Film and Screen Studies

Film and screen studies examines one of the most influential cultural forces of the past century. Cinema and moving image media shape how we understand the world, construct identities, and share stories across languages and borders. The discipline takes film seriously as both an art form and a social phenomenon, combining close analysis of individual works with broader questions about industry, history, technology, and the politics of representation.

At the University of the Arts London, you will engage with film and screen media across three years of full-time study, developing your critical and analytical skills alongside a practical understanding of the field. You will study the history of cinema from its earliest forms to contemporary digital and streaming media, examining how formal choices, such as editing, cinematography, sound, and mise-en-scene, produce meaning and affect audiences. Theory is central to the discipline, and you will encounter influential thinkers in film studies, cultural studies, and media theory, learning to apply theoretical frameworks to a wide range of texts.

The programme also includes a sandwich year, connecting your academic study with professional experience and giving you practical exposure to working in the screen industries.

As a student here you will learn to watch films analytically and to write about them with precision and depth. You will consider questions of genre, authorship, spectatorship, and global cinema, and you will think critically about the structures of the film and television industries. The location of the university gives you access to one of the world's major creative media cities, and the environment around you is itself a resource for your studies.

Graduates from film and screen studies work in commissioning, production, distribution, journalism, criticism, curation, and education. Many go into roles in broadcasting, the streaming sector, or cultural institutions, while others pursue postgraduate study in film, media, or related creative disciplines.