Drama and Film Studies
Drama and film studies together offer a rich and interconnected view of how storytelling works across live performance and the moving image. Drama examines theatre as a live art form with its own history, theory and practice, exploring how plays and performance create meaning through space, body, voice and the live encounter between performers and audience. Film studies examines cinema as a cultural, artistic and industrial phenomenon, analysing how films work aesthetically and technically and what they mean within their social, political and historical contexts.
Studied together at the University of Sussex, they train you to think rigorously about representation, narrative and the conditions in which stories are told.
This programme, which includes a foundation year and a sandwich year, develops your analytical skills in both disciplines alongside practical engagement with performance and production. You will study dramatic theory, theatre history, performance practice, film theory and film history, learning to analyse texts, performances and films with precision and to write about them clearly. Work placements, a year abroad and sandwich year opportunities connect your academic study to professional contexts across the theatre, film and arts sectors.
Sussex graduates have gone on to work with prestigious theatre companies, broadcasters and cultural institutions, and the programme's combination of analytical rigour and professional exposure builds the profile that enables this.
Graduates work in theatre production, film and television development and production, arts administration, cultural policy, education, journalism, script development and broadcasting. Roles in performance, directing, producing and technical production are open to those who develop strong practical skills alongside their academic work. Others move into writing, criticism, arts marketing and communications, or into the broader creative economy.
Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in drama, theatre studies, film or media, deepening their specialism or moving into research.