Organized entirely by University of Iowa students through CINE:2863, the 2025 Iowa City Documentary Film Festival (ICDOCS) showcased more than 60 documentary films alongside feature-length screenings, filmmaker talks, and community events. With a festival theme of “Metamorphosis,” students gained real-world experience in programming, marketing, outreach, and event planning, resulting in record audience engagement and significant social media growth. The festival highlighted the importance of experiential learning, collaboration, and expanded career pathways within documentary film and arts administration.

Shadow Play Across the Arts and Humanities was an interdisciplinary symposium held on April 16th at the University of Iowa's Visual Arts Building. The event explored shadow as an interdisciplinary medium across art, film, and performance and through diverse presentations and collaborations, it highlighted shadow’s creative, cultural, and critical potential.

UI alum Brooks Wheelan returned to campus for classes, Q&A sessions, and a performance, giving students direct insight into pursuing comedy. His emphasis on persistence, personal storytelling, and community left a lasting impact, inspiring students to see new possibilities for their own creative paths.

Discover the student organizations shaping Iowa’s cinematic community—and the leaders driving creativity, collaboration, and connection across campus.

Faculty members Constantine Bakopoulos, Laura Conway, Laura Gede, Kate Hinshaw, and Kaia Olsen will advance their creative works through funding from the Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI).

Congratulations to screenwriting student Danny Willis for being awarded from the Dewey Stuit Fund for Undergraduate Research to support her ongoing work on a script called NORTHSIDE!

Learn about the different awards that faculty from the Department of Cinematic Arts received and the work their awards are supporting!

Professor Michael Cowan has a new publication in ARTFORUM outlining the rich history of avant-garde filmmakers working in advertising, from the 1920s to more recent advertising work by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and David Lynch. The article accompanies a major retrospective of avant-garde advertisements currently playing at Anthology Film Archives in New York.

Cate Dicharry, departmental administrator for Cinematic Arts, will become the program’s next director in January.

The Department of Cinematic Arts joins the many colleagues, students, friends, and family of Professor Lauren Rabinovitz in mourning her death while honoring her remarkably rich life and career.