Film and Media Studies Program
The graduate program in film and media studies.
Inaugurated in 2002, Yale’s doctoral Program in Film and Media Studies quickly achieved the international stature it enjoys today. Building on a core faculty that had long overseen an impressive undergraduate major, the graduate program attracted incoming faculty who were eager to help shape it. The quality of the students who have applied has been superior, and the large majority of those selected have chosen to study here. Fifty students have completed, or are in the midst of, their degrees. Our alumni hold positions at a range of institutions, including universities with major graduate programs, and several have already seen their revised dissertations published as books by important presses.
Graduate students have been able to produce such significant research thanks not least to Yale’s unparalleled resources. Specialized librarians and curators keep our students in mind as they collect and make available the massive amounts of material held by the Sterling Memorial Library, the Haas library in the History of Art, and especially the Beinecke rare book library that houses the archives of hundreds of filmmakers, writers, and artists. Two of America’s great art museums, The Yale University Art Gallery and the British Art Center (with buildings designed by Louis Kahn), retain a continuing relation with our graduate students. As for primary material in our field, the Yale Film Archive is home to a growing collection of 35mm and 16mm film prints, and is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). The Archive also oversees a large circulating library of DVDs, Blu-rays, and VHS tapes.
A dedicated, expert projectionist oversees hundreds of screenings each year, mainly in two spaces (the auditorium of 250 in our building and a projection room holding 40 on York Street) that are equipped for 35mm, 16mm, and virtually all video formats. 4K and 2K projections are common.
Graduate students absorb and generate the energy and enthusiasm so important to dynamic film scholarship thanks to the bustling intellectual climate at the Humanities Quadrangle, where faculty and students meet continually—almost daily it seems—around screenings, lectures, conferences and workshops, some initiated by the graduate students themselves.
By design the doctorate in Film and Media Studies at Yale is always undertaken in combination with one of ten other disciplines in the Humanities (African-American Studies, American Studies, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Literatures, English, French, German, History of Art, Italian, Slavic Languages and Literatures). It was thought, and has proven true, that upon completing their degrees, students who are prepared for positions in both Film and Media and in another discipline would hold a particular advantage, and not merely because of the wider range of openings available to them in the job market, but because the calculated interdisciplinarity of their research makes them stand out. Thoroughly grounded in Film and Media Studies, they become expert in certain of its issues by offering authoritative perspectives and methods that derive from systematic work with the outstanding faculty and graduate students in another Yale department or program. Our students are welcomed throughout the Humanities on campus as they enliven traditional disciplines with the images, sounds, and ideas they bring from Film and Media Studies.
The faculty and its curriculum represent a full range of topics that have been at the center of Film Studies from its outset: theory, criticism, and history, plus cultural approaches to American, European, Latin American and Japanese national cinemas. Naturally, as the field and its discipline evolve, so too do we, though always keeping ourselves based in this tradition. Transnational and global approaches bring the national cinemas, and their specialists, into productive contact. Overarching concerns involving technological, aesthetic, social and cultural issues (especially race and gender), have developed to the point that in 2015 the Program added “Media” to its name and mission. FMS, as our Program is now called for short, officially embraces images and sounds from an array of sources and channels, especially as these coexist and intertwine with cinema, something that has occurred throughout its long history. We study that history as well as the challenge and possibilities of “new media,” which we know to be on the minds of graduate students. This keeps Yale’s Program vigilant as it looks to the past for cues about ways to best approach the future. The faculty recognizes that graduate students must be in the lead of an evolving discipline, and so encourages them to take up the most current developments and debates. The goal of the Program’s pedagogy is to provide its current students with a steady anchor in what the discipline has been, so that they can confidently and creatively participate at the highest level in its discourse and institutions, leading it forward while passing continuing its legacy.
Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies
The Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) at Harvard offers a graduate program in Film and Visual Studies leading to a PhD.
The Department also offers a secondary field in Film and Visual Studies for students already admitted to PhD programs in other departments in the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
The study of film at Harvard functions within the multi-disciplinary examination of audio-visual experience. From Hugo Münsterberg's pathbreaking forays into the psychological reception of moving images and Rudolf Arnheim’s seminal investigations of "visual thinking" to Paul Sachs’s incorporation of film into the academic and curatorial focus of the fine arts at Harvard and Stanley Cavell’s philosophical approaches to the medium, Harvard has sustained a distinguished tradition of engaging cinema and the cultural, visual, spatial, and philosophical questions that it raises. With their emphases on experimentation in the contemporary arts and creative collaboration among practitioners and critics, the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts provide a singular and unparalleled site for advanced research in Film and Visual Studies. The program aims to foster critical understanding of the interactions between the making of and thinking about film and video, between studio art, performance, and visual culture, and between different arts and pursuits whose objects are audio-visual entities. The Carpenter Center also supports a lively research culture, including the Film and Visual Studies Colloquium and a Film and Visual Studies Workshop for advanced doctoral students, as well as lecture series and exhibitions featuring distinguished artists, filmmakers, and scholars.
Interdisciplinary in its impetus, the program draws on and consolidates course offerings in departments throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences which consider film and other arts in all their various countenances and investigate the place of visual arts within a variety of contexts. Graduate students may also take advantage of the significant resources of the Harvard Film Archive (HFA), which houses a vast collection of 16mm and 35mm film prints as well as rare video materials, vintage film posters, photographs, and promotional materials. The HFA furthers the artistic and academic appreciation of moving image media within the Harvard and the New England community, offering a setting where students and faculty can interact with filmmakers and artists. In early 2003, the HFA opened a new Conservation Center that allows the HFA conservator and staff to accession new films as well as to preserve its significant collections of independent, international, and silent films.
Students and faculty in Film and Visual Studies are also eligible to apply to the Harvard Film Study Center for fellowships which are awarded annually in support of original film, video, and photographic projects. Established in 1957, the Film Study Center provides production equipment, post-production facilities, technical support, and funding for nonfiction works that interpret the world through images and sounds. Among the many important films to have been produced at the Film Study Center are John Marshall's The Hunters (1956), Robert Gardner's Forest of Bliss (1985), Irene Lusztig's Reconstruction (2001), Ross McElwee's Bright Leaves (2003), Peter Galison and Robb Moss’s Secrecy (2008), Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Sweetgrass (2009), Véréna Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki’s Foreign Parts (2011), Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Leviathan (2013) and De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2022), Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s Manakamana (2014), Mati Diop’s Atlantiques (2019), Ernst Karel and Veronika
Kusumaryati’s Expedition Content (2020), and Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós’ Dry Ground Burning (2022).
Prospective Graduate Students - Film and Visual Studies Graduate Program Admissions Information Sessions:
1:00 pm on the following dates:
Monday, September 30 th
Monday, October 28 th
Monday, November 25 th
Registration is required – registration link below:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvcOypqjMpHt1EDPhAG6PXHDtx9IIASIYd#/registration
Images: Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (2005), directed by Peter Tscherkassky, from a print in the collection of the Harvard Film Archive.
- Undergraduate
- Academic Requirements
- Secondary Field in Film and Visual Studies
- Film and Visual Studies PhD Alumni:
- Graduate Program FAQs
- Courses in Art, Film, and Visual Studies -Fall 2024-Spring 2025
Graduate Contacts
Laura Frahm Director of Graduate Studies
Emily Amendola Graduate Coordinator Film and Visual Studies Program (617) 495-9720 amendola [at] fas.harvard.edu
FAQs about the Graduate Program
My native language is not english; do i have to take the an english language proficiency exam.
Adequate command of spoken and written English is essential to success in graduate study at Harvard. Applicants who are non-native English speakers can demonstrate English proficiency in one of three ways:
- Receiving an undergraduate degree from an academic institution where English is the primary language of instruction.*
- Earning a minimum score of 80 on the Internet based test (iBT) of the ...
When is the application deadline for admission to the Ph.D. program in Film and Visual Studies?
December 15, 2023
Where can I obtain an admissions application?
Applications are found on the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website ( https://gsas.harvard.edu/admissions/apply ).
Cinema & Media Studies Ph.D.
The Cinema and Media Studies Ph.D. program explores the intricate histories, aesthetics, and cultural impacts of visual media.
The Cinema & Media Studies (CMS) Program at UCLA has played a central role in the development of the field, notably through scholarship grounded in critical theory, cultural studies, close textual analysis, archive-based history, digital and interactive media studies, industry studies, and transnational media studies. The program supports a broad array of critical interests, from the media arts to commercial entertainment, from historical research to contemporary practices, and from formal analysis to the social mapping of media. In the last few years the research profile of the faculty has concentrated on three main areas of research: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity (particularly, Chicana/o, African American/African Diaspora, and Asian), Queer Cinema/Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Critical Theory (particularly, moving image art, aesthetic, affect, computational media, and decolonial).
The Ph.D. program focuses on refining research skills in an individualized study plan, with a mission to produce research of unparalleled quality. Graduates often transition into esteemed teaching and research roles in academic institutions. Backing their research endeavors is the UCLA Library Film & Television Archive, offering vast resources, 35mm classroom screenings, and state-of-the-art digital technology facilities.
World-Class Faculty
Ellen C. Scott
Purnima Mankekar
Steve Anderson
Requirements.
The Ph.D. program is intended primarily for students who wish to build a career around excellence in university teaching and research. The Ph.D. program requires successful completion of a minimum of seven core courses and at least seven elective courses (not counting those completed at the masters level) and successful completion of the Intellectual Statement, Third Quarter Review, Sixth Quarter Review, Comprehensive Exam, Prospectus Review, Foreign Language Requirement at level three or higher, and successful submission and defense of the Dissertation.
Year One/Academic Year: Four Core Courses
- FTV 495A Teaching Assistant Training (does not need to be repeated if taken during M.A.)
- FTV 210 Common Course
- FTV 211 Historiography
- FTV 215 Theory and Method
- Academic Progress Report
- Begin taking courses toward language requirement
Year Two: Two Core Courses, Written Exams and Completion of the Ph.D. Study Plan
- FTV 274 Research Design A (Bibliography and Exam Prep)
- FTV 274 Research Design B (Exam Prep with advisors)
- Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam
- FTV 274 Research Design C (Writing the Prospectus)
- Continued progress toward language requirement (must be completed by the end of the 3rd year)
- Prospectus Review
Year Three/Academic Year: Nomination of Doctoral Committee and Advancement to Candidacy
- Advancement to Candidacy/Nomination of Doctoral Committee (Fall Quarter, contingent upon language requirement completion)
Ph.D. PROGRAM REMINDERS
Required During Years One-Three: Six additional graduate seminars, at least five of which must be approved cinema and media studies seminars.
Required During Years One-Three: Language Requirement Courses & Petition . Completion of level 3 language training or higher (as determined by Dissertation Committee) must be provided prior to student Advancement to Candidacy.
