The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2024)
8
8th for Film (Communication and Media Studies)
The Complete University Guide (2025)
Why Lancaster?
Deepen your knowledge of global film history through our innovative programme while also gaining practical film making experience
Enjoy 24/7 access to our editing suites and specialist equipment, including cinema-ready digital cameras
Feel inspired as you learn from our team of distinguished academics
Make use of Lancaster’s stunning surroundings for the perfect film setting – cityscape, rural backdrop or coastal charm
Equip yourself for an exciting career in film production, the creative industries and related professions such as media or advertising
From studying silent cinema or exploring the James Bond franchise to delving into modern day Asian British films, our degree helps you explore cinema’s cultural and political importance while perfecting your film making skills.
Putting theory into practice
You’ll study cinema history and analyse the significance of films in society. Benefit from our varied programme as you learn about the Hollywood industry alongside world cinema or explore the development of film and comic books.
At the same time, you’ll be developing your practical skills in our film production modules by experimenting with narrative films or documentaries. You can also get involved with our student film journal, Cut/To, which includes video essays and spotlight interviews.
First-class resources
We provide top-of-the-line production equipment so you can create your own original content. Make use of our cinema-ready digital cameras with prime lenses, DSLR cameras, versatile set lighting, grip equipment and the full Adobe Creative Cloud in our acoustic editing suites.
You’ll benefit from our partnership with the British Film Institute by attending our joint master classes and visiting their film archive. In addition, we sometimes organise trips to places like Media City in Salford, Greater Manchester. You can also get involved with our active film production society or student-run Cut/To film journal.
Flexibility
In the first year, there is a focus on increasing your knowledge and skills in your major degree subject. You will also have the option to complement your degree studies with a module in a 'minor subject'. Please contact the department for further details.
Cutting-edge production facilities, a strong theoretical grounding, and a global perspective on film. Hear what Film Studies at Lancaster University could offer to you.
Students at work
You’ll be developing your practical skills in our film production modules by experimenting with narrative films or documentaries. We provide top-of-the-line production equipment so you can create your own original content.
Practical experience
You will have the opportunity to produce short films in all three years of your study.
Interesting surroundings
Make use of Lancaster’s stunning surroundings for the perfect film setting – cityscape, rural backdrop or coastal charm.
Film production
Gain practical film-making skills and an understanding of film production.
Production equipment
We provide top-of-the-line production equipment so you can create your own original content. Enjoy 24/7 access to our editing suites and specialist equipment, including cinema-ready digital cameras.
Showcase your films
Every year our final year students showcase their films in a major degree show exhibition, that is open to the public.
Careers
By the end of your course in film studies, you’ll be equipped to follow many exciting careers. Some of our graduates go on to production roles at independent film companies or at the BBC and ITV. Others decide to follow a related profession such as marketing.
Employers will value your range of transferable skills including your analytical thinking, writing ability and research, as well as the practical side.
Just some of the careers our graduates have gone on to include:
Media production
Advertising
Marketing
Broadcast and print journalism
Our graduates have a good track record of being accepted into the London Film School, the Met Film School, the National Film and Television School, as well as the New York Film Academy for further vocational training.
Our programme also acts as a good springboard for those wanting to go into teaching or carry out postgraduate research in film, such as our MA in Film Studies.
Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring that you gain a highly reputable degree. We are also dedicated to ensuring that you graduate with relevant life and work-based skills. We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award, which offers you the opportunity to complete activities such as work experience, employability/career development, campus community and social development.
Required Subjects Film, Media or one other humanities subject considered desirable but not essential
IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.
Other Qualifications
International Baccalaureate 32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects
BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Merit
We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.
Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and some which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
This module will introduce you to key methods, tools and critical concepts used by academics to understand a broad range of creative work, its discussion and practice historically and today. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, you are encouraged to think of yourself as a "creative critic" who uses intelligent observations about the creative world to inform your own practice of writing and making.
This module introduces you to university-level study of the arts, and their contexts and interrelations. In this first block, during the first term, students on the Film, Art, Design, and Theatre programmes will work together in mixed seminar groups to explore the different ways in which creative practitioners respond to the world around them. You will be introduced to key critical concepts used by academics to understand the role of creative work historically and today.
