with a November 30 deadline. Notably, 529 education savings funds are not accepted for summer program fees.

For a high school student serious about narrative filmmaking, the UNCSA Summer Intensive offers something most film camps cannot: access to a genuine working film set, conservatory-level faculty, and a four-week structure long enough to take a project from script to finished cut. The program is not a survey of filmmaking concepts but a production experience — students leave with work they made, on equipment professionals use, at a school whose undergraduate alumni work consistently in the industry. It is among the strongest dedicated filmmaking programs for high schoolers in the country.