Recommended During Years One-Three: Colloquium. Students are encouraged to enroll in or attend Colloquium during all quarters to participate in screenings, research presentations and discussions. May be repeated for credit.
Year 3 and Beyond: Dissertation Research
- Submit an Academic Progress Report (on a yearly basis)
World-Class Students
Veronica Zavala Jacobo
Emmelle Israel
Alexandra James Salichs
Scott Brockman Varnado
Quick links
Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies
Contact | Introduction | Admission Requirements | Application | Program Curriculum | Language Requirements | General Examination | Dissertation | Final Examination
Use the above links or scroll down for program information.
Students interested in applying for Autumn 2025, please read the following
Message from our director of graduate studies .
Director of Graduate Studies: James Tweedie ( [email protected] ) Graduate Program Advisor: Yuko Mera ( [email protected] )
Introduction
Our five-year Ph.D. program concentrates on scholarship and research as preparation for teaching at the university or college level in cinema and media studies. In addition, Ph.D. students will emerge with:
- ) an interdisciplinary understanding of the field from a humanistic perspective;
- ) the ability to assess and implement diverse pedagogical techniques;
- ) the ability to engage in primary research on a subject of their choosing;
- ) a sense of the role of cinema and media in national identity, globalization, and other forms of transnationalism;
- ) a familiarity with a range of historiographic practices in the field;
- ) an awareness of the importance of media technologies as objects;
- ) recognition of the crucial role of the aesthetic encounter; and
- ) advanced reading knowledge in at least one language other than English.
The faculty in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies have particular strengths in world cinema; silent-era film; documentary cinema; Chinese cinemas; South Asian cinemas; media technologies; television studies; new media; digital studies; race, gender, and media. For more information see our faculty list .
Admission Requirements
Master of Arts degree in Film Studies, Media Studies, or equivalent background.
Application
Click here for information on applying to the program.
Program Curriculum
(Enrolled students should consult the graduate student handbook for detailed policies and procedures.)
See chart below for expected progress through the program.
Course work
Ph.D. students in Cinema and Media Studies will be trained in the general methods and issues in the field, pedagogical techniques, as well as in various subfields of the discipline. Therefore, students are required to take CMS 525 Pedagogy and CMS 520 Methods and Approaches as well as three of the four core seminars: CMS 570 Media Lab, CMS 571 National Frameworks, CMS 572 Historiography, and CMS 573 Aesthetics. An additional 25 credits of graded coursework at the 500 level are also required.
Language Requirements
Advanced reading knowledge in one language other than English must be demonstrated before the end of the second year after entry into the program. Language competence is attested either by exams or by completion of satisfactory coursework in the language.
General Examination
The General Examination is normally taken in the Autumn quarter of the third year after enrollment. It consists of both a written and oral component, with emphasis on the latter.
Dissertation
Dissertation topics can be chosen from a broad range of areas with the field of cinema and media studies. Any member of the graduate faculty appointed in Cinema and Media Studies may supervise a dissertation.
Final Examination
Candidates must defend their dissertation via an oral examination administered by the dissertation committee.
Sample Progress Chart for the Ph.D.
| | | | |
| | CMS 525 CMS 570 Language Acquisition | CMS 520 CMS 571 Language Acquisition | CMS 572 CMS 573 Language Acquisition |
| | Elective Elective Language Acquisition | Elective CMS 600 Language Acquisition | Elective CMS 600 Language Acquisition |
| | CMS 800 General Exams | CMS 800 | CMS 800 Prospectus Meeting |
| | CMS 800 Dissertation Writing | CMS 800 Dissertation Writing | CMS 800 Dissertation Writing |
| | CMS 800 Dissertation Writing | CMS 800 Dissertation Writing | CMS 800 Dissertation Defense |
Cinematic Arts
Doctor of Philosophy in Film Studies
It is no stretch to say that the University of Iowa helped to invent Film Studies as a discipline. The first graduate thesis on film at UIowa dates all the way back to 1916, and our own program has been producing doctoral work in Film Studies since 1960 (when John Kuiper wrote a dissertation on Sergei Eisenstein in what was then called the Division of Radio, Television and Film). Today, the list of former UI graduate students reads like a “who’s who” of pioneering figures in the field: Dudley Andrew, David Bordwell, Mary Ann Doane, Aaron Gerow, Barbara Klinger, Patrice Petro, David Rodowick, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, and many more. Iowa alumni are also very well represented among the winners of the prestigious Distinguished Career Award from the Society of Film and Media Studies, the highest honor our field can bestow.
Today, our PhD program offers students comprehensive training in film theory and history amidst a stimulating interdisciplinary environment in one of the country’s best small cities for the arts. Our students also acquire the entire range of skills they need for employment in the academic job market, as well as numerous transferable skills. With guaranteed financial support, nearly all graduate students can expect to gain extensive experience in the classroom. Students also regularly organize conferences and events and work with local institutions such as FilmScene.
Our students also enjoy a rich graduate student community. Film Studies graduate students regularly collaborate with graduate students from the MFA program in Cinematic Arts, and they take seminars with other graduate students across the university.
For a good overview of what your trajectory might look like, you can consult our Graduate Student Handbook of Policies and Procedures , especially the section outlining the PhD timeline with milestones by semester. And for more information on the course requirements for the PhD degree, please consult the university’s general catalogue.
To see our recent PhD placement record, please see the Careers and Opportunities page.
For more information on graduate student funding, please our Funding page here.
If you think you might be interested in applying, it's good to start by consulting faculty profiles available on our People page. Active faculty in Film Studies include Paula Amad, Michael Cowan, Corey Creekmur, Chris Goetz, and Andrew Owens. Departmental research strengths include early modernist cinemas, game studies, European film, Black cinema, Queer cinema, documentary, animation, postcolonial approaches and media archaeology.
For instructions instructions, deadlines and minimal requirements for PhD applications, please consult the Graduate Admissions page.
For any further questions, you may also contact our Director of Graduate Studies, listed on the People page of this website.
PhD in Film Studies (General Catalog)
NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity working to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.
Film & Media Studies is an interdisciplinary field. Students have the option to apply for admission to one of two tracks within the program: either solely to the PhD in Film & Media Studies or to a combined program track involving one of the following disciplines: African American Studies, American Studies, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Literatures, English, French, German, History of Art, Italian Studies, and Slavic Languages & Literatures. In addition to acquiring a firm grounding in the methods and core material of film and media studies (and, for the combined degree track students, another discipline), all students are expected to coordinate a plan of study involving comprehensive knowledge of one or more areas of specialization.
- Programs of Study
- PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
- Combined PhD
- Film and Media Studies Program
- Film and Media Studies
John MacKay
Director of Graduate Studies
Katherine Kowalczyk
Departmental Registrar
Dan Rehberg
Departmental Registrar (Spring 2024)
Admission Requirements
Standardized testing requirements.
GRE is not accepted.
Program-Specific Application Requirements
A writing sample is required by this program.
English Language Requirement
TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic is required of most applicants whose native language is not English.
You may be exempt from this requirement if you have received (or will receive) an undergraduate degree from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction, and if you have studied in residence at that institution for at least three years.
Combined Degree Program Application Deadline
*The deadline to submit an application to a combined program is always the earlier deadline of the two individual programs, or December 15, whichever comes first.
Academic Information
Combined phd information.
Film & Media Studies offers a combined PhD in conjunction with several other departments and programs including: African American Studies , American Studies , Comparative Literature , English , East Asian Languages and Literatures , French , German , History of Art , Italian Studies , and Slavic Languages and Literatures .
Program Advising Guidelines
GSAS Advising Guidelines
Academic Resources
Academic calendar.
The Graduate School's academic calendar lists important dates and deadlines related to coursework, registration, financial processes, and milestone events such as graduation.
Featured Resource
Registration Information and Dates
https://registration.yale.edu/
Students must register every term in which they are enrolled in the Graduate School. Registration for a given term takes place the semester prior, and so it's important to stay on top of your academic plan. The University Registrar's Office oversees the systems that students use to register. Instructions about how to use those systems and the dates during which registration occurs can be found on their registration website.
Financial Information
Phd stipend & funding.
PhD students at Yale are normally fully-funded. During their programs, our students receive a twelve-month stipend to cover living expenses and a fellowship that covers the full cost of tuition and student healthcare.
- PhD Student Funding Overview
- Graduate Financial Aid Office
- PhD Stipends
- Health Award
- Tuition and Fees
Alumni Insights
Below you will find alumni placement data for our departments and programs.
CalArts offers a variety of unique programs at the undergraduate and graduate level within its six world-renowned Schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater.
Undergraduate core courses are the foundation of BFA studies at CalArts, providing a strong general education and opportunities to deepen every student's artistic practice.
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Offering innovative continuing education arts courses designed to meet the needs of both emerging artists and lifelong learners.
Film Directing
Program faculty.
This unique MFA program in narrative filmmaking fosters the individual voice of the filmmaker in developing innovative approaches to narrative in cinema. Students work closely with FDP faculty, guided principally by their mentor, who helps guide their course of study as they create a body of work that best illustrates their vision and voice.
We embrace narrative filmmaking as a tool to describe and depict the world and celebrate its potential to create new realities, new systems and new relations.
Grounded in the history of narrative cinema, the FDP curriculum provides a rich understanding of the fundamental aesthetic and technical components of narrative filmmaking, including staging and visual design, scriptwriting, acting and working with actors, narrative theory, cinematography, sound and editing, and a broad variety of graduate-level seminars in contemporary and historical cinemas and practices.
The program embraces a diverse range of aesthetics and traditions, encouraging students to find their voice within a constant questioning and expansion of the definition of narrative cinema itself. The work our students make is aesthetically diverse, exploring a variety of methodologies from independent dramatic filmmaking to hybrid and experimental narrative practices.
Students in the FIlm Directing Program are intensely diverse in identity and perspective; over 70% of our community comes from outside the United States, from such countries as Iran, Iceland, China, Taiwan, Colombia, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil (among many others).
This multiplicity of perspectives deepens our conversations and awareness of the multitude of experiences, realities and voices that surround us. It is an essential part of the experience of the program and central to our understanding of the practice of creating images, constructing stories and questioning representation.
During their time at CalArts FDP students work closely with the faculty, guided principally by their mentor, who helps guide their course of study as they create a body of work that best illustrates their vision and voice.
Students are required to create a deep portfolio of work. In the immersive first-year curriculum, they make several short films while investigating a diverse range of filmmaking techniques and strategies. Throughout the program, students’ projects are accompanied by a rich slate of classes and workshops, independent studies, and rigorous mentorship for the students to continue developing and making films that hone an original approach. The program culminates with a thesis film that demonstrates a distinct point of view.
