English and Film Studies

English and film studies is a joint honours degree that brings two powerful forms of storytelling into dialogue. Both disciplines are fundamentally concerned with how meaning is made and communicated, how narratives shape the way people understand themselves and their world, and how cultural contexts influence creative choices. English literature asks you to read with care, attending to language, structure, and the complex relationship between text and context.

Film studies extends that analytical attention to the moving image, examining cinematography, editing, sound, narrative, and the industrial and cultural conditions in which films are made and received.

At Royal Holloway, this three-year degree allows you to explore the cultural and creative impact of both literature and film, drawing on the institution's strong reputation in both subjects. You will study works across periods and traditions, developing close reading and analytical writing skills that apply equally to a seventeenth-century poem and a contemporary screenplay. Film modules will give you frameworks for understanding cinema from early silent films through to global contemporary production, and you will consider how film and literature have shaped and influenced each other throughout their shared history.

The degree includes a sandwich year and a year abroad, offering you the chance to gain professional experience and to study in an international setting, as well as work placement opportunities that put your skills in context. The combination of rigorous textual analysis, critical theory, and practical intellectual curiosity makes this a degree that trains you to engage thoughtfully with any complex text, whatever its medium.

Graduates of English and film studies degrees go into a wide variety of careers in the creative industries, including writing, editing, publishing, script development, television production, film criticism, and arts journalism. The analytical and communication skills at the heart of the degree also open routes into teaching, marketing, public relations, law, the civil service, and the broader media sector. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in English, film, creative writing, or cultural studies, developing specialist expertise that leads into research or higher-level professional roles.