Chapman University Hires Four New Film Professors

Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Orange County, Calif., which rose from No. 22 to No. 13 on THR's Top 25 Film Schools list this year, will add Leslie Dixon, Steve Hirsen, Harry Ufland and Barry Blaustein as new faculty members this fall, bringing the faculty total to 41 full-time and 77 adjuncts.

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Dixon, writer of Just Like Heaven and Freaky Friday and producer of Limitless, will be O.L. Halsell Foundation filmmaker-in-residence. Previous filmmakers in residence include JoAnne Sellar (There Will Be Blood) and William Friedkin (The Exorcist).

Emmy-winning director Hirsen (Entertainment Tonight, America's Funniest Home Videos) will be assistant professor of TV and broadcast journalism.

Producer Ufland (The Big Wedding, The Last Temptation of Christ), a former William Morris agent repping Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, will be professor of creative producing.

Blaustein (Coming to America, The Nutty Professor) will be associate professor of screenwriting.

“Chapman University has an amazing film program," Sony Pictures Television president Steve Mosko told The Hollywood Reporter. "Dean Robert Bassett has done an amazing job attracting the top names in town to speak. Chapman is quickly becoming the place for industry kids to attend, both for the undergraduate and graduate programs. Additionally, we have had a number of interns from Chapman working here at SPT and they have been some of the best we’ve seen."