Program Gallery
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Lee Anne Schmitt
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Student Story
When I came to CalArts I had limiting preconceptions about how to achieve the kinds of dramatic effects I wanted in my films. The faculty helped by pointing out precisely where I had missed opportunities in editing a scene, or possible moves for the characters that I hadn’t considered—always pushing me to look deeper at the mechanics of a story, at the consequences of my casting choices, and to think 10 moves in advance when staging action for the camera.
Most other schools teach skills, which are important, and are, of course, taught at CalArts, but these are only a means to an end. You can learn technical skills almost anywhere, but I think only CalArts seeks out students with something to say and helps them find ways to say it. You’re not just encouraged to take risks here—you’re expected to. And the Program helps you find the courage.
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Welcome to the Film and Media Studies Ph.D. Program
UC Irvine’s PhD program in Film and Media Studies offers students the opportunity to study and develop original research on film, television, and digital media. Rooted in the Humanities, we focus on interpreting the histories and theories of media and their cultural contexts.
Our curriculum provides a broad foundation in Film and Media Studies while also centering questions of media and power. Our course offerings emphasize post-colonial and decolonial approaches to film and media, queer theory and histories of gender and sexuality, critical race studies, video game studies, and archival research. We seek students who are deeply invested in understanding the perspectives of those who have been pushed to the margins of media technology, industries, and texts and in exploring the relationships between culture, identity, history, and power.
Located near Los Angeles, UC Irvine offers access to the rich cultural offerings and research institutions of Southern California. Students may choose to supplement their Film and Media Studies degree with interdisciplinary graduate certificates in Asian American Studies , Chicano/Latino Studies , Critical Theory , Feminist Studies , Latin American Studies , and/or Visual Studies .
We admit all students, with BAs or MAs, directly into the PhD program in small cohorts with multi-year funding packages. We encourage prospective students to review our faculty profiles and contact the faculty members who work in their potential areas of interest before applying to learn more about their research, teaching, and advising.
Prospective students interested in the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies, administered by the Department of Art History, can find more information here .
Meet the Film and Media Studies Faculty and learn about their research interests.
The annual admissions deadline is December 1 .
Complete applications will include:
• A Statement of Purpose (1200 words maximum) that describes your research interests and reasons for seeking a PhD. The Statement of Purpose should indicate how your proposed research correlates to our program's emphases and how you will benefit from working with specific core faculty. You can find information about faculty research interests here.
• A Personal History Statement (1200 word maximum) that describes your educational accomplishments and goals. It is important to communicate whether you have experienced unique or significant opportunities, challenges, and/or obstacles in your pursuit of an education. Please also describe the career paths you plan to pursue after graduation.
• A sample of academic writing that demonstrates original thinking, clear writing and your preparedness to do graduate-level work in film and media studies.
- Length: A minimum of ten pages to a maximum of thirty pages. Any submission longer than the maximum will not be reviewed past the maximum page limit.
- You may submit two pieces of work as long as their combined length does not exceed the page limit.
- In the event you have a longer piece of work to submit, such as a Master's thesis or Undergraduate research paper, please submit a chapter or section of the work within the page restriction.
• Three letters of recommendation, preferably from faculty with whom you have studied.
• Transcripts.
• Results of the TOEFL or IELTS exam for international applicants for whom English is not their primary language.
For academic questions (questions about program requirements, the application review process, funding opportunities, etc.) please contact the Graduate Director, Professor Kristen Hatch ([email protected]).
For administrative questions (questions about how to apply, paying the application fee, application materials, etc.) please contact the Graduate Coordinator, Amy Fujitani ([email protected]).
To apply, click here .
Course Requirements
Required Core Courses (6 courses)
FLM&MDA 285A: Film Studies: Theory and Methods.
FLM&MDA 285B: Television Studies: Theory and Methods.
FLM&MDA 285C: Digital Media and Game Studies: Theory and Methods.
FLM&MDA 286A: Film and Media Studies Historiography.
FLM&MDA 286B: Media/Power/Culture.
FLM&MDA 286C: Methods and Research Design.
Elective Courses (7 courses)
FLM&MDA 291: Graduate Seminar in Film and Media Studies. Repeatable as topics vary.
FLM&MDA 292: Graduate Seminar in Film & Media Critical Practice. Repeatable as topics vary.
FLM&MDA 295: Directed Reading. Repeatable as topics vary.
Required Practicums in Film and Media Studies (4 courses)
FLM&MDA 287: Practicum in Pedagogy.
FLM&MDA 288A: Practicum in Professionalization I.
FLM&MDA 288B: Practicum in Professionalization II.
FLM&MDA 288C: Practicum in Professionalization III.
Required Supporting Course (1 course)
FLM&MDA 298: Prospectus Writing Practicum.
Students must take three elective courses from within the Department of Film and Media Studies and two outside Film and Media Studies. The remaining two electives can be taken within or outside the department.
Students entering with a MA may petition to have up to three elective courses waived, subject to the approval of Graduate Division. Students who have had three courses waived must take two elective courses from within the Department of Film and Media Studies and one outside Film and Media Studies. The remaining elective can be taken within or outside the department.
During the third through sixth years in the program, students normally enroll in variable-unit courses as follows:
FLM&MDA 296: Reading for the Preliminary Examination.
FLM&MDA 297: Prospectus Research.
FLM&MDA 299: Dissertation Research.
First-Year Review
Students are required to select and confirm their Primary Advisor by the end of the first year.
At the end of the Spring quarter, the Film and Media Studies faculty will review the performance and progress of each first-year student and provide written evaluation of their work. This evaluation will include an assessment of the student’s ability to complete independent research.
A positive assessment indicates that the student is making good progress.
A cautionary assessment will be accompanied by a description of specific improvements that a student must make in order to advance to candidacy in the third year.
A negative overall assessment will place the student on Academic Conditional Status. Faculty will give written feedback with specific areas for improvement and a timeline for future expectations of academic progress. Students who fail to demonstrate improvement may be recommended for dismissal from the program without a degree.
MA Requirements
All students apply for and are accepted into the doctoral program.
Students who enter the PhD program with a prior graduate degree (MA or beyond) in Film and Media Studies or a related discipline may petition to waive up to three electives, subject to the approval of Graduate Division. These students may also petition to waive the MA exam requirement in recognition of their prior degree; normatively, this will be approved. In these cases, students will not complete the MA exam requirement nor earn a second MA en route to the PhD. Film and Media Studies faculty will determine what graduate degree fields qualify as related disciplines. Students entering with an MFA will typically be required to complete the MA exam unless the Graduate Committee determines that the degree is equivalent to an MA.
Students who have not earned an MA in a relevant field prior to matriculating in the Film and Media Studies PhD program must earn an MA degree as part of the PhD program. The program does not offer a stand-alone or terminal MA, except in instances when a student does not continue in the program toward earning the PhD.
In order to earn the MA degree, the student must
1. Satisfactorily complete six foundational courses (FLM&MDA 285A, FLM&MDA 285B, FLM&MDA 285C, FLM&MDA 286A, FLM&MDA 286B, and FLM&MDA 286C);
2. Satisfactorily compete FLM&MDA 287;
3. Satisfactorily complete seven electives, three of which must be within the Department of Film and Media Studies and two outside the Department of Film and Media Studies;
4. Pass the MA Exam; and
5. File the necessary paperwork for conferral of degree with Graduate Division.
For the MA exam, the student will revise one seminar paper written while in the program and submit the revised paper before the start of the Spring quarter in their second year of study.
The requirements for passing the MA exam are as follows:
• The revised paper must present a substantial and original argument;
• It must reflect substantive revision from the original paper, demonstrating additional research and/or reconceptualization and responsiveness to feedback;
• It must demonstrate a command of the relevant literature;
• It must present adequate evidence to support its claims;
• It must be clearly written in an appropriate academic style; and
• It must be formatted according to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines with proper citation and bibliography.
Ideally, this revised paper will demonstrate promise toward publication and toward the ability to develop a dissertation; however this is not a requirement at the MA stage.
This paper will be evaluated by a 3-person MA committee, which consists of the student’s primary advisor as chair and two additional department faculty members appointed by the Program Director in consultation with the student and the advisor. The MA committee will evaluate the student’s ability to identify a suitable research project and methodology, develop an argument, respond to faculty feedback, and make revisions. The committee will respond with feedback within three weeks of receiving the paper and may ask for a second round of reasonable revisions, to be completed before the end of the term.
The committee will unanimously decide whether the student has passed the MA exam and if they are eligible to proceed toward the PhD, taking into holistic account the exam (revised paper) results, input from the core Film and Media Studies faculty during the First-Year Review, and the student’s progress during the second year of course work. There are four possible determinations:
Positive: The student will earn the MA degree and qualifies to continue toward the PhD exams. This should be the outcome in the majority of cases.
Cautionary: The student will earn the MA degree and qualifies to continue toward the PhD exams but with areas for improvement communicated in writing to the student and advisor. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise outweigh a borderline exam or vice versa. This should be the outcome only in rare or extenuating circumstances.
MA Only: The student will earn the MA degree but is disqualified from continuing toward the PhD exams. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise do not outweigh a borderline exam.
Negative: The exam is unacceptable. The student will not earn the MA degree and is disqualified from continuing toward the PhD exams.
Students may revise and resubmit the MA paper one additional time in case of a failure to pass.
By the end of their second year, students will work with their advisor to plan their Examination fields for the following year. No later than the end of Winter in the third year of study, students will establish a 5-person Qualifying Exam Committee, at least 51% of whose members, including the Dissertation Advisor, must be core faculty in the Department of Film and Media Studies. At least one committee member must be external to the department.
The student will receive one standardized bibliography and select two specialty field bibliographies on which they will be examined. In the Fall and Winter quarters of the third year, the student will enroll in FLM&MDA 296: Reading for the Preliminary Examination and complete reading the works on these three bibliographies. The three exam areas should serve to help the student define general areas of specialized competence that will aid them in establishing a broad base for the dissertation and in developing college-level courses. Students may not enroll in FLM&MDA 296 until all their other course requirements (with the exception of FLM&MDA 298: Prospectus Writing Practicum) have been completed.
The Qualifying Examination will be administered by the Qualifying Exam Committee and will include both a written and an oral component. The written component will consist of at least one question for each Exam bibliography for which the student has completed readings. Students will write at least one essay for each respective Exam. Faculty may offer a range of questions for each bibliography, giving the student a choice of which question(s) to answer. The written component will be offered as a series of three remote exams to be completed within three respective 24-hour periods; questions and responses will be delivered electronically. The oral component of the exam will take place in conjunction with the Prospectus Defense during the Spring quarter of the student’s third year.
Language Requirement
Students will consult with the program Director and their principal advisor(s) to determine whether they must demonstrate or develop proficiency in a second language for their research. [1] If the program Director and principal advisor(s) determine that proficiency in a second language is required, the student must demonstrate this proficiency prior to advancing to candidacy. In the event a student does not need a second language to conduct doctoral research, they will not be required to demonstrate proficiency in a second language.
