Film Studies MA

Year of entry: 2025

Course length: 12 months Full-Time | 24 Months Part-Time

About the course

Our MA Film Studies course has been designed to provide considerable opportunities to study film theory, history and culture, as well as aspects of socially engaged practice. If you want to enhance your artistic or professional career, or if you’re planning to progress to doctoral study, this course is for you.

Our academics cover film, screen and media studies from form and theory to historical and cultural approaches, and from national cinemas to the politics of identity, gender and sexuality and film music. Our department has a distinguished history of critically engaged practice and is a leader in practice as research.

This MA consists of three core units:

Film Theories, Debates and Approaches
Film Cultures: Research, Industries and Practice
Dissertation (Written and Practical)

Students can also do a range of optional units covering national cinemas, adaptation and comparative media, queer cinemas, audience and fan studies and documentary film practice. There are also opportunities for specialist placements giving you industry and cultural sector experience.

These are example course units based on 2024/25 options and are subject to change each year.

Learn more >

2nd in the UK for Drama and Cinematics (Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023).

Have the opportunity to study areas of film theory, history and culture, as well as aspects of socially engaged practice.

Learn from teaching and research active staff who work in close collaboration with cultural partners including HOME, Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology and North West Film Archive.

Where will your degree take you?

By teaching and developing a considerable range of transferable skills, this course opens doors to a wide range of career options. Previous MA students have gone on to take up PhD study, with many then progressing to academic and teaching careers in further and higher education institutions. Other graduates have gone on to work for the BBC, independent television production companies and as festival organisers, as well as in film education and other areas of the film and screen media industry.

Marianne Knowles

MA Film Studies

"The practical options on the fantasy adaptation and directed practice modules gave me the chance to take my scriptwriting and film production skills to the next level. The inspirational lectures and expert tutorials opened my eyes to ground-breaking film works, theoretical knowledge and approaches to creative work which has transformed my practice.’’

Dr MaoHui Deng

Lecturer in Film Studies and the programme director

Dr MaoHui Deng is a Lecturer in Film Studies and the programme director. He is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies. His research is interested in the interdisciplinary conversations between cinema, ageing, and dementia.