Content
The optional modules listed are those that are most likely to be available, but they may be subject to change.
Year one
You will study:
- Film Style and Meaning
- The Movie Experience: Audience, Culture and Taste
- Hollywood and Beyond: Commerce, Creativity and Authorship
- Imagining Realities
- Spectacle, Action, Narrative.
Year two
You will study:
- Hollywood and World Cinema
- British Film and Television
- Adaptation: Screenwriting and Narrative Form
- Screen Representations: Difference and Diversity
- Film Genre
- Professional Writing About Film.
Placement year (if applicable)
If you study on the four year (sandwich) course, you'll spend a year away from the University on a work placement after year two.
You'll complete a placement learning module.
See the Placements and Fees sections for more information.
Final year
You will study:
- Film Studies Independent Project.
Plus, up to four optional modules (up to two if you've completed a placement year) from:
- Contemporary Cinema
- Music, Cinema, Culture
- 'Outsider' Cinema: Indie Films and Cult Movies
- Wallace, Gromit and 'the Green Hollywood': Bristol Film and Television Industries
- Feeling Cinema: Embodiment and Affect
- Stardom: Performance and Agency.
The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved, we will inform you.
This structure is for full-time students only. Part-time students study the same modules but the delivery pattern will be different.
"The knowledge I gained has led me to host film Q&As, participate in industry functions and receive writing commissions. I've also built my skills and confidence for my creative freelance career and as a result, my work has been shown at film festivals and cultural events." Malaika, 2021 Film Studies graduate
Learning and Teaching
Learn through a mix of lectures, screenings, seminars, workshops, individual and small-group tutorials, and technical instruction sessions.
You'll study independently and in groups, defining your own research questions and focusing on the issues and ideas that interest you most. You'll be guided and supported by a team of leading film scholars.
Learn to write about film in different contexts, and to present your ideas in various different formats, including audio-visual essays, magazine features, reviews and blogs, as well as traditional academic essays.
Become adept at using programs and platforms that will be valuable in your career, such as Powerpoint, Adobe Premiere, Wordpress and screenplay-writing software.
Take part in workshops to build your critical reading, writing and information gathering skills. Develop your expertise as a researcher. Learn to pitch ideas, develop proposals, write scripts, design blogs and plan festivals. Work with active researchers shaping new thinking in the field.
In your Final year, you can opt to write a traditional dissertation, screenplay or portfolio of reviews and critical writing. Or you can make an audio-visual essay, design a film festival, or develop a project based on your summer work experience.
See our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.
Get involved
Look forward to plenty of opportunities to network, take part in projects, and collaborate in Bristol and beyond.
Set up your own social and creative enterprises, such as websites, blogs, zines and events. Post film reviews and write about film for UWE Bristol's magazines, newspapers and blogs. And indulge your love of the arts and help bring creative works to life at our Centre for Music.
UWE Bristol staff, students and graduates founded Bristol Radical Film Festival and Compass Presents. We also introduce films for South West Silents and The Bristol Bad Film Club, and help to organise Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend.
Join UWE Bristol's Anime, Bad Film and Filmmaking societies, enjoy free films at the campus SceneIT cinema, and participate in regular film festivals and events across the city.
Assessment
You'll be assessed in a number of ways honing your critical, creative and practical skills. You'll be assessed through essays and exams, audio-visual essays, festival programming and different kinds of film writing - from publicity materials and reviews to features and blogs.
Learn more about assessments.