Film Studies and English

Film studies and English is a combination that examines two of the most culturally powerful forms of storytelling and representation in the modern world. English literature develops your ability to read texts closely and critically, to understand how language and form create meaning, and to situate works in their historical and cultural contexts. Film studies applies similar analytical tools to moving images, asking how cinema constructs narratives, represents social realities, and creates emotional and intellectual effects through the specific technical and formal possibilities of the medium.

Together, they offer a rich comparative perspective on how stories are told, who tells them, and to what effect.

At the University of Leicester, this three-year programme gives you a thorough grounding in both disciplines. In the English strand, you will read poetry, prose, and drama across periods and traditions, developing the critical vocabulary and close reading skills that literary study demands. In the film studies strand, you will engage with the history of cinema from its early years through to contemporary digital production, study film theory and criticism, and develop your ability to analyse films as cultural objects with as much precision as you would apply to a literary text.

The programme includes a year abroad, which may involve studying film or English literature in a different cultural context, broadening your perspective on how these art forms function across national boundaries.

Graduates pursue careers across a wide range of cultural and media industries. Film journalism, criticism, and writing for cultural publications draw those with strong critical voices. Roles in film and television production, distribution, and programming are open to graduates who combine analytical understanding of the medium with the practical orientation that the industry requires.

Publishing, arts administration, and work in cultural organisations including film festivals, archives, and BFI-funded bodies provide further opportunities. Teaching English and media at secondary level is a common pathway. Many graduates use the analytical and communication skills developed across this degree in careers in marketing, communications, and the broader creative industries.