Mission Statement and History

Mission Statement

Columbia College Hollywood is dedicated to the highest standard in educating film and television professionals.  The mission of the College is twofold: to prepare artists with technical proficiency, and prepare technicians who are also artists.  This is accomplished by offering academic and applied instruction in the theory and practice of motion picture, television, and emerging media production, with the goal of preparing men and women to be ready to make immediate and significant contributions to the entertainment industry.

History 

For 60 years, CCH has been educating students in the art and craft of the entertainment industry. In the early days, Columbia’s primary focus was on television and radio broadcasting. Later in the 1960’s a great deal of television began to be produced on film. So CCH, always responsive to the industry it serves, established a Cinema department. In the decades that followed, film and television became Columbia’s dual focus, with an increasing emphasis on film.  CCH takes pride in the unique combination of hands-on training, industry-based faculty, and the liberal arts education it offers.

As can been seen from our history, the College continues to evolve in response to the changing demands of its students and of the entertainment industry the world over.

Columbia College opened its doors in the early 1950’s in the McArthur Park area of Los Angeles as the California campus of Columbia College Chicago.

In the next decade, Columbia College separated from Columbia College Chicago in order to concentrate exclusively on training students in film and television production. It relocated to Hollywood to be in the center of the entertainment industry and became known as Columbia College Hollywood.

As its student population and physical needs grew, the College moved in 1997 from Hollywood to its current location in Tarzana, a few miles north of Los Angeles. The College currently occupies the former worldwide headquarters of Panavision Cameras, the #1 manufacturer of cameras for the motion picture industry.

The student population continues to grow and within the next few years, the College will expand into the neighboring property and open its state-of-the-art Center for Media Studies. The expansion will redefine the CCH campus through unifying signage, an axial internal spine linking the adjoining buildings, and a new principal entrance. The Center will immediately draw students and passers-by, but perhaps more profoundly, it will locate CCH within a nodal constellation of art and film institutions across greater LA and beyond.

Faculty News

David Jacobs, creator of the long running TV series “Dallas” and “Knots Landing” and also a member of the CCH Faculty, received an Honorary Doctorate at the 2012 graduation ceremony.  Click here for more information.