building of the Los Angeles Film School The Los Angeles Film School was founded in 1999. together with former Universal President and two-term Producers Guild president,
Thom Mount, who via his own production company produced
Bull Durham,
Tequila Sunrise,
Frantic,
Natural Born Killers, and ''
Can't Buy Me Love'', along with venture capitalist Bud MaLette. and venture capitalist Bud MaLette. In 1998, the founders developed the idea for the school and made an initial investment of $2 million. The first classes began in September 1999 and the school's first students graduated in July 2000. The founding faculty included Tom Schatz, professor of film,
William A. Fraker and
Janusz Kamiński teaching cinematography,
Jon Amiel and
Donald Petrie teaching directing,
Dede Allen teaching editing,
Ron Judkins teaching sound production, and Joe Byron, Director of Technology. After 18 months, the couple bought out their partners in the school and Dercyz-Kessler became the CEO, In April 2011, a decision was made by ACCET to withdraw its accreditation of The Los Angeles Recording School. The decision was stayed on appeal, and the school was permitted to resign its accreditation amicably, following the transfer of remaining students to The Los Angeles Film School, which is accredited by the ACCSC. In February 2010, employees of The Los Angeles Film School submitted authorization cards to the
National Labor Relations Board in an effort to become unionized as part of the California Federation of Teachers. Following the controversial firing of a The Los Angeles Film School employee and union organizer, and the litigation which led to her reinstatement, the group withdrew its petition for unionization. In July 2011, the school settled a dispute with a local farmers market, which regularly blocked access to a The Los Angeles Film School parking garage. By 2011, the school's enrollment had grown to 1,800 students. Derycz-Kessler had a 17-year tenure as CEO (from 2000 to July 2017).
Lawsuits The Los Angeles Film School and Los Angeles Recording School faced a class action lawsuit in 2010, due to the school allegedly using deceptive tactics in promising students jobs in the entertainment industry. The complaint stated that the school allegedly failed to give them their 900 hours of instruction, and would allegedly attempt to bribe students with gift cards to
Target and
Best Buy if they would sign self-employment forms misrepresenting sales clerk positions at the Apple Store and Guitar Center as "Creative positions". In 2024, former admissions VP Ben Chaib, together with Dave Phillips, former VP of career development, filed a
whistleblower suit, alleging that most of the school's annual federal student aid program funding is acquired by its fraudulent misrepresentations, perpetrated to appear to meet its post-graduate employment accreditation benchmark, though "the vast majority of LAFS graduates were not able to obtain entry level positions", according to the suit. Sister school
Full Sail University was also named in the lawsuit. == Campus ==