This module is designed to supplement and enhance the essential knowledge and skills covered in “Introduction to Film Studies”, and develops the study skills that you will require as you progress through the course. It will be taught through lectures, seminars and weekly screenings of case study films, including themes such as Hitchcock and silent cinema in Britain, the Ealing comedies of the 1950’s, the James Bond Franchise, and contemporary Asian British cinema.
This module is intended to provide you with the essential knowledge and competencies to undertake the academic study of film at university level. The first term provides you with an understanding of the formal and technical composition of films to allow you to undertake detailed analysis of films, from the level of close scrutiny of individual images, and their interrelation with the soundtrack, to the narrative assembly of shots and scenes. Through the analysis of a range of examples, you will be given the opportunity to become familiar with the key formal and semantic conventions of cinema. The second term aims to provide you with a framework knowledge of world film history. By focusing on a selection of key films and filmmakers, this section of the module will explore historically significant movements and themes within international cinema from the 1960s to the present day. This term is thematically organized around issues of ideology and realism, and explores the shifting social and political status of cinema during the last century. In the third term you will undertake a practical project, working with a small group to produce a short film.
Core
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This core module has two main objectives. Firstly, it is designed to develop further your analytical skills in order to examine individual films in greater detail. Secondly, it is intended to encourage you to understand world cinema in relation to a variety of social, cultural, political and industrial contexts.
The module will explore such issues as the relationship between film form and modes of production (from industrial film-making through to low-budget art film), theories of film style and aesthetics, and the political function of cinema.
The module consists of two interwoven strands, one strand focusing on various modes of American film production, the other exploring films from a number of different national traditions. Across the whole module, you will gain a thorough grasp not only of the historical factors shaping various national and international cinemas, but also of some key critical and theoretical concepts within the field of film studies.
Optional
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Critical Reflections explores a number of key interdisciplinary philosophical and cultural theories and concepts such as: Aesthetics, Formalism, Phenomenology, Semiotics, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Class, Society, Feminism, Queer Theory and Gender, Difference and Postcolonialism. This will enable you to analyse, engage with, and reflect upon artworks in your own discipline. It also allows you to establish a common set of concepts which can be shared by students from different LICA subjects including Design, Film, Fine Art and Theatre; with ideas and examples specifically tailored towards these disciplines.
Documentary Film Practice is a practice-based module. You’ll work in small groups to make a short documentary film. In order to take this module you must have taken Documentary Cultures in your first year. The module builds on knowledge acquired.
By undertaking a practical project in Documentary Film Practice, students are expected to apply theoretical knowledge gained in the Documentary Cultures module to a practical project. As well as applying theory to practice, the module aims to enhance your filmmaking skills, with training provided for camera operation, sound recording and editing skills. You will also have the opportunity to develop skills in group work.
This module explores different approaches to both the analysis and the production of documentary film. As well as considering a range of styles of documentary film, typically including expository, poetic, observational, reflexive, political, and personal modes of documentary film, you will also examine key debates concerning the ethics of documentary filmmaking. An indicative list of film screenings includes Nanook of the North, Grey Gardens, Dont Look Back [sic], The Arbor, Sans Soleil, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Gleaners and I, and The Act of Killing.
The module aims to develop an understanding of historically important European films from the 1950s to the 1980s and the stylistic and historical significance of these films. It will explore the thematic importance of these films and consider the critical debates relating to this period of filmmaking enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the conditions of production, reception and distribution of these films.
This module examines a historical genre that now occupies the economic centre of Hollywood film production. The module focuses centrally on film and comic book aesthetics; on questions of narration and visual depiction in these two related media; on the shifting norms of this film genre in relation to technological change across history; and on the significance and uses of the comic-book film in society. The module develops ideas and skills introduced in the core Film Studies modules taken as part of the film studies and combined degrees.
