Film Studies

Film studies is the academic discipline that takes cinema seriously as an art form, a cultural institution, and a social force. It asks how films make meaning, how they reflect and shape the societies that produce and consume them, and how the medium has evolved technically and aesthetically from its earliest experiments to the present day. Rather than simply watching films, film studies teaches you to analyse them, exploring how directors, cinematographers, editors, and screenwriters use the specific tools of the medium to create effect.

The discipline embraces the changing landscape of film, investigating both cinema's evolution and its interaction with visual art, literature, digital media, and more.

At York St John University, this three-year full-time programme teaches you to analyse films from different genres, periods, and cultures, developing your critical and theoretical skills alongside an understanding of film history and the industrial and cultural contexts in which films are made. The programme includes an integrated foundation year, a sandwich year with a year abroad and work placement, giving students a broad pathway from academic preparation through to international exposure and professional experience. Entry typically requires around 120 UCAS tariff points.

Film studies graduates work in film and television production, distribution, exhibition, criticism, education, cultural journalism, archive and heritage, and arts administration. The analytical, writing, and research skills the discipline develops are also valued across a wide range of media, communications, and cultural organisations. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in film studies, media production, or related disciplines, or pursue professional training in specific areas of the film and television industry.