If determined to be required, the language requirement may be satisfied by one of the following means:
1. By passing the Film and Media Studies translation exam. A request must be made to the Film and Media Studies Staff within the first two weeks of the quarter the student wishes to take the exam.
2. By completing, with a grade of B or better, a language course at the 2C level or equivalent, with the exception of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which must be completed at the 3C level or equivalent.
3. By attaining a proficiency level of 2C on the Russian Exemption Exam or a proficiency level of 3C on the Chinese Exemption Exam offered by UCI's Academic Testing Center.
4. By petitioning the program. Grounds for a petition might include the student’s being a native speaker in a language other than English or having completed an equivalent language requirement at a different institution. The granting of this petition will remain at the discretion of the Graduate Director, although students dissatisfied with this determination may request the petition be considered by the full faculty. Students who have completed the language requirement at a different institution will need to submit transcripts with the petition. Students will inquire with the Graduate Coordinator to complete a petition.
Dissertation Prospectus and Advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy
In the Spring of the student’s third year, the student will enroll in FLM&MDA 298: Prospectus Writing Practicum and complete a prospectus that identifies the scope, approach, and rationale for their proposed dissertation. The student will present an oral defense of the prospectus to the Qualifying Exam Committee. When the prospectus has been unanimously approved by the Qualifying Exam Committee, the student will be advanced to doctoral candidacy. Students should have taken their preliminary examination, defended their dissertation prospectus, and advanced to doctoral candidacy no later than the end of Spring quarter of their third year. If a student will exceed the 3-year normative time to candidacy, they must petition by Spring quarter of their third year for an exception, presenting an approved plan for timely progress to candidacy.
In the event that a student does not pass the qualifying examination, consistent with UCI policy (Academic Senate Regulation 467) the student will be allowed one repeat attempt of the examination. This repeat examination will occur during the quarter following the initial examination.
Dissertation
The dissertation shall be an original research project of substantial length approved by the Doctoral Committee. Members of the student’s Doctoral Committee are noted on the PhD Form I: Advancement to Candidacy PhD Degree. The committee shall typically consist of the Doctoral Advisor and two additional faculty. At least 51% of the Doctoral Committee, including the Doctoral Advisor, must be core faculty in the Department of Film and Media Studies. The remaining members of the Doctoral Committee must satisfy Academic Senate requirements.
Dissertation Defense
A final examination in the form of an oral defense of the dissertation is required for the PhD. This examination will be supervised by the Doctoral Committee and will be given just prior to the completion of the dissertation. The defense will be open to all members of the academic community. Faculty and graduate students of Film and Media Studies and the Graduate Dean will be given written notice of the date, time, and place of the examination at least five days in advance of the examination.
Time to Degree
The normative time to degree is six years (18 quarters). The first nine quarters are spent in pre-candidacy, the last 9 quarters in candidacy. Normatively, students will complete their course work within the first two years and prepare for and pass the Qualifying Examination and advance to candidacy in the third year. The maximum time to degree is seven years.
[1] Examples of when a second language would likely be necessary include Spanish proficiency for the study of Spanish-language media, Mandarin proficiency for study of media in Mainland China, or the relevant language for a project on non-English language transnational/diasporic media.
All students receive a five-year funding guarantee at admissions. This typically includes a combination of at least one fellowship year and multiple years of Teaching Assistantships. Additional competitive scholarships, fellowships, and summer stipends may also be available.
Students also receive tuition and fee remission, including non-resident (out-of-state or international) tuition during this period. Domestic students coming from outside of California will be expected to establish state residency during their first year; otherwise, they will need to cover their non-resident tuition fees.
TAships may be in Film and Media Studies undergraduate courses or for courses in other Departments or Programs.
Funding beyond the fifth year is not guaranteed, but TAships or other opportunities are often available.
The graduate emphasis in Film and Media Studies prepares students in any M.A., Ph.D., or M.F.A. program to analyze film and media texts, contexts, and industries. The emphasis requires that students complete four seminars, two of which are in the Film and Media Studies PhD core series (FMS 285A-C, FMS 286A-C) and two of which may be Film and Media Studies core or elective seminars (FMS 291, FMS 292, FMS 295).
Students who are currently enrolled in any MA, Ph.D., or M.F.A. program at UCI are eligible for admission to the Graduate Emphasis in Film and Media Studies.
Students who are interested in pursuing the graduate emphasis should contact the Graduate Director to indicate their interest in applying for the emphasis. Application materials include:
- an explanation of how their research and/or teaching will benefit from completing the Film and Media Studies Graduate Emphasis;
- current CV;
- brief letter of approval from the student’s primary advisor or program director;
- names of Film and Media Studies core faculty with whom they have worked or plan to work. Applicants who are not yet acquainted with Film and Media Studies core faculty may name the Graduate Director.
Application
To be considered for the Film and Media Studies Graduate Emphasis, please submit an application .
Questions? Please contact Amy Fujitani , Graduate Coordinator.
Contact Film and Media Studies
2000 Humanities Gateway Irvine, CA 92697
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Doctor - Film Direction & Production
Distance degree programs for adults & professionals., bircham international university - adult degree programs online., doctor ph.d. degree - arts & humanities, film direction & production via distance learning.
This Doctor Ph.D. Degree highlights the major responsibilities of a film director explicitly: on-screen image creation, camera movements, lighting, actors' direction, dialogue, story-boarding, and scene breakdown. It explores the relationship between the director and all the elements of production and post-production. Also, it describes the procedures required for running a smooth film production and details the logistics needed to complete and deliver a finished motion picture. This program advises on the cost-effective methods to reach the level of emotional and visual impacts demanded by today's film industry.
Academic Supervisor : Pedro Jose Riba Rueda More information about this academic supervisor at Bircham University Human Network. More info...
The Doctor Ph.D. Degree online via distance learning offers students the highest level of specialization a discipline can offer. More info...
* 45 to 72 academic credits above a Master's program. * Average Duration: 24 months. * Program Structure: 70% textbooks + 30% Thesis. * Admission is open for adults over 27 years of age. * Master's degree or international equivalent (5 years of study) is required for admission.
Fees include all: Program of study, textbooks, study guide, evaluation and assessment, diploma, and transcript. Cost per BIU earned postgraduate credit: 130 Euros (170 US$) Cost per transferred credit from previous education and/or professional experience if required: 20 Euros (25 US$)
45 ... 72 Academic credits Tuition Fee :Min. 5.850 Euros (7.650 US$) ... Max. 9.360 Euros (12.240 US$).
"No matter what technology supports the education process, learning occurs only as a result of the active processing by our biological brain." William Martin, BIUCEO.
Payment plans are available upon request up to 36 monthly installments. More info...
Faculty of Arts & Humanities via distance learning
45 ... 72 Academic credits required for this distance learning degree program.
Composition:.
+ 39 Academic credits - Film Direction & Production Online + Other additional subjects + 18 Academic credits - Research methodology and final project or thesis.
+ 39 Academic credits: Film Direction & Production Online
BIU Earned Credits Credits earned through the completion of academic work at Bircham International University (Reports, Projects and Thesis).
1 BIU Earned Credit = 1 USA Semester Credit (15 hours of learning) = 2 ECTS Credits (30 hours of study). Courses list (each subject accounts for 3 academic credits): You may study any subject as an independent online continuing education course. More info...
Postgraduate level continuing education course. Previous knowledge in this field of study is required.
601FDP - Cinema Language 602FDP - Narrative Development 603FDP - Theory of Drama & Comedy 604FDP - Script & Screen Writing 605FDP - Scene Analysis 606FDP - Movie Budget & Planning 607FDP - Linear & Non Linear Editing 608FDP - Cinematography 609FDP - Film Direction 610FDP - Digital Media Production 611FDP - Film Production 612FDP - Digital Production 613FDP - Directing Actors More info...
Bibliography: Film Direction & Production via distance learning The corresponding textbooks are included in the fees. Once the fee has been paid, the books may take between two to five weeks to reach your address. Bircham International University offices may inform you at any time of the status of your books. If the book is in English, the required report must be written in English unless you have requested to write it in other language and have gained Bircham International University authorization. More info... Click here to access the recommended bibliography.
+ Additional courses may be selected from other modules in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities from Bircham International University if required. This selection must be approved by the Distance Learning University Education Board. For example: Audiovisual Communication .
Research work resources and network - Doctor - Film Direction & Production:
AAPCA - Association des Administrateurs de Production Cinéma et Audiovisuel ABC - Associação Brasileira de Cinematografia AFCI - Association of Film Commissioners International APIMA - Asociación de Productores Independientes de Medios Audiovisulaes APPA - Asociación de Profesionales de la Producción Audiovisual BECTU - Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematography and Theatre Union CICT - Conseil International du Cinéma, de la Télévision et de la Communication Audiovisuelle FERA - Federation of European Film Directors FESAC - Fédération des Entreprises du Spectacle vivant, de la Musique, de l’Audiovisuel et du Cinéma FIAPF - International Federation of Film Producers' Associations FIPCA - Federación Iberoamericana de Productores Cinematográficos y Audiovisuales ICFT - International Council for Film Television and Audiovisual Communication IMIS - International Moving Image Society ISPA - International Society for the Performing Arts PACT - Producers Alliance for Film and TV WFTV - Women in Film And Television More info...
Joining the proper association is the best way to become an updated professional. Bircham International University graduates may join many professional associations. Membership requirements for each association may vary depending on the degree program, specialization and graduate resume en each occasion. BIU can not guarantee membership in all instances. BIU does not intermediate in these procedures. Bircham International University provides a list of available memberships and professional references from each faculty where some BIU graduates may belong. Contact directly the ones you select. More info...
+ 18 Academic credits (Research methodology and final project or thesis. More info... ).
Admission requirements: Doctor - Film Direction & Production
Bircham International University distance learning degree admission requirements differ depending upon the Faculty and the major of study. There is no discrimination with respect to race, color, sex, beliefs and/or religion. A minimum of 30% of the total number of credits required by any adult degree program syllabus has to be transferred from previous education and/or validated from professional experience in order to gain admission. A maximum of 20% of the total number of credits required by the distance learning degree program can be transferred from professional and life experience. More info...
Click to Download... Application for Admission
Learning outcomes: Doctor - Film Direction & Production
The following learning outcomes are compatible with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning and continuing education. The EQF directives facilitate acceptance of this course credits by many higher education institution. These learning outcomes are achieved after completion of this course with a passing grade. Better grades will demonstrate higher analysis, evaluation and critical thinking skills. More info...