This third-year course will add to the theoretical, historical and cultural aspects of film investigated in Years 1 and 2, while focusing more closely on the challenging aesthetic and critical debates surrounding the concept of modernity. It will look at films made in the silent era, in post-war Europe and in Britain and the US. Writings on film will be considered in conjunction with viewings of particular films, close analysis of specific filmic techniques and methods, and historical and theoretical approaches to film. The course will also pay attention to the debates of classical and contemporary film theory, feminist approaches and other critical traditions (semiotics, structuralism, formalism, cognitivism). Students will be introduced to key debates in classical and contemporary film theory, with topics exploring the relations between film and art, cinema and politics, cinema and psychoanalysis, and, above all, the question of how films produce meaning(s).
In the Short Film Production module you will develop, produce and complete a short dramatic film. You will be taught and given the opportunity to follow industry standard practices throughout your project. You’ll participate in at least two class productions as both a key role member (roles like Writer/Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, and Sound Designer/Editor) and a minor role member (roles like Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, Assistant Camera, Gaffer, Grip, Sound Recordist, Boom Operator, and etc.). You’ll keep a production diary outlining your individual contributions, and be given the opportunity to gain real world experience of what working on a film production is like in the various roles. You’ll write up your experiences in an essay critically analysing the production process and outcomes.
You will need to have completed Introduction to Film Studies to take this module.
This module aims to give students a grounding in “the contemporary” as a key critical concept used in artistic discourses, and provide a number of ways that students can explore and articulate their own contemporaneity. In conversation with cutting edge ideas from art, science, technology and popular culture, the module will enable participants to discuss and identify what they are contemporaries of, how they relate to their own time as artists, citizens and critical writers and what this necessitates in their own practices.
Students will engage in critical discussion of key terms used to define the current moment, such as Anthropocene, Singularity, Post-Truth, and Globalisation, as well as understanding how particular technologies and phenomena, such as distributed and decentralised networks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are reshaping the contexts in which the arts are made. These topics are explored through lectures and seminar discussions in which students are encouraged to produce and define their own position and modes for articulating what makes them contemporary.
The module is designed for creative students who wish to use writing and material practice to explore their own relationship to the ecologies, politics, trends, technologies, and aesthetics that typify our experience of the world today.
This module will explore the work of some of the most historically important female film-makers from the 1890s through to the present, considering films from around the globe. The module will examine the significant but often marginalized and obscured roles that women have played in industrial, experimental and avant-garde film production across a spectrum of roles from costume and production designers through to screen-writers, editors and directors. You will be invited to reflect upon the fact that, despite playing key roles in the development of the medium, women continue to be excluded at all levels of film production. The decision by Hollywood star and activist Geena Davis to establish a campaigning ‘Institute on Gender in Media’ is a measure of the urgency of this subject.
The module will engage with revisionist film histories concerned with interrogating the dominant bias of academic and popular histories of the medium; it will also draw on feminist film theory concerned both with a critical understanding of mainstream cinema and the development of politicized women’s cinemas. The module will examine a series of female directors and their work, and each week will be oriented around the screening of a case study film that will be the focus for the seminar. An example of directors included is Alice Guy-Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Leni Riefenstahl, Ida Lupino, Laura Mulvey, Mira Nair, Kathryn Bigelow, Marziyeh Meshkini, Lynne Ramsay.
Assessment is by a combination of coursework essay and exam.
Core
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This module allows you to undertake a major independent research project on a topic of your choice, presented in the form of a dissertation or a practice-based project and an essay. The module is taught through lectures focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision. Upon completion, you will be able to demonstrate your ability to undertake a major project that includes conducting research, engaging in a sustained critical analysis of relevant texts, building an argument and applying this to practice.
Optional
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This module explores the history and theory of African American cinema, primarily since the 1960s, focussing on the complicated relationship between this filmmaking tradition and mainstream (Hollywood) projections of blackness. Chronologically organized, it starts with the work of Oscar Micheaux and the “race” films of the 1920s and 1930s, ending with films made in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as Dee Rees’s Pariah and Mudbound,Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise, Ava DuVernay’s Selma and 13th, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and Ryan Cooglar’s Fruitvale Station and Black Panther.
