Why Choose NYFA’s Programs at Harvard University
For aspiring storytellers, NYFA offers exclusive summer workshops at the Harvard University campus in filmmaking, acting for film, musical theatre, and animation. Located in the charming city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and just minutes away from Boston, Harvard has a unique and intellectually invigorating atmosphere that challenges students to achieve at the highest level.
Information about NYFA’s Youth Programs at Harvard’s campus can be found here.
Facilities
Students that attend NYFA’s summer workshop will attend classes in the historic Memorial and Lowell Halls of Harvard University. During their time at Harvard, filmmaking students will have access to professional-grade equipment such as digital cameras and portable lighting packages, as well as digital editing software. The campus itself provides hundreds of unique spaces for students to work on their scripts, rehearse, and collaborate with their peers.
Off-campus, students can explore Cambridge and Boston, which offer aspiring filmmakers an enormous variety of locations for shooting their films. They may want to capture the romantic image of the Harvard Crew rowing down the Charles River, or the site of Paul Revere’s historic ride, or the bustling market of Fanueil Hall. Nearby Walden Pond will inspire visiting filmmakers, actors, and animators, as it inspired Thoreau more than 150 years ago.
Faculty
During the programs at Harvard, students work alongside our experienced faculty who actively work in the industry. NYFA’s award-winning faculty use their unique professional experiences to equip students with modern tools and techniques, preparing them for the unique challenges of the filmmaking, television, media, and entertainment. It’s no coincidence that triple Oscar winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once) made their first film together while they were teaching assistants in NYFA’s summer program at Harvard.
Harvard University, founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1986. Six presidents of the United States—including John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Barack Obama graduated from Harvard. Harvard’s faculty has included more than 30 Pulitzer Prize winners and 30 Nobel Laureates.
Harvard has also made its mark in Hollywood. Although no commercial filming is permitted on campus, many hit films, such as Love Story (1970), The Firm (1993), Good Will Hunting (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), Prozac Nation (2001), and The Social Network (2010), are all set at Harvard.
Off-campus, students can explore Cambridge and Boston, which offer aspiring filmmakers an enormous variety of locations for shooting their films. They may want to capture the romantic image of the Harvard Crew rowing down the Charles River, or the site of Paul Revere’s historic ride, or the bustling market of Fanueil Hall. Nearby Walden Pond will inspire visiting filmmakers, actors, and animators, as it inspired Thoreau more than 150 years ago.
Students in NYFA’s Harvard program can enjoy the activities and events being held in and around Harvard Yard during the summer, as well as the surrounding Cambridge and Boston areas. During their time in NYFA’s workshops at Harvard, students can explore lectures, concerts, and readings on-campus to contribute to their experience.
Off-campus, students will experience the beautiful New England summer weather and can visit local attractions such as Cambridge’s many restaurants, cafés, bookstores, ice cream shops, and pizza parlors. Theatrical productions are held in Cambridge throughout the summer, and students can also visit the American Repertory Theatre (ART) and The Brattle in Harvard Square for the latest independent, international, and repertory cinema. There is also an enormous variety of museums in the area, from Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum to the Ware Collection of Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
During the workshops, students can also enjoy excursions to Boston, which is located a short twenty-minute train ride away. Boston is a modern, metropolitan city with attractions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Garden, Fenway Park, John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library, Beacon Hill, and Quincy Market.