English and Film

English and film is a pairing that reflects the deep historical relationship between literature and cinema. Both are narrative arts that use language, image, and form to create meaning, explore character, and represent experience. English develops your capacity for close reading, critical analysis, and engagement with the full range of written literature, while film study asks you to understand cinema as a visual and auditory language with its own formal conventions, history, and theoretical frameworks.

Studied together, the two disciplines enrich each other: literary texts illuminate cinematic adaptations, and film theory opens new perspectives on narrative and representation in literature.

At Queen Mary this three-year full-time programme teaches both the theory and practical skills of film production alongside the wide-ranging critical study of English literature. You will engage with global literature and film, developing the analytical skills to write about both with precision and confidence. London's extraordinary concentration of cultural institutions, film festivals, archives, and creative industries provides a rich environment in which to develop as a student of both subjects.

The typical entry tariff is 136 UCAS points.

Graduates from English and film programmes pursue careers in publishing, journalism, broadcasting, film production and distribution, arts programming, education, screenwriting, and the media. The critical and communicative skills the degree develops are highly transferable across creative and professional industries. Many graduates also proceed to postgraduate study in film studies, creative writing, cultural studies, or screenwriting, and others use their degree as a foundation for careers in law, the civil service, or management where strong analytical and written communication skills are valued.