EQF LEVEL 6. Advanced knowledge and critical understanding. Outcome resulting from course content assessment and its applicability to problem solving. The student's ability to combine the different parts of the text and to form a new coherent and harmonic final report will determine the critical understanding of the subject and an advanced knowledge of Film Direction & Production. The student written report style, content, and structure play an important role in the assessment and applicability of the knowledge about Film Direction & Production to different Arts & Humanities decision making scenarios and problem-solving. More info...
EQF LEVEL 7. Advanced knowledge and critical thinking. Outcome resulting from written critical thinking and its applicability to problem solving. The student will contrast and evaluate the learned material with his/her own knowledge and experience to express an opinion about Film Direction & Production, to consider the practical application of the key concepts, and to argue the conclusions along the written report. Personal judgments and opinion should be based on sound criteria and must be clearly discussed. More info...
BIU adapts each Distance Learning Higher Education degree program to the needs of each student. More info...
Film Direction & Production Online
Recognition - Distance degree programs - More info... Accreditation - Distance Learning University - More info... Degree Legalization - Graduate Services - More info... Acceptance of these Distance Learning Higher Education academic credits is always the prerogative of the receiving institution or employer. Recognition criteria differ depending on each educational institution, or company policy, or country legal framework.
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2024-25 edition, film and media studies, ph.d..
The Film and Media Studies Ph.D. program is dedicated to understanding film, television, and digital media texts in relation to questions of power, inequality, and difference. Students are encouraged to think critically about questions of aesthetics, production, and cultural meaning as they manifest in film, television, and digital media both past and present. Students in the Ph.D. program gain a foundation in the humanities-based discipline of Film and Media Studies while also developing innovative research projects that interrogate media in relation to race, gender/sexuality, nation, religion, ability, and other constructions of difference.
Applications for admission are accepted in the fall quarter only. Complete applications include:
- A statement of purpose (1,200 words maximum) that describes the applicant's research interests and reasons for seeking a Ph.D. The statement of purpose should indicate how the applicant's proposed research correlates to the program's emphases and how the applicant will benefit from working with core faculty.
- A personal history statement (1,200 words maximum) that describes the applicant's educational accomplishments and goals. Applicants should communicate whether they have experienced unique or significant opportunities, challenges, and/or obstacles in the pursuit of an education. Applicants should describe the career paths they plan to pursue after graduation.
- A sample of academic writing, approximately 20 pages in length, that demonstrates original thinking and clear writing.
- Three letters of recommendation, preferably from faculty with whom the applicant has studied.
- Transcripts.
- Results of the TOEFL or IELTS exam for international applicants for whom English is not their primary language.
View the online application .
For questions about the program or the application process, please email [email protected] .
| A. Required core courses: |
| | Film Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Television Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Digital Media and Game Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Film and Media Studies Historiography |
| | Media/Power/Culture |
| | Methods and Research Design |
| B. Select seven elective courses: |
| Students must take three elective courses from within the Department of Film and Media Studies ( , , ) and two outside the Department. The remaining two electives can be taken within or outside the department. |
| Students entering with a M.A. may petition to have up to three elective courses waived, subject to the approval of Graduate Division. Students who have had three courses waived must take two elective courses from within the Department of Film and Media Studies and one outside the department. The remaining elective can be taken within or outside the department. |
| C. Required practicums in Film and Media Studies: |
| | Practicum in Pedagogy |
| | Practicum in Professionalization I |
| | Practicum in Professionalization II |
| | Practicum in Professionalization III |
| D. Required supporting course: |
| | Prospectus Writing Practicum |
First-Year Review
Students are required to select and confirm their Primary Advisor by the end of the first year.
At the end of the spring quarter, the Film and Media Studies faculty reviews the performance and progress of each first-year student and provides written evaluation of their work. This evaluation includes an assessment of the student’s ability to complete independent research.
A positive assessment indicates that the student is making good progress.
A cautionary assessment is accompanied by a description of specific improvements that a student must make in order to advance to candidacy in the third year.
A negative overall assessment places the student on Academic Conditional Status. Faculty gives written feedback with specific areas for improvement and a timeline for future expectations of academic progress. Students who fail to demonstrate improvement may be recommended for dismissal from the program without a degree.
MA Requirements
All students apply for and are accepted into the doctoral program.
Students who enter the Ph.D. program with a prior graduate degree (M.A. or beyond) in Film and Media Studies or a related discipline may petition to waive the M.A. exam requirement in recognition of their prior degree; normatively, this is approved. In these cases, students do not complete the M.A. exam requirement nor earn a second M.A. en route to the Ph.D. Film and Media Studies faculty determine what graduate degree fields qualify as related disciplines. Students entering with an M.F.A. typically are required to complete the M.A. exam unless the Graduate Committee determines that the degree is equivalent to an M.A.
Students who have not earned an M.A. in a relevant field prior to matriculating in the Film and Media Studies Ph.D. program must earn an M.A. degree as part of the Ph.D. program. The program does not offer a stand-alone or terminal M.A., except in instances when a student does not continue in the program toward earning the Ph.D.
To earn the M.A. degree, the student must:
| A. Complete six foundational courses: |
| | Film Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Television Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Digital Media and Game Studies: Theory and Methods |
| | Film and Media Studies Historiography |
| | Media/Power/Culture |
| | Methods and Research Design |
| B. Complete: |
| | Practicum in Pedagogy |
| C. Complete seven electives (three must be within the Department of Film and Media Studies and two outside the Department of Film and Media Studies) |
- Pass the M.A. Exam
- File the necessary paperwork for conferral of degree with Graduate Division.
For the M.A. exam, the student revises one seminar paper written while in the program and submits the revised paper before the start of the spring quarter in their second year of study.
The requirements for passing the M.A. exam are as follows:
- The revised paper must present a substantive and original argument;
- It must reflect substantial revision from the original paper, demonstrating additional research and/or reconceptualization and responsiveness to feedback;
- It must demonstrate a command of the relevant literature;
- It must present adequate evidence to support its claims;
- It must be clearly written in an appropriate academic style; and
- It must be formatted according to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines with proper citation and bibliography.
This paper is evaluated by a three-person M.A. committee, which consists of the student’s primary advisor as chair and two additional department faculty members appointed by the Program Director in consultation with the student and the advisor. The committee unanimously decides whether the student has passed the M.A. exam and if they are eligible to proceed toward the Ph.D., taking into holistic account the exam (revised paper) results, input from the core Film and Media Studies faculty during the First-Year Review, and the student’s progress during the second year of course work. There are four possible determinations:
- Positive: The student earns the M.A. and qualifies to continue toward the Ph.D. exams.
- Cautionary: The student earns the M.A. and qualifies to continue toward the Ph.D. exams but with areas for improvement communicated in writing to the student and advisor. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise outweigh a borderline exam or vice versa.
- M.A. Only: The student earns the M.A. but is disqualified from continuing toward the Ph.D. exams. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise do not outweigh a borderline exam.
- Negative: The exam is unacceptable. The student does not earn the M.A. and is disqualified from continuing toward the Ph.D. exams.
Students may revise and resubmit the M.A. paper one additional time in case of a failure to pass.
Language Requirement
Students will consult with the program director and their principal advisor(s) to determine whether they must demonstrate or develop proficiency in a second language for their research. 1 If the program director and principal advisor(s) determine that proficiency in a second language is required, the student must demonstrate this proficiency prior to advancing to candidacy. In the event a student does not need a second language to conduct doctoral research, they are not required to demonstrate proficiency in a second language.
If determined to be required, the language requirement may be satisfied by one of the following means:
- By passing the Film and Media Studies translation exam. A request must be made to the Film and Media Studies staff within the first two weeks of the quarter the student wishes to take the exam.
- By completing, with a grade of B or better, a language course at the 2C level or equivalent, with the exception of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which must be completed at the 3C level or equivalent.
- By attaining a proficiency level of 2C on the Russian Exemption Exam or a proficiency level of 3C on the Chinese Exemption Exam offered by UCI's Academic Testing Center.
- By petitioning the program. Grounds for a petition might include the student’s being a native speaker in a language other than English or having completed an equivalent language requirement at a different institution. The granting of this petition remains at the discretion of the Graduate Director, although students dissatisfied with this determination may request the petition be considered by the full faculty. Students who have completed the language requirement at a different institution need to submit transcripts with the petition. Students inquire with the Graduate Coordinator to complete a petition.
1 Examples of when a second language would likely be necessary include Spanish proficiency for the study of Spanish-language media, Mandarin proficiency for study of media in Mainland China, or the relevant language for a project on non-English language transnational/diasporic media.
Preliminary Examination
By the end of their second year, students work with their advisor to plan their Examination fields for the following year. No later than the end of winter in the third year of study, students establish a three-person Qualifying Exam Committee, at least 51 percent of whose members, including the Dissertation Advisor, must be core faculty in the Department of Film and Media Studies.
The student receives one standardized bibliography and selects two specialty field bibliographies on which they are examined. In the fall and winter quarters of the third year, the student will enroll in FLM&MDA 296 and complete reading the works on these three bibliographies. The three exam areas should serve to help the student define general areas of specialized competence that aid them in establishing a broad base for the dissertation and in developing college-level courses. Students may not enroll in FLM&MDA 296 until all their other course requirements (with the exception of FLM&MDA 298 ) have been completed.
The Qualifying Examination is administered by the Qualifying Exam Committee and includes both a written and an oral component. The written component consists of at least one question for each exam bibliography for which the student has completed readings. Students write at least one essay for each respective exam. Faculty may offer a range of questions for each bibliography, giving the student a choice of which question(s) to answer. The written component is offered as a series of three remote exams to be completed within three respective 24-hour periods; questions and responses are delivered electronically. The oral component of the exam takes place in conjunction with the Prospectus Defense during the spring quarter of the student’s third year.
Dissertation Prospectus and Advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy
The student will enroll in FLM&MDA 298 and complete a prospectus that identifies the scope, approach, and rationale for their proposed dissertation. The student presents an oral defense of the prospectus to the Qualifying Exam Committee. When the prospectus has been unanimously approved by the Qualifying Exam Committee, the student is advanced to doctoral candidacy. Students should have taken their preliminary examination, defended their dissertation prospectus, and advanced to doctoral candidacy no later than the end of spring quarter of their third year. If a student exceeds the three-year normative time to candidacy, they must petition by spring quarter of their third year for an exception, presenting an approved plan for timely progress to candidacy.
If a student does not pass the qualifying examination, consistent with UCI policy (Academic Senate Regulation 467) the student will be allowed one repeat attempt of the examination. This repeat examination will occur during the quarter following the initial examination.
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2022’s top 25 american film schools, ranked.
From full-funded MFAs to LED walls for new virtual production curriculums, these film programs are trying to entice and educate the next generation of blockbuster directors and award-winning auteurs.
By Mia Galuppo
Mia Galuppo
Film Writer
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How do you prepare students for an entertainment industry in a constant state of flux? For some, the answer is LED walls. Schools ranging from Chapman to Cal State Northridge are doubling down on digital production in an effort to prepare their students for industry. And while rising tuition costs have would-be filmmakers worried, schools are increasing scholarships or offering fully funded MFAs.