On the way to the 21st century, you will examine the cross-over stardom of Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) in the context of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the rise of blaxploitation cinema (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Shaft, Superfly, Coffy and The Spook Who Sat by the Door) in the context of Black Power in the late 1960s and the political disillusionment of the 1970s. Blaxploitation’s commercial breakthrough is compared to films by members of the “Los Angeles Rebellion”, such as Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) and Haile Gerima (Bush Mama), who strived for an alternative independent black film aesthetic.
These contrasting legacies are connected to the rise of hip hop cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, in the work of Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) and the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society).
This module centres on the artistically and politically adventurous phase of American filmmaking circa 1967-1979. Typically topics studied include:
Introduction – Hollywood breakdown (Easy Rider, Medium Cool)
The future of allusion: New Hollywood’s nostalgic mode (The Godfather)
Popular feminism (Klute, Woman Under the Influence)
Politics and conspiracy (The Parallax View, All The President’s Men)
Exploitation cinema II: horror/body genres (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Blockbuster cinema and the franchise film (Star Wars)
The end of the New (Apocalypse Now)
This module explores Hong Kong cinema from the mid-1980s up to the present – an era whose beginning witnesses the international breakthrough of a new wave of local filmmakers, and which goes on to encompass the early 1990s’ production surge, the 1997 handover to mainland China, the crippling economic crisis, and the outbreak of the SARS virus. The module will give you the opportunity to develop an understanding of a number of basic industrial, aesthetic, social and cultural trends marking Hong Kong films in the contemporary era. These include the emergence and impact of independent production; the rise of ‘high-concept’ filmmaking; the movement toward pan-Asian co-productions; the importance and cross-marketing of star performers and local musical traditions such as Cantopop; the popularity of genres like the swordplay film; and aesthetic tendencies such as episodic plotting and the narrative ‘thematisation’ of politics and identity. Emphasis will be placed not only on representative mainstream product, but also on the emergence of a distinct Hong Kong art cinema, whose presence and success on the international festival circuit has brought artistic credibility to a predominantly popular cinema, and which has heralded the arrival of a fresh wave of local ‘auteur’ filmmakers.
This module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the ways in which creative practitioners produce and deliver their work. It will provide an overview of the challenges faced by freelance practitioners, producers and small cultural companies within the creative industries. You will also develop a working understanding of the key management and enterprise skills involved in delivering creative projects. Working in groups you will put your learning into practice through the delivery of your own live creative arts project. This will enable you to understand the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours relevant for employment in the arts and creative industries.
The Experimental Cinema module introduces you to the non-mainstream, avant-garde, modes of production and the key movements and practices since the 1920s. You will be given the opportunity to study the theoretical concepts of historical and contemporary avant-garde movements and practices and witness the different ways artists and filmmakers have challenged the mainstream narrative and stylistic conventions. Throughout this module you will look at important figures in the development of experimental film aesthetics such as Man Ray, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Chantal Akerman as well as some lesser known, emerging contemporary experimental filmmakers.
The first half of the module provides a conceptual and historical overview of avant-garde filmmaking and the second half will focus on contemporary debates and the institutional shift in experimental film production with the rise of digital technology. As well as having the opportunity to develop an understanding of experimental cinema through reading and writing research papers, you will have a chance to engage with the formal and technical aspects of making an experimental film through practice-based assignments.
You will need to have completed Short Film Production or Documentary Film Practice in order to take this module.
This module covers topics such as: the infrastructures and locations of cinema; the evolution of film exhibition and distribution; film festivals in a global context; the role of film archives and cinematheques; film criticism; digital film cultures and networks of informal distribution.
Students develop a comprehensive understanding of cinema as a socio-cultural institution, by considering film in terms of circulation, reception, and heritage. This approach entails a focus on the role of mediators (i.e. programmers, distributors, critics) and locations (i.e movie theatres, film festivals, archives) in shaping the consumption and preservation of film.
The module provides historical and analytical skills to understand the evolution of film cultures from modernity to the contemporary digital age. This holistic perspective is achieved by combining theoretical components with the discussion of case studies from a variety of cultural contexts and locations (e.g. the introduction of cinema theatres in colonial Nigeria, the multiplex in India, the birth of film festivals in Europe and their contemporary role in the promotion of Latin American and Middle Eastern cinema).
