UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS (at Austin)
It's been a creative hotbed since 1982, when grad student Joel Coen made Blood Simple in town. The city's film-festival and production scene only makes the student body more showbiz-minded. UT grads populate the ranks at Turner, Sony, William Morris, and Warner Bros.
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY (Middletown, Conn.)
Tons of Hollywood alums, including Laurence Mark (Jerry Maguire), Michael Bay (Armageddon), Joss Whedon (Buffy), and CAA exec Rick Nicita. In fact, Nicita puts on a bash for revered film-studies chair Jeanine Basinger every February.
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS (at Valencia)
Given the caliber of most famous grads — Tim Burton, Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach), James Mangold (Cop Land and September's Girl Interrupted) — Cal-Arts is another popular stop for talent-hungry agents. Animation-program grads thrive at places like Pixar, Disney, and DreamWorks.
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (at Purchase)
In film-school fore thanks to indie syllabus. Famous alums: Hal Hartley (Henry Fool), Edie Falco (The Sopranos) and her '99 Sundance-winning Judy Berlin director Eric Mendelsohn, Sherry Stringfield, Wesley Snipes, and Stanley Tucci.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX (Brighton, England)
Coney Island meets Chapel Hill, outside London. Novelist Ian McEwan and Diana/Monica chronicler Andrew Morton attended. Ex-student Fatboy Slim — helped by fellow Brighton denizens the Lo Fidelity Allstars — created the Brighton big-beat music scene that now dominates this seaside college town.
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