These 25(ish) programs offer students the best chance at navigating Hollywood’s changing terrain.
1. American Film Institute
Related stories, 2023 top 25 american film schools, ranked, 2021's top 25 american film schools, ranked.
The prestigious graduate program consistently churns out Oscar winners, including CODA director and 2022 Oscar winner Sian Heder, and blockbuster directors, and has made an effort to diversify its student body. Over half of the incoming students are women, and nearly half are filmmakers of color — all are eligible for new funds like the Halyna Hutchins Memorial Scholarship. This year, AFI’s speaker seminars were an Oscar fest, including the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Denis Villeneuve and Maggie Gyllenhaal, while professors are still notably active in the industry, like cinematography head Stephen Lighthill, who was reelected as the ASC president. “More than anything, I wanted to find those essential creative collaborators,” AFI grad and Sundance breakout Chloe Okuno says of the school’s main perk.
TUITION $65,800 (graduate)
ALUMNI Patty Jenkins, Ari Aster, Sam Esmail
2. New York University
The Tisch School of the Arts will launch an academic and production institute in honor of alumnus Martin Scorsese thanks to a gift from George Lucas and Mellody Hobson. The institute will feature a major virtual production facility, as well as support for student scholarships. In the coming academic year, the graduate program will continue its mentorship program, which pairs students with filmmakers — the inaugural year brought in Isabel Sandoval and Raven Jackson.
TUITION $63,000 (undergraduate); $68,000 (graduate)
ALUMNI Chloé Zhao, Dee Rees
3. University of Southern California
LOS ANGELES
TUITION $63,468 (undergrad); $37,149-$54,461 (graduate)
ALUMNI Ryan Coogler, Jon M. Chu
4. Chapman University
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA
Drawing names like Lorenzo di Bonaventura to teach classes, while adding high-end tech like a fleet of RED Komodo cameras, the Dodge College continues to impress. It also offers production students subsidies up to $15,000 for theses. The school opened a new career center to help with the post-graduate transition into the industry, but students are succeeding while still in school, like Phumi Morare, who took home the top narrative prize at the most recent Student Academy Awards. “Prior to film school, we had mostly worked with each other,” says alumni and Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers. “Suddenly, we were collaborating with dozens of peers to achieve one goal, one vision.”
TUITION $60,290 (undergrad); $46,936 TO $49,788 (graduate)
ALUMNI The Duffer brothers, Justin Simien, Carlos López Estrada
SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA
TUITION $54,440
ALUMNI Tim Burton, Brad Bird
6. Emerson College
Emerson’s reach expands to an L.A. outpost on Sunset Boulevard as well as global opportunities in Paris and the Netherlands. Back in Beantown, a new Visual and Media Arts directing studio was inaugurated in 2021, and curriculum additions include such classes as The Art of Anti-Racist Media Making and Accessible Cinema, the latter of which teaches students to produce captions and audio descriptions for non-auditory and low-vision audiences. “What I loved about the Emerson experience is the latitude, creative freedom and support we had to find our voices,” says Oscar-nominated Raya and the Last Dragon writer Adele Lim. “As a foreign student who grew up in a more restrictive culture, this was revolutionary.”
TUITION $51,264 (undergrad); $1,322 (per credit graduate)
ALUMNI Richard LaGravenese, Erik Messerschmidt
7. Columbia University
TUITION $69,152 (undergrad); $65,620 (graduate)
ALUMNI Kathryn Bigelow, James Mangold, Jennifer Lee
8. Loyola Marymount University
This summer, LMU brought in former UNC School of the Arts program head Joanne Moore as the long-awaited replacement for Peggy Rajski, and the Westchester campus appointed Charles Swanson as associate dean of DEI. Recently, LMU hosted a pitch event for individuals who completed their Film Independent Story Development Incubator Lab, a one-year program that preps alumni to dive headfirst into the industry.
TUITION $54,630 (undergrad); $26,226-$34,968 (graduate)
ALUMNI Francis Lawrence; How I Met Your Father writer Karen Joseph Adcock
TUITION (undergrad) $13,804 resident, $31,026 nonresident; (graduate) $17,756 resident, $32,858 nonresident
ALUMNI Dustin Lance Black, Gina Prince-Bythewood
10. University of North Carolina School of the Arts
WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA
America’s first public arts conservatory, UNCSA now has Deborah LaVine leading the filmmaking program. This fall, it launches an Anthology Production Lab dedicated to producing a 13-episode streaming series, and Emily Spivey will teach Acting for Animators.
TUITION (undergrad) $6,497 resident, $23,731 nonresident; (graduate) $9,196 resident, $23,899 nonresident
ALUMNI Danny McBride; Mare of Easttown director Craig Zobel
11. University of Texas at Austin
Filmmaking to Decolonize and Social Justice Filmmaking are two additions to the production curriculum, a part of the school’s commitment to DEI. Faculty includes filmmakers like Iliana Sosa, whose doc What We Leave Behind just premiered at SXSW, while alumni spans both above- and below-the-line talent like Wes Anderson and Oscar-winning sound designer Mac Ruth ( Dune ).
TUITION (undergrad) $11,230 resident, $39,756 nonresident; (graduate) $9,996 resident, $18,816 nonresident
ALUMNI Glen Powell; Shang-Chi writer Andrew Lanham
12. Columbia College Chicago
TUITION $31,026 (undergrad); $35,000 (graduate)
ALUMNI Lena Waithe, George Tillman Jr.
13. Wesleyan University
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
A small liberal-arts school with a vast alumni roster of boldfaced names, Wesleyan’s film studies are primarily focused on analysis, which breeds auteurs. Students enjoy the use of the recently completed Jeanine Basinger Center, which houses three theaters, a production wing and archives. With a big private school price tag, the school additionally offers three filmmaking grants for first-generation and BIPOC film majors as well as Career Transition Grants. Star Trek: Discovery EP and program alum Alex Kurtzman says of beloved professor Basinger (now retired), “Jeanine told me that if I really wanted to be a screenwriter, I should take drum lessons. At the time I had no idea what she meant, but of course she was exactly right: I understood that screenwriting is all about rhythm and pace.”
TUITION $63,722
ALUMNI Lin-Manuel Miranda
14. Florida State University
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
TUITION (undergrad) $6,517 resident, $21,683 nonresident; (graduate) $14,379 resident, $33,300 nonresident
ALUMNI Barry Jenkins; Father of the Bride writer Matt Lopez
15. DePaul University
Thanks to an eight-figure donation, the School of Cinematic Arts is rich with resources to help students with tuition and state-of-the-art equipment. Also new are advisory boards, including one tied to the Second City comedy degree — Keegan-Michael Key and Steve Carell have signed on.
TUITION $42,189 (undergrad); $23,400-$32,000 (graduate)
ALUMNI John C. Reilly, Gillian Anderson
16. Ithaca College
ITHACA, NEW YORK
The school is constructing The Cube, a volume stage featuring LED panels on the floor, ceiling and walls — akin to what The Mandalorian uses for its production. The construction comes as Ithaca changes one of its degree names from Television-Radio to Television & Digital Media Production to reflect the state of Hollywood. Liz Tigelaar, showrunner of Little Fires Everywhere , still treasures her time in Elisabeth Nonas’ writing class: “We wrote a group Seinfeld script, and I loved the process of pitching jokes.”
TUITION $48,126
ALUMNI David Boreanaz, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Mike Royce
17. Boston University
TUITION $61,050
ALUMNI Benny Safdie, Jim Gianopulos
18. Syracuse University
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
The Newhouse School now allows students to spend a semester working at Lionsgate Studios. It has added a Talent Management Clinic, while new tracks of study include media innovation, entertainment business and custom study in entertainment media.
TUITION $58,440 (undergrad); $32,436 (graduate)
ALUMNI Rob Edwards, Dan Silver
19. ArtCenter College of Design
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
ArtCenter boasts a tactile approach to the business, and thanks in part to a donation from alumnus Zack Snyder, students have access to the renovated Ahmanson Auditorium, where they can use the Dolby Atmos sound system, and the 4K digital screen to color-correct films.
TUITION $48,942 (undergrad); $51,726 (graduate)
ALUMNI Michael Bay; Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
TUITION $39,105 (undergrad) $40,050 (graduate)
ALUMNI Dune VFX artist Austin Bonang
21. Ringling College
SARASOTA, FLORIDA
Known for its animation endeavors, as well as curriculum that prepares students for music video production and branded content, Ringling also offers more than 30,000 square feet of soundstage and production space. Student Alexander Tullo was recognized with a 2nd place honor at this year’s Student Academy Awards for their animated short, “Barking Orders.”
TUITION $48,110
ALUMNI Editor Andrew Halley
22. Rhode Island School of Design
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
Best known for experimental and digital arts, RISD offers high-minded courses on topics like the relationship between music and moving images and how technology can be used to engage remote audiences with live performance. Ryan Cunningham, an alum and head of Running Man Post, says of his experience: “The tenets of my RISD education were problem-solving with design, out-of-the-box thinking, and the ability to critique.”
TUITION $56,435
ALUMNI Gus Van Sant
23. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College
TUITION $21,134 resident; $30,564 nonresident
ALUMNI More Happiness director Livia Huang
24. Howard University
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The film program at Howard is the only MFA offered at an HBCU. Since 1983, the school has had an independent filmmaking focus, pairing practical production with film theory courses that cover African Cinema and postcolonial Third Cinema. In July it was announced that Disney would be partnering with the university for a storytellers fund that will provide stipends for student projects across mediums.
TUITION $33,860 (graduate)
ALUMNI Selma cinematographer Bradford Young
25. California State University Northridge (tie)
NORTHRIDGE, CALIFORNIA
TUITION $7,064 (undergrad); $8,498 (graduate)
ALUMNI Lionsgate vp production Ami Cohen
25. Northwestern University (tie)
As documentaries continue to dominate Netflix’s most-watched lists, Northwestern, with a famed journalism program, offers the courses to help students navigate the nonfiction boom. Recent visiting artists included Oscar-nominated doc filmmaker Garrett Bradley, while Professor Marco Williams, Emmy nominated for Tulsa Burning , recently earned a grant from the National Endowment for his next documentary project. Taking a step toward making graduate degrees in the arts more attainable, especially for students of color, the university is fully funding its MFA programs beginning with the 2022-23 school year.
TUITION $62,391 (undergrad)
ALUMNI Seth Meyers, Greg Berlanti, Zach Braff, Stephen Colbert, Ashley Nicole Black
In order to decide which programs make up The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 25 American Film Schools list— and then where they end up within the list — calls are made to knowledgable industry players to determine what each school’s reputation is within greater Hollywood. Also taken into consideration are the changes the school has made year-over-year (for example, whether an Oscar winner was hired to teach screenwriting students about story structure). Finally, THR looks at the alma maters of the past year’s top awards-season winners, film festival breakouts, and box office stars.
