Producer Daniel Pipski conducted a Q&A session on working in the TV/film industry, in which he discussed the changing trends in an unpredictable industry—from both the creative and business perspectives—as well as how this is changing the way writers and filmmakers approach the creative process. He also led a conversation entitled: “From Idea to Story: Ways to Think About Character, Suspense, and Other Essential Elements of Great Scripts” as well as holding office hours during which he heard screenwriting students’ pitches and gave feedback.

Director Susanna Fogel (Winner, Book Smart) and Writer Kerry Howley (Winner) talked with students about the art of film adaptation in partnership with Iowa City’s ReFocus Film Festival.

Steve James, director of the legendary documentary Hoop Dreams, held a conversation on the ethics of documentary.

Philip During, an audio engineer at Pixar, gave an online workshop on sound and story with students from Cinematic Arts.

Larry Gottheim, a key figure in the history and development of American avant-garde cinema in the 1970s, visited Iowa City to showcase his work and engage in studio visits and meals with students. Gottheim is the founder of the extremely influential and first cinema department in the SUNY system at SUNY Binghamton. At this special event, we showcased some of the director's most important work and host the world premiere of his latest piece. This was a joint event with Bijou, Cinematic Arts, Film Scene, and ICDOCS.

At the Iowa Writer’s Workshop book-to-screen agent Nicole Weinroth (WME) gave a talk on taking a book from manuscript to screen. She also met one-on-one with graduate students. 

The film Nightbitch (2024), adapted from Cinema Arts Assistant Professor Rachel Yoder’s novel of the same title, headlined the 2024 ReFocus Film Festival in Iowa City. Yoder joined Emily Yoshida in conversation after the screening in addition to talking with artist Lee Running about early inspiration for the art found in the book and movie.

TV agent Nat Wyatt (WME) spoke with Cinematic Arts and Screenwriting majors about forging careers in the industry. 

CASO (the Cinematic Arts Student Organization) hosted the Table Read for the 2nd annual Golden Corn Screenplay Competition winners judged by writer Chris Offutt. 

TV Executive Madeline Chais (20^th Television Studios) gave a talk on the development and production of TV series and also met one-on-one with screenwriting students.

Kioto Aoki, a Chicago based artist, educator, and musician screened “Stand on Hands, Pacing in Light: Films by Kioto Aoki” on 16mm.

Our annual film festival ICDOCS took place once again this spring. The festival is run by students from our Film Festival class, who create the program, plan the event, and do all of the promotion and design. For our 20^th iteration of the festival, we welcomed Malia Haines-Stewart and Christina Nguyen as jurors, Laura Paul and Kate Hinshaw as special guests, and Ayanna Dozier, Ben Rivers, and Analisa Quagliata Blanco over Zoom. The festival also welcomed numerous filmmakers in in-competition to Iowa City. In addition to being jurors, Malia and Christina presented of their own during the festival and Christina led a community workshop on Phytography.

Skinner Meyers, an LA -based writer and director joined us for a day of studio visits with grads and undergrads as well as an exclusive early screening of his upcoming feature film. 

David LaRocca gave two presentations: “Technarcissism: Televisual Excrescence and the Computational Sublime” and “Post-Fact Profiling: Werner Herzog’s Persona at Work.”

MFA student Arman Hodasefat held a sold-out thesis screening at FilmScene, where audiences got to see the world premier of his thesis film Harmony. 

The Cinematic Arts graduation ceremony for the class of 2025 took place in the Old Capitol. So proud of our talented students!