Film & Television

Film and television studies is a discipline that asks you to look carefully at moving images and ask why they work the way they do. It draws on aesthetics, history, cultural theory and production practice to understand how films and television programmes are made, how they create meaning, and what role they play in society. This is not simply a technical training course, although production skills are central to it.

It is also an intellectual enquiry into storytelling, representation, genre, authorship and the economics of media industries, from independent film to global streaming platforms.

At the University of Reading, you will study this programme full time over three years. The course includes a sandwich year, which means you have the opportunity to undertake a substantial work placement, and a year abroad, giving you the chance to study film and television in a different national context. The combination of these two features is relatively rare and gives this programme a particularly strong professional and international dimension.

Work placement opportunities are embedded in the structure, connecting you to the screen industries during your studies. The typical entry tariff is around 120 UCAS tariff points.

You will develop both analytical and practical skills across the programme, studying film history and theory alongside production modules that introduce cinematography, editing, scriptwriting and direction. Critical thinking about representation, ideology, genre and spectatorship runs alongside hands-on creative work, and you will be expected to bring the two modes of engagement together in your final work. Reading's location in the South East puts you within reach of London's screen industries, and the university has well-developed links with film and television professionals.

Graduates of film and television programmes work across production, distribution, broadcasting, criticism and the creative industries more broadly. Roles in production coordination, development, editing, scriptwriting, commissioning and film programming are common destinations. Many graduates also enter journalism, marketing, arts administration, education and cultural policy.

Postgraduate study in film theory, practice-based filmmaking or media studies is a well-trodden path for those who wish to develop a specialism.