Helping to expand the cinematic universe of USC, President and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, class of 1995, has made a significant gift to the film school’s production division.
The donation comes at a crucial time for both the school and the industry, as USC faces a financial crisis and studios initiate layoffs. When asked by Annenberg Media about the gift, the university declined to disclose the amount.
Barnet Kellman, a USC School of Cinematic Arts professor of film and television production, said the endowment signals to aspiring filmmakers a vote of confidence in the future of the industry.
“It keeps alive this dream that I’m sure most of them have had for most of their lives or they would never have arrived on our doorstep,” Kellman said.
Filmmaking, Kellman said, is under tremendous stress.
“Fewer and fewer large-scale movies are being made,” Kellman said. “Movies that are being made are seeing distributions on smaller platforms… and the financial model for filmmaking is under tremendous amount of stress.”
Kellman added that filmmaking in Los Angeles is also facing challenges as production has moved across the world.
“So Kevin Feige’s vote of confidence and belief, a filmmaker of Feige’s stature who continues to create and produce work on a large scale, on a scale that only cinema has ever really achieved for large audiences in theaters, is a vote of confidence in the future of filmmaking,” Kellman said.
Film and Television Production is an especially expensive and “cumbersome” division, Kellman said. More collaborative than other divisions in the school, production trains artists from various backgrounds to be able to come together to realize a shared story.
Through its history, the division has not been a named school. With his latest endowment to the film school, the division will be renamed the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production. The School of Cinematic Arts Dean Elizabeth Daley announced the name change, noting that the school is “delighted as the School nears its centennial that the Division of Film & Television Production will carry his name into its next century.”
“Kevin Feige is, above all, a remarkable storyteller who brings innovative and impactful cinema to our screens, epitomizing the kind of film producer the School of Cinematic Arts strives to graduate,” Daley said. “He has also been a steadfast supporter of the School and its students.”
USC’s School of Cinematic Arts was founded in 1929 with the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the first school in the U.S. to offer a bachelor’s degree in film.
In 2017, Feige established the Kevin Feige Endowed Fund for Creative Producing, according to the endowment announcement. In an announcement of the endowment yesterday on the School of Cinematic Arts website, Feige emphasized the film school’s historic roots.
“It’s where everything began for me as a producer, following in the footsteps of my heroes and walking the same halls as the storied alumni who came before me,” Feige said. “That nearly 100-year legacy, and the community that defines USC, are why I’ve stayed so connected to the school and why I’m so passionate about supporting the next generation of filmmakers.”
Film and Television Production graduate student Daniel Kennedy said he hopes the endowment will allow students more freedom, more funding and fewer constraints on their productions. He said he hopes to see the benefits of the endowment as he enters the film industry.
“I feel like there’s not going to be any immediate impact but I hope, at least in my time as well, that we see some of the rewards of such a donation,” Kennedy said.
C’ennedy Dukes, a junior in Cinema and Media Studies, is considering transferring to the Film & Television Production major.
“Crazy to think that my diploma might say Kevin Feige production division,” Dukes said. “That’s pretty cool. I can’t wait to tell my family because we always say, ‘In Feige we trust.’”