Alternative New York and California Film Schools
Many of the top film programs in North America are housed inside private colleges and universities, meaning tuition costs are an outsized financial factor when students are pursuing an education in filmmaking.
Student loan debt is an ever-increasing concern as tuition costs continue to rise. And for an impacted industry like entertainment with uncertain employment prospects, the cost can give many would-be filmmakers increased anxiety. With this in mind, THR has compiled a list of state and community college programs in or near entertainment hubs of Los Angeles and New York City .
City College of New York
The only BFA in film offered in New York City, the program at City College sees 25 students follow a two-year curriculum focused on single-camera fiction production and documentary filmmaking. Students, who pay an in-state tuition of $7,340, will produce thesis films that can be either narrative or doc shorts.
SUNY Stony Brook
Christine Vachon and her Killer Films helped to build out the curriculum for the MFA film program, while the school’s MFA in Television Writing was built by TV writing instructor Alan Kingsberg. Students have had their work screened in the Atlanta Film Festival, DOC NYC and the New York Short Film Festival.
Purchase College, State University of New York
Rutgers University
Yes, it’s in New Jersey, but the school is NYC-adjacent and houses a BFA in filmmaking program, where students learn with high-end cameras, and a dedicated Documentary Film Lab. In the past year, its visiting filmmaker series has brought in names like White Tiger director Ramin Bahrani.
Cal State Long Beach
The school offers a B.A. and a minor from the Department of Film & Electronic Arts, where students can focus on theory or narrative production. Classes range from Intro to Production Design to Writing the Short Script.
Cal State Los Angeles
CSU has a yearly tuition of $6,781 for in-state students, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Industry partners include Adobe and the Sundance Institute, and its Television, Film & Media Center houses a 2,300-square-foot soundstage, a 20-camera full-body motion capture system and sound recording rooms.
Santa Monica City College
Associate degrees in film production and film studies are offered from the West L.A. campus, with the film program having launched in 2010. Recently, the student short film “The War Within” — written and directed by SMC film student Marta D’Ocon — screened at the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the American Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival.
San Francisco State University
Update Aug. 5, 3 p.m. A version of this story previously listed Joanne Moore as the former dean of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She was the chair of the Producing Department.
This story first appeared in the Aug. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .
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Julia Solomonoff
Chair, Graduate Film
Barbara Schock
Head of Directing
Kasi Lemmons
Artistic Director of the Graduate Film Program and the Amy and Joseph Perella Chair
Todd Solondz
Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
Sameh Zoabi
YEMANE DEMISSIE
DOCUMENTARY DIRECTING
Carol l Dysinger
ADJUNCT FACULTY
Graduate Program
Phd in performing and media arts.
The graduate program in performing and media arts at Cornell University offers students an interdisciplinary environment in which to pursue critical studies of various dramatic cultures, theatrical traditions, film and media productions, and expressive behavior in multilingual, intermedial, and globalizing performance contexts. The program is located within the Department of Performing and Media Arts and comprises distinguished faculty from across the humanities.
Students benefit from the unusual flexibility of Cornell's graduate system and the ideals of freedom with responsibility on which that system is based. Our small size enables us to offer a generous funding package. A course of study is determined in consultation with a student's faculty advisors, and the PhD may be combined with a formal minor in such areas as directing or acting pedagogy , film studies or feminist, gender and sexuality studies .
Cornell does not offer a stand-alone Master's degree in Performing and Media Arts.
All PhD degree candidates are guaranteed four years of funding (including a stipend , a full tuition fellowship, and student health insurance):
- A first-year non-teaching fellowship
- Two years of teaching assistantships
- A fourth-year non-teaching fellowship for the dissertation writing year
- Summer support for four years, including a first-year summer teaching assistantship, linked to a teachers’ training program at the Knight Institute. Summer residency in Ithaca is required.
- An optional fifth-year teaching assistantship may be available, contingent upon successful progress toward degree.
Students have also successfully competed for Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship, Society for the Humanities Fellowships, Provost’s Diversity Fellowships, fellowships in recognition of excellence in teaching, and grants from the Graduate School to help with the cost of travel to scholarly conferences and research collections.
Examinations/Foreign Languages
The field of Performing and Media Arts administers three examinations for graduate degree candidates: the qualifying examination, the examination for admission to doctoral candidacy, and the doctoral dissertation defense. Admitted students will receive more information about these exams upon matriculation.
The field of Performing and Media Arts requires each graduate student to consult with their special committee to decide what study, if any, in a second language is most appropriate for a student’s graduate program and scholarly interests. Some special committees will require graduate students to demonstrate competency and/or fluency in one or two languages. When applicable, a graduate student may be asked to demonstrate competence and/or fluency in specific languages by presenting their undergraduate record, taking additional courses in a specific language and literature, or translating and discussing documents related to the student’s work.
Majors, Minors, and Special Committee
The field of Performing and Media Arts offers majors in three areas: Theatre and Performance Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Theatre Theory and Aesthetics. Graduate students are expected to declare their major area of study, two minor areas, and the composition of their Special Committee by the end of their first year of study. An incoming student will be assigned a committee chair by the director of Graduate Studies until he/she has formed a complete committee. Interdisciplinary programs are easily arranged by taking minors in other fields. Possible minors include (but are not limited to): acting and directing pedagogy , Africana studies; anthropology; Asian studies; cinema studies; English; feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; German; Russian; and philosophy.
There are few required courses in the PhD program. However, students are strongly encouraged to take classes that provide a general background in theatre history, dramatic literature, critical and dramatic theory, cinema and media studies, and pedagogy.
Student Organizations
Cinema & Media Studies Reading Group
This student group meets to discuss recent academic articles and books that have contributed to the field of media studies, as well as screen films that have historical or artistic significance.
Graduate Researchers in Media and Performing Arts (GRMPA)
Provides opportunities for grad students to share research interests, socialize, and network. Ongoing yearly events include The Roundtable and the Play Reading Group.
Career Paths
Our program is focused on preparing students for careers as researchers and professors, with concentrations in theatre and performance studies, cinema and media studies, and theatre theory and aesthetics. Students work closely with Cornell's Society for the Humanities and The School for Criticism and Theory , interdisciplinary centers of intellectual exchange that draw scholars and artists from across the globe. The University boasts one of the best research libraries in the country, which maintains extensive holdings in theatre and performance studies and houses a number of special collections.
Graduate Faculty
The field's faculty members are drawn from the Department of Performing and Media Arts and from other departments, such as Anthropology, Asian Studies, Classics, Comparative Literature, German Studies, English, and Africana Studies.
Our program seeks applications from self-motivated, independent thinkers eager to benefit from the unique, interdisciplinary structure of graduate education at Cornell. Applicants may or may not have pursued undergraduate training in theatre, performing arts, or media, but they must demonstrate a commitment to and preparedness for rigorous study in one or more of these areas. The program is first and foremost focused on scholarly research and writing, while at the same time providing robust opportunities to integrate scholarly work with artistic practice.
Eligibility: Applicants must currently have, or expect to have, at least a BA or BS (or the equivalent) in any field before matriculation. International students, please verify degree equivalency here. Applicants are not required to meet a specified GPA minimum.
To Apply: All applications and supplemental materials must be submitted online through the Graduate School application system. While completing your application, you may save and edit your data. Once you click submit, your application will be closed for changes. Please proofread your materials carefully. Once you pay and click submit, you will not be able to make any changes or revisions. Applications for admission in the fall semester must be received by the preceding December 15. (Students are not admitted for the spring.)
PhD Program Application Requirements Checklist
- Statement of Purpose Please provide a one- or two-page single-spaced statement describing the reasons you are undertaking graduate work and explaining your academic interests as they relate to your undergraduate study and professional goals.
- Three Letters of Recommendation Please select three people who best know you and your work. Submitting additional letters will not enhance your application. In the recommendation section of the application, you must include the email address of each recommender. After you save the information (and before you pay/submit), the application system will automatically generate a recommendation request email to your recommender with instructions for submitting the letter electronically. If your letters are stored with a credential service such as Interfolio, please use their Online Application Delivery feature and input the email address assigned to your stored document, rather than that of your recommender. The electronic files will be attached to your application when they are received and will not require the letter of recommendation cover page. If circumstances prevent your recommender from submitting a letter electronically, we will accept the letter in paper form mailed to: Graduate Coordinator, Department of Performing and Media Arts, Cornell University, Schwartz Center, 430 College Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850. Please do not postpone submitting your application while waiting for us to receive all three of your letters. We may not accept recommendation letters that arrive after December 15.
- Transcripts Scan transcripts from each institution you have attended or are currently attending, and upload into the academic information section of the application. Be sure to remove your social security number from all documents prior to scanning. Please do not send paper copies of your transcripts. If you are subsequently admitted and accept, the Graduate School will require an official paper transcript from your degree-awarding institution prior to matriculation.
- English Language Proficiency Requirement International applicants must demonstrate proficiency in the English language by submitting official test scores from TOEFL or IELTS. Graduate School minimum scores are required. For more information, please view the Graduate School’s English Language Requirement .
- Critical Writing Sample Your writing sample must be between 20–30 pages, typed and double-spaced. We accept excerpts from longer works, or a combination of shorter works.
- GRE General Test The GRE General Test is not required, and no subject test is required.
How to Apply
Visit the Graduate School website to learn more about doctoral study at Cornell, including information about our special committee structure and degree requirements.
Click here to apply
Karen Jaime Director of Graduate Studies [email protected]
Graduate Field Handbook
For more detailed information about the Performing and Media Arts Graduate Program, download our Graduate Field Handbook .
Film Directing MA
Study modes: Full-time
Accreditation
Funding opportunities
Programme website: Film Directing
Proposed new programme
We would like to hear your views on a potential new postgraduate opportunity in Design for Body and Mind.
Programme description
This programme takes a practice-based collaborative approach to studying for an award in Film Directing (Documentary) that integrates practical film making with analysis of contemporary practice.
You will make a creative documentary or non-fiction film that defies genre definition and pushes the boundaries of narrative, using limitations in a creative way. You will develop these through group seminars and tutorials.
You will work in an integrated framework that helps you question the form of your film and enables you to find the right language for your storytelling.
We encourage ways of working that foster the exchange of ideas, with inspiration from international filmmaking practice through support from our team of documentary practitioners.
Our tutors are top professionals currently working in the industry as:
- sound designers
- cinematographers
Our experience in the industry encourages us to adapt our use of technologies to the current situation, using best industry practice and safe guidelines for filming.
Graduate films do well internationally, regularly winning BAFTAs, RTS Awards and awards at international festivals. Our students and graduates have also received an Oscar nomination and an Oscar shortlist.
