As of April 15, UNLV’s Department of Film is no more. The program has officially been renamed the School of Cinematic Arts, edging it one step closer to becoming a nationally ranked film school. That news might come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t been following, but UNLV’s film program has never been stronger than it is right now. And it has the success stories to prove it.
At this year’s Academy Awards, two UNLV grads—Berenice Chávez and Tamiya Nadine—worked on films nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Live Action Short. Nadine served as assistant art director on The Singers, a musical comedy short that tied with Two People Exchanging Saliva for Best Live Action Short Film. Meanwhile, Chávez edited Best Documentary Feature nominee Come See Me in the Good Light, based on two queer poets navigating a cancer diagnosis and love.
That’s the model of success UNLV’s film program has been building toward.
“You go to USC, you go to UCLA, because you are the best of the best and want to be a filmmaker. You come here to learn how to be the best of the best,” says Adam Paul, assistant professor of film in screen acting.
Over the years, UNLV has assembled a faculty of film and TV experts with credits that any serious cinephile would recognize. Paul is an actor, director and writer best known for his roles on the award-winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother and the Starz comedy Hollywood Residential. And his colleagues have just as much clout.
David Mackenzie, who directed the Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water, just joined the UNLV faculty this year and has a new film, Fuze, now in theaters. And assistant professor Thomas Bjelic—a sound designer who worked on the Saw franchise and the award-winning sci-fi series Orphan Black—has taught at UNLV since 2021.
“You can see the latest hiring that they’ve been doing are people like me. David Mackenzie was just hired to teach directing. We have Andi Isaacs. We have Brock Norman Brock for screenwriting. It’s turning into a powerhouse film school,” Bjelic told the Weekly recently. “In the future, I fully anticipate seeing far more of our alumni [stepping on the stage].”
UNLV’s new Filmmaker Vision Lab is now turning that hope into something tangible. The incubator program launched last year as a way to “build bridges to the industry” and raise UNLV’s film program profile, Paul says. That latter goal may ultimately define the school’s future.
UNLV Filmmaker Vision Lab
“What it really means, ultimately, is that the students who come here get a world-class education, as they have been, and we’re able to just expand on that and build on it,” Paul says. “What that means for Las Vegas is it becomes a place for students to come from somewhere else.”
Over one intensive week, filmmaker fellows join the Vision Lab to collaborate with students on a proof-of-concept short. Paul coordinates the lab and has used his Hollywood connections to bring established directors like Rod Blackhurst (Night Swim, Amanda Knox, Dolly) in to produce projects like the tense, captive-centered thriller A Very Lovely Girl. Around 40 students worked on the short from pre-production through post, Paul says.
“We were building sets. We were shooting and then editing at the same time. It was a unique kind of experience, where you could watch the edit and go, you know what? We missed the shot. And Rod could come back in here, and we shot what he needed,” Paul says.
The incubator has also come full circle with multiple UNLV graduates returning as fellows. Andrea Walter led the second edition of the lab with her queer vampire short Daylight. And this year, a team of alumni—Ryan and Cody LeBoeuf and Rachel Alterman—will enlist the help of students for their dark horror comedy, It Came from the Swamp.
Since graduating, the filmmakers have taken very different paths in the industry. Alterman assisted producers on Blade Runner 2049 and now serves as a director of development for independent film and production company Alcon Entertainment. Meanwhile, the LeBoeufs edited and starred in the 2020 film Viena and the Fantomes, alongside Dakota Fanning, Jeremy Allen White and Zoë Kravitz.
UNLV’s film faculty has worked on longer, co-curricular projects with students before, like the Lois Weber Film Festival award winner Riot in Bloom. But Paul likens the lab experience to “a small pressure cooker,” with students collaborating closely with creative teams to execute the filmmakers’ vision on a tight timeline.
Lily Magdesyan, a senior at UNLV, says working in the lab not only prepared her for her first internship at Warner Bros., it affirmed her options in film were endless.
“Before the vision lab, I had just done acting in student films. So that was my first time being behind the camera,” she says. “For me, the biggest change was actually when we watched the screening of the short. Doing it was so fun, but watching it made me realize how different the work is, and how it pays off.”
But Magdesyan didn’t always picture herself in film. She says she originally wanted to be an art therapist, but after taking a theater class and encountering Vegas Theater Company artistic director Daz Weller, she made the switch to acting.
As she prepares to submit her directorial debut, Pierced, to UNLV’s annual Spring Flicks—and head to the Cannes Film Festival as one of several UNLV students awarded the opportunity—Magdesyan says she’s feeling optimistic and ready for whatever her film future holds.
“The opportunities that I’ve had at this school are seriously endless. It’s given me what I feel like is a solid foundation to start my career when I’m out of here. I’m really excited and terrified for my future, but in a good way,” she laughs.
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