It's a gray area whether these types of expenses qualify as educational expenses, for tax breaks.
They do not qualify for the Lifetime Learning credit.
They do not qualify for the savings bond interest exclusion.
In order to qualify for the the American Opportunity Credit (AOC), tax free scholarship or a Qualified Tuition Plan (QTP) (529 plan or ESA) distribution, the expenses would have to qualify as "course materials that the student needs for a course of study." The wording for course materials for the QTP distribution is the loosest. That is, the cost of a student film project would more likely qualify for a QTP distribution than it would for the AOC.
