Joe Pirro, left, and cast of "The Wedding Banquet"

For Joe Pirro, Assistant Professor for Film and Media Arts at American University School of Communication (SOC), producing is about more than getting a film made. It is about bringing together the creative, logistical, and business decisions that allow a story to become a reality. Now joining SOC, Pirro brings years of experience across independent film, studios, documentaries, and international productions into the classroom. This semester, he is teaching The Business of Making Movies, a course that follows the film industry from concept and development through production, distribution, marketing, and exhibition.  

Pirro remains actively involved in the industry as a career producer, where he works with filmmakers to develop projects and bring their ideas to audiences. His recent credits include Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where Pirro received the Sundance Institute–Amazon MGM Studios Producers Award for Fiction. His other credits include We Grown Now, McVeigh, Driveways, and A Prayer Before Dawn, among others. 

“I get to champion ideas from filmmakers around the world and help them realize how to make their dreams become reality,” Pirro said. “Producing is an oftentimes misunderstood profession, so at a moment of great turmoil and change in the entertainment industry I wanted to help the next generation of filmmakers, including aspiring producers, figure out how to tell their own stories.”  

That understanding of producing is at the center of Pirro’s approach to teaching. Rather than viewing the business and creative sides of filmmaking as separate, he sees the producer as someone who connects them.  

“I tell my students that producers are the connective tissue between the left brain and the right brain of a project,” he said. “We get to have some level of knowledge and experience in every single aspect of filmmaking: writing, directing, cinematography, etc.”  

Having worked across a wide range of projects, he approaches each film as its own unique production rather than relying on a single formula. “I love being able to build each project from the ground up guided by the question: ‘what is best for this particular film even though it may not have worked on another one?’” he said.  

That flexibility is increasingly important in an industry that is changing how films are made, distributed, and seen. Pirro said students entering the entertainment industry can sometimes view it as “opaque and impenetrable,” but he hopes his course will help make the industry more understandable. “Good stories can come from anywhere,” he said. “Recent technological evolutions have made means of production, distribution, and exhibition accessible to virtually anyone.” 

Understanding that despite the constant evolution of the industry, there is still an established business structure can also help students build careers. Pirro believes that learning how the industry operates gives aspiring filmmakers the ability to advocate for themselves and make more informed decisions about their work.  

“It doesn’t matter what specific job a student may think they want to have in the industry – knowing how the business functions allows you to understand how to build a sustainable career for yourself and advocate for yourself as an artist regardless of your role,” he said. 

In addition to producing, Pirro has mentored early-career producers through the Producers Guild of America and Film Independent. His experience working with emerging filmmakers has shaped the advice he gives students entering an industry where career paths are rarely straightforward.  

“If you talk to 1,000 people in the film industry, you will get 1,000 different stories about their unique career path,” Pirro said. For students who may feel pressure to have their entire careers figured out, he encourages them to embrace that uncertainty.  

“Your path will be distinct to you, and you can always pivot and try a different approach to the business,” he said.