English and Film Studies

English and film studies is a pairing that makes natural intellectual sense: both disciplines are concerned with how stories are told, how meaning is made through structure and form, and how texts, whether literary or cinematic, reflect and shape the cultures that produce them. English literature develops close reading, critical analysis, and engagement with writing across a wide historical range and diverse cultural traditions. Film studies applies related methods to moving image, examining how cinema works as art, industry, and cultural force, from the silent era to the contemporary global landscape of streaming and world cinema.

This three-year, full-time programme at Leeds gives you a genuinely integrated engagement with both disciplines, exploring the richness of English language and literature alongside cinemas from around the world. The programme includes a placement year, giving you professional experience in an arts or media environment, and a year abroad, which allows you to engage with literary and film cultures in a different national context. The combination of critical skills and cultural awareness that the degree develops is valued across a range of careers, and the practical experience of the placement year adds professional depth to the academic formation.

Graduates move into careers in publishing, broadcasting, journalism, the film and television industry, arts administration, education, and the wider creative industries. The critical and analytical skills developed in both English and film studies are applicable wherever close attention to texts and stories matters, and the combination of literary and cinematic knowledge opens particular opportunities in screen writing, criticism, programming, and cultural journalism. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in English, film studies, media studies, or creative writing, pursuing specialist knowledge for academic or professional careers.