Students develop skills throughout the module by collectively managing and producing content for a blog expanding on the topics discussed in class. The weekly updates will be developed and discussed at seminars, and peer-assessed on a routine basis. In order to articulate their personal contribution to the blog, each student writes a short reflective piece on their experience, as well as an individual essay on a case study of their choice.
This module offers a broad overview of the history of the musical genre in cinema. It begins by examining the use of sound in silent cinema before focusing on the original success of musicals with the arrival of synchronised sound in 1927. The module then tracks the success of movie musicals from the 1930s-1950s, with particular focus on Hollywood successes of MGM, Busby Berkeley, the Astaire-Rogers cycle and the emergence of the self-reflexive musical. Elements of the Hollywood musical in the 1960s and beyond are then studied, with a focus on the importance of the musical soundtrack in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and other films. The module will also examine other traditions where the Musical has been significant, such as India and France. In addition to this, aspects of race, gender and sexuality in the movie musical will be discussed. Some recent Hollywood successes (such as La La Land [2016] or The Greatest Showman [2017]) are studied towards the end of the module in the light of the Musical tradition
This module offers an introduction to the broad area of silent cinema and to a range of critical approaches to this rich area of study. You will have the opportunity to view and analyse a number of important films. We will also explore a number of critical questions raised by this material with regard to the writing and study of histories of cinema (and popular culture in general). We will examine the relationships between technology and form, the economics of film production, distribution and reception, the relationship between cinema and national identity, the social and cultural impact of new (entertainment) media and the study of cinema audiences.
‘Transgressive Cinema’ is a practice-based module that aims to broaden students’ understanding of film as a form of political enquiry. The module introduces students to critical practices in film, video and expanded cinema that favour process over the end-product. Among the key questions the module addresses are the following: How can film go beyond describing and critiquing the world “as is” and constitute the critique formally? What are the political implications of a film’s formal construction? How do we identify legacies of colonialism in filmic construction and how do we challenge them through creatives devices that transgressive cinema offers? How do we problematise the dominant forms of spectatorship in film practice?
So, while these questions involve rigorous thinking, in practice the module offers a platform where playful experimentations are encouraged. Bringing critical thinking and making into focus, the module invites students to re-examine the dominant aesthetic and narrative conventions of the film/video medium and explore formal elements and their political implications in theory and by practice.
Over the course of this module, students will engage in topics such as: - What is "transgressive cinema" (historically and in recent practices) - Materialist film practices in Britain and the wider European context (1965-1985) - Challenging the perception of language: use of voice, narration, and text as image - Identity politics and video - Queer practices - Performing to camera - Camera-less films - Expanded Cinema - Multiple screens - Abstract film and video. These topics will be explored by students via watching the assigned films, discussing the relevant texts in relation to films and responding to series of practical briefs/tasks to experiment with those ideas.
Fees and funding
Our annual tuition fee is set for a 12-month session, starting in the October of your year of study.
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small college membership fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2024, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2025 have not yet been set.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Study abroad courses
In addition to travel and accommodation costs, while you are studying abroad, you will need to have a passport and, depending on the country, there may be other costs such as travel documents (e.g. VISA or work permit) and any tests and vaccines that are required at the time of travel. Some countries may require proof of funds.
Placement and industry year courses
In addition to possible commuting costs during your placement, you may need to buy clothing that is suitable for your workplace and you may have accommodation costs. Depending on the employer and your job, you may have other costs such as copies of personal documents required by your employer for example.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
Home fees are subject to annual review, and may be liable to rise each year in line with UK government policy. International fees (including EU) are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
We will charge tuition fees to Home undergraduate students on full-year study abroad/work placements in line with the maximum amounts permitted by the Department for Education. The current maximum levels are:
Students studying abroad for a year: 15% of the standard tuition fee
Students taking a work placement for a year: 20% of the standard tuition fee
International students on full-year study abroad/work placements will be charged the same percentages as the standard International fee.
Please note that the maximum levels chargeable in future years may be subject to changes in Government policy.
Scholarships and bursaries
You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.
You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status:
Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.
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We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.
The information on this site relates primarily to 2025/2026 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.
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