Stream

Film Studies - FILMA14043

Stream Summary

Faculty: ARTSC - Faculty of Arts&Social Science

School: School of the Arts and Media

Contact: School of the Arts and Media

Program: 4043 - Social Work (Honours) / Arts

Award(s):

Bachelor of Arts (Major)

View stream information for previous years

Stream Outline

This stream structure is for students commencing prior to 2016.

Students commencing from 2016 should refer to the relevant stream version for their program. Please click here for a complete list of programs in which Film Studies can be studied.


The Film Studies major stream offers a comprehensive and innovative course of study that provides students with the critical and practical skills to understand, analyse, and work with the most popular art form of the 20th and 21st centuries. Film Studies courses include historical, theoretical, and cross-cultural studies of film as well as practical courses in video production. Our Film Studies major stream provides students with intensive study of the discipline, while also enabling them to understand the relations between the discipline and its concerns and other disciplinary fields in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Film Studies contributes to and has its origins in a range of disciplinary fields in the Humanities, including Philosophy and Critical Theory, Aesthetics, Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Gender Studies. For this reason Film Studies is a discipline that enables students to explore a range of debates in the Humanities as they inform—and are informed by—the film and media landscape and its impact on contemporary life. Our courses enable students to study film and related media forms in their historical, cultural, and technological contexts and provide students with an international perspective on the place and history of film in the global media culture.

Subject-specific aims of the major stream:
  • To teach the methods of analysis and thinking specific to the discipline of Film Studies
  • To generate a broad understanding of the historical development of film as both a specific medium and as part of a constantly evolving media landscape
  • To develop an understanding of the questions and issues pertinent to an Australian production context
  • To develop an understanding of the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of film form
  • To acquire an understanding of a range of national and international contexts for filmmaking
  • To promote skills in both practical and theoretical analysis of film texts and film culture
  • To develop in students an ability to link creative production with theoretical and critical knowledge

Stream Structure

A student who wishes to gain a major stream in Film Studies must complete 54 units of credit including 12 uoc at level 1, at least 18 uoc at level 2 including the core course ARTS2061 Contemporary Approaches and at least 18 uoc at level 3 including the capstone course.

Level 1

Level 2
Students must complete the core course:
AND at least two of the following courses:
The following courses from other subject areas can also be counted towards the Film Studies major stream:

Level 3
Film Studies Capstone course (Compulsory)
Film Studies

Study Levels

UNSW Quick Links