English and Film Studies

English and film studies is a pairing that makes profound sense, because both disciplines are fundamentally concerned with how stories are told, how meaning is made, and how narrative shapes human experience. English literature brings centuries of written tradition, offering frameworks for understanding metaphor, character, structure, and the relationship between texts and their social contexts. Film studies extends those concerns into the moving image, asking how cinema constructs meaning through visual language, editing, sound, and the conventions of genre.

Together, they give you a genuinely rich set of tools for engaging with culture in its widest sense.

At the University of Sussex, set in the dynamic environment of Brighton, this three-year full-time degree encourages you to challenge ideas, rethink received norms, and develop an original critical voice. You will read closely across literary periods and genres while also developing the visual literacy needed to analyse cinema as an art form and as a social institution. A foundation year is available for those who need additional preparation before the main degree.

A sandwich year placement gives you the opportunity to develop professional experience in a relevant context, and a year abroad allows you to engage with literary and cinematic cultures in another country. Work placement activity is embedded in the programme, connecting critical skills to professional settings. A typical entry tariff of 136 points applies.

You will develop skills in critical analysis, essay writing, research, and the ability to construct and sustain complex arguments across textual and visual forms. These are capabilities with genuine breadth of application beyond the arts and humanities.

Graduates go on to careers in publishing, journalism, broadcasting, film and television production, education, arts administration, communications, public relations, and the civil service. Postgraduate study in English, film studies, creative writing, or cultural studies supports those drawn to research or specialist professional work.