At a Glance
A career-focused TV and film school where getting in is the hard part
Best suited for
Teens with a real interest in media, film, or TV who are ready to compete for a seat — and who do best in a small, themed school with a clear postsecondary pathway.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of 4-year graduation, English Regents college-ready and Regents completion · DOE 2025 report
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- A 6.2% offer rate — roughly 16 applicants per seat — makes this one of the hardest-to-enter screened high schools in the borough.
- Zero suspensions in the most recent reporting year, against a district average suspension rate above a quarter of a percent.
- A media-and-film career theme that runs from coursework into Movie Screenings, Yearbook, and a Video Gaming Club — unusual for a public high school.
- Parent trust metrics rival the best in the district: 97% parent-teacher and 95% parent-principal trust.
- Career-pathway design with AP courses and ELL support sitting alongside the arts focus, so students aren't choosing between rigor and theme.
Things to consider
- Admissions is a real barrier — plan for the screen and have a backup, since 94% of applicants don't get an offer.
- Teacher-principal trust at 61% sits well below other climate signals, worth asking staff about on a tour.
- PTA fundraising runs about $45 per student, roughly half the district average, which can limit what parents can supplement.
- The economic mismatch between campus (63.5% economic need) and neighborhood (median income ~$159K) is worth understanding directly from the school.
- Teacher-reported instruction quality (87%) is below the district's 91% — not a red flag, but worth probing in context.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 30
District 30 spans western Queens from Astoria through Long Island City, and most of its standout schools in the data shown are elementary programs like Baccalaureate School for Global Education and the 30th Avenue School. The Academy for Careers in Television and Film is one of the borough's specialized high school options rather than a typical zoned school, and its admissions selectivity puts it in a tier of its own.
Academics
State proficiency numbers weren't reported here, so the clearest academic signal comes from the program catalog: AP courses, ELL support, and a STEM track layered onto a media-arts pathway. The career-themed design — with French language instruction and screen-based extracurriculars like Model UN and film screenings — suggests a school orienting students toward specific postsecondary destinations rather than chasing a single proficiency number. The AP slate offers a baseline of college-prep rigor for students who land here.
Culture
Zero suspensions is the headline: in a district where the average school records some disciplinary removals, this building reported none, which signals either a genuinely supportive climate or a quietly managed one. Families feel heard — 95% parent satisfaction and 97% parent-teacher trust — but teachers tell a more complicated story, with only 61% reporting trust in the principal and 87% rating instruction quality (below the district's 91%). Teacher-to-teacher trust is high at 96%, so the friction appears to sit between staff and administration rather than inside the classroom.
Community
Just over half the students identify as Hispanic (54%), with White (16%), Black (15%), and Asian (9%) making up most of the rest — a 70% diversity index that's solid without being exceptional. The economic need index of 63.5% tells a clearer story: most students come from households under financial strain, even though the surrounding Long Island City-Hunters Point census tract shows just 6% poverty and a six-figure median income. Twenty-one percent of students have IEPs, and ELL support is built into the program.
Neighborhood
Long Island City-Hunters Point is one of the most affluent and well-educated corners of Queens, with a median household income around $159,000, a bachelor's-degree-or-better rate over 80%, and just 6% of families in poverty. Only about a fifth of residents own their homes, so most families arriving here are renters drawn by proximity to Midtown and the waterfront. The mix of high-income professionals and a school serving a largely working-class student body makes this an unusually mismatched geographic pairing.
Vernon Blvd-Jackson Av on the 7 train is about a 6-minute walk; the 21 St (G) and Hunters Point Av (7) stations are each roughly 11 minutes on foot.
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 314 families responded (59% rate)
Programs & Activities
Admissions Demand
Comprehensive CTE program in film and TV production that includes hands-on work-based learning experience, alongside a rigorous academic college preparatory program. Priority given to students who are eligible for Free Lunch (based on family income) for up to 63% of seats.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
PTA Fundraising
Source: DOE Local Law 171 disclosure
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
High school (9th grade)
High school is one citywide application, made in 8th grade. Academy for Careers in Television and Film admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Academy for Careers in Television and FilmEd. Opt.
High school application
- Opened
- Tue, Oct 6
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 4
- Offers
- Wed, Mar 3
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the high school application, in 8th grade.
- 2Educational Option programs fill in equal shares across three reading levels, half by the school's ranking and half by lottery.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
ASD Nest
Academy for Careers in Television and Film runs an ASD Nest program (Q01Y), listed in the DOE high school directory.
ASD Nest and ASD Horizon are special education programs inside regular district schools, for some students whose IEP carries an autism classification. Both teach the same New York State standards as every other public school.
ASD Nest runs Integrated Co-Teaching classes: a special education teacher and a general education teacher, with students with and without disabilities, plus a social curriculum developed at NYU.
Program descriptions: NYC Public Schools' Autism Family Resource Guide (last updated January 9, 2025).
A seat starts with your child's IEP team: ask them whether a program fits and how to apply.
Open houses and tours
Open house
Tue, Nov 3, · 6:00 PM · Virtual
Open house
Wed, Nov 18, · 5:30 PM · In person
Open house
Tue, Dec 1, · 5:30 PM · In person
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Academy for Careers in Television and Film a good school?
- On Motley, Academy for Careers in Television and Film earns an overall rating of 71/100 — the average of the school's four-year graduation rate, the share of its students scoring college-ready (70+) on the English Regents, and its Regents completion rate, shown out of 100.
- What grades does Academy for Careers in Television and Film serve?
- Academy for Careers in Television and Film serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into Academy for Careers in Television and Film?
- Academy for Careers in Television and Film uses the Educational Option (Ed-Opt) method, ranking applicants across performance levels so seats go to a mix of abilities.
- Is Academy for Careers in Television and Film public, charter, or private?
- Academy for Careers in Television and Film is a public school in NYC Community School District 30.
- What neighborhood is Academy for Careers in Television and Film in?
- Academy for Careers in Television and Film is in Long Island City-Hunters Point, Queens.