MA Film Directing has been awarded the ScreenSkills Tick, a rigorous assessment process conducted by experts working in the Creative Screen Industries.
The ScreenSkills Tick is the industry kitemark of quality, awarded to practice-based courses which best prepare students for a career in the industry.
Programme structure
This programme is project-led and delivered through:
It integrates practical advice on filming with a contextual awareness of contemporary film practice.
Your work is initially organised around micro-films that enhance your awareness of film language and your technical skills. At the same time you will research and develop an idea which you will film in the second semester, using whatever means are available to you.
You will prepare and shoot your graduate film, backed up by camera, sound and edit workshops - alongside project support from a tutor - before it is edited and finished with input from group crits and tutorials.
You may also attend or volunteer with Edinburgh Film Festival and the Edinburgh Pitch, to observe and engage with key players from the international documentary world.
- Students on the MA programme will complete a short documentary in their one-year course.
Our students often go on to tour their short films round international festivals from their MA .
Learning outcomes
challenge boundaries, encourage original thought, and develop intellectual and critical approaches to making films
combine the contemporary energy and discipline of current creative approaches to film practices with the professionalism of industry practices, in order to produce innovative and grounded work
facilitate the interrelationship between different cultural traditions, traditional and emerging screen technologies, and classical and non-traditional cinematic genres and conventions
ability to take risks with established forms of narrative
understanding of contemporary international documentary practice
practice based knowledge of the tools to make a short original documentary film from conception to completion
Career opportunities
Our students go on to a wide range of roles, including:
- production or location manager
- assistant director
- cinematographer
Graduates have found work directing for the BBC and making work internationally for top broadcasters and film funds.
Related fields include:
- advertising
- community films
- film development agencies
Entry requirements
These entry requirements are for the 2024/25 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2025/26 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2024.
Normally a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a relevant subject area. You should have technical skills in filmmaking and experience in directing.
You must submit a portfolio as part of your application.
Your portfolio should:
- include a link to one finished film, which can be any form but must be subtitled in English
- demonstrate technical skills in filmmaking
- demonstrate experience in directing
Your portfolio should not:
- include more than one film
- be a showreel
Please also include a short written statement describing what you did on the film. This is an opportunity to contextualise your practice. If your submitted film is fiction you must include in your personal statement why you wish to make documentary films.
You should upload your video to a website of your choice (eg YouTube, Dropbox, etc) and add the link to the portfolio upload section of your online application. We do not accept film links that require a password or login to access.
If you do not meet the academic entry requirements, we may still consider your application on the basis of your portfolio and/or relevant professional experience.
Students from China
This degree is Band C.
- Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China
International qualifications
Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:
- Entry requirements by country
- English language requirements
Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies.
English language tests
We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:
- IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
- TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
- C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
- Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
- PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 59 in each component.
Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.
Degrees taught and assessed in English
We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:
- UKVI list of majority English speaking countries
We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).
- Approved universities in non-MESC
If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old* at the beginning of your programme of study. (*Revised 05 March 2024 to extend degree validity to five years.)
Find out more about our language requirements:
Fees and costs
Additional costs.
Whilst equipment will be provided for student film productions, such productions may also occur aspects of additional cost.
Tuition fees
Scholarships and funding, featured funding.
- Edinburgh College of Art scholarships
UK government postgraduate loans
If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.
The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:
- your programme
- the duration of your studies
- your tuition fee status
Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.
- UK government and other external funding
Other funding opportunities
Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:
Further information
- Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
- Contact: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Admissions Office
- Programme Director, Ling Lee
- Contact: [email protected]
- Postgraduate Admissions Office
- College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- 57 George Square
- Central Campus
- Programme: Film Directing
- School: Edinburgh College of Art
- College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
This programme is not currently accepting applications. Applications for the next intake usually open in October.
Start date: September
Awards: MA (12 mth FT)
Application deadlines
Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through a competitive process.
Please be aware that applications must be submitted and be complete, i.e. all required documents uploaded, by the relevant application deadline in order to be considered in that round. Your application will still be considered if you have not yet met the English language requirement for the programme.
Deadlines for applicants applying to study in 2024/25:
| Round | Application deadline | Places awarded by |
| 1 | 06 November 2023 | 14 December 2023 |
| 2 | 08 January 2024 | 29 February 2024 |
| 3 | 20 March 2024 | 10 May 2024 |
| 4 | 14 June 2024 | 24 July 2024 |
(Revised 18 October 2023 to add in the staged admissions deadlines for the 2024/25 academic year)
You must submit a portfolio as part of your application. You won't be able to submit your portfolio immediately, but you'll receive an email prompt within a few days of submitting your application that will explain how to upload your portfolio. You should upload your video to a website of your choice (eg YouTube, Vimeo etc) and add the link to the portfolio upload section of your online application. We do not accept film links that require a password or login to access.
Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
PhD in Cinema Studies. Apply. Spring 2024 Courses. Fall 2023 Courses. The PhD curriculum draws on the methods of a number of disciplines, including art history, cultural studies, American studies, psychoanalytic theory, and philosophy. It involves intensive seminar level study in film theory, history and research methods.
The Graduate Program in Film and Media Studies. Inaugurated in 2002, Yale's doctoral Program in Film and Media Studies quickly achieved the international stature it enjoys today. Building on a core faculty that had long overseen an impressive undergraduate major, the graduate program attracted incoming faculty who were eager to help shape it.
Graduate. The Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) at Harvard offers a graduate program in Film and Visual Studies leading to a PhD. The Department also offers a secondary field in Film and Visual Studies for students already admitted to PhD programs in other departments in the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts ...
The Cinema and Media Studies Ph.D. program explores the intricate histories, aesthetics, and cultural impacts of visual media. The Cinema & Media Studies (CMS) Program at UCLA has played a central role in the development of the field, notably through scholarship grounded in critical theory, cultural studies, close textual analysis, archive ...
Film. Columbia University's School of the Arts houses one of the top-ranked film schools in the world. Under the leadership of the late Milos Forman —the Oscar-winning director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus —Columbia's Graduate Film Program became renowned for its devotion to story, its uniquely integrated curriculum ...
The Ph.D. in film and video studies program at Cornell University builds advanced competency in film through specialized study. The private university offers competitive doctoral programs in 106 subject areas. Many of the doctoral programs offer online options in addition to on-campus enrollment.
Graduate Film. Be a part of the next wave. The Graduate Film program is an intensive three-year conservatory in the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television that trains students in the art of cinematic storytelling. We focus on helping writer/directors develop a narrative voice and the technical virtuosity to express that voice in cinema.
message from our Director of Graduate Studies! Contact. Director of Graduate Studies: James Tweedie ([email protected]) Graduate Program Advisor: Yuko Mera ([email protected]) Introduction. Our five-year Ph.D. program concentrates on scholarship and research as preparation for teaching at the university or college level in cinema and media studies.
It is no stretch to say that the University of Iowa helped to invent Film Studies as a discipline. The first graduate thesis on film at UIowa dates all the way back to 1916, and our own program has been producing doctoral work in Film Studies since 1960 (when John Kuiper wrote a dissertation on Sergei Eisenstein in what was then called the Division of Radio, Television and Film).
Film & Media Studies is an interdisciplinary field. Students have the option to apply for admission to one of two tracks within the program: either solely to the PhD in Film & Media Studies or to a combined program track involving one of the following disciplines: African American Studies, American Studies, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Literatures, English, French, German ...
Select "Film Studies-PHD" then choose English as your area of specialization on another pull-down menu. Contact the Film and Media Studies program with questions (Neepa Majumdar, Director of Graduate Studies), or for more information see the Interdisciplinary PhD in Film and Media Studies page. The requirements for the degree are below. Coursework
Film Directing. This unique MFA program in narrative filmmaking fosters the individual voice of the filmmaker in developing innovative approaches to narrative in cinema. Students work closely with FDP faculty, guided principally by their mentor, who helps guide their course of study as they create a body of work that best illustrates their ...
The graduate emphasis in Film and Media Studies prepares students in any M.A., Ph.D., or M.F.A. program to analyze film and media texts, contexts, and industries. The emphasis requires that students complete four seminars, two of which are in the Film and Media Studies PhD core series (FMS 285A-C, FMS 286A-C) and two of which may be Film and ...
Research profile. The PhD in Film Studies is a three-year full-time or six-year part-time degree programme, which allows you to pursue a research topic in depth and produce a thesis of approximately 80,000 words. As well as being a highly respected qualification from a top-ranking university, a postgraduate research degree in film studies ...
The mission of the concentration in Screenwriting & Directing is to rigorously train storytellers in film, television, and digital media. This concentration is specifically for students who intend to immerse themselves in the art of both writing and directing, many of whom will go on to become writer-directors. Students are exposed to the ...
Students begin the program as writer-directors, but are trained in the whole range of filmmaking skills. Coursework focuses on providing the skills to write, shoot, direct, edit, design, record and produce their own and each other's films. While we aim for students to achieve basic mastery of the classic tools of the film director, the ...
Film Direction & Production via distance learning. This Doctor Ph.D. Degree highlights the major responsibilities of a film director explicitly: on-screen image creation, camera movements, lighting, actors' direction, dialogue, story-boarding, and scene breakdown. It explores the relationship between the director and all the elements of ...
2024-25 Edition. Film and Media Studies, Ph.D. The Film and Media Studies Ph.D. program is dedicated to understanding film, television, and digital media texts in relation to questions of power, inequality, and difference. Students are encouraged to think critically about questions of aesthetics, production, and cultural meaning as they ...
1. American Film Institute. LOS ANGELES. The prestigious graduate program consistently churns out Oscar winners, including CODA director and 2022 Oscar winner Sian Heder, and blockbuster directors ...
Chair, Graduate Film. Barbara Schock. Head of Directing. Kasi Lemmons. Spike Lee. Artistic Director of the Graduate Film Program and the Amy and Joseph Perella Chair. Todd Solondz. Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. Sameh Zoabi. YEMANE DEMISSIE
PhD in Performing and Media Arts. The graduate program in performing and media arts at Cornell University offers students an interdisciplinary environment in which to pursue critical studies of various dramatic cultures, theatrical traditions, film and media productions, and expressive behavior in multilingual, intermedial, and globalizing ...
To learn more about Howard University's MFA Film Program, contact Dr. Montré Aza Missouri, Director of the Graduate Film Program. APPLY TO MFA FILM FOR FALL 2023 "Howard's history and influence as an academic institution is known the world over. The film school, considering the talents it has produced, also has a legendary reputation.
Graduate films do well internationally, regularly winning BAFTAs, ... MA Film Directing has been awarded the ScreenSkills Tick, a rigorous assessment process conducted by experts working in the Creative Screen Industries. The ScreenSkills Tick is the industry kitemark of quality, awarded to practice-based courses which best prepare students for ...