MarylinBrantley at 00:07, 28 February 2026

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{{Short description|Academic discipline focused on cinema}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Distinguish|cinematography|film criticism}}
[[File:Filmstudiesphoto1.jpg|thumb|Film-screening room at [[Georgetown University]], [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Film studies''' is an academic discipline that deals with various [[film theory|theoretical]], [[history of film|historical]], and [[film criticism|critical]] approaches to [[film|cinema]] as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within [[media studies]] and is often compared to [[television studies]].<ref name="Dyer" />

Film studies is less concerned with advancing proficiency in [[Filmmaking|film production]] than it is with exploring the [[Narrative film|narrative]], artistic, cultural, economic, and political implications of the cinema.<ref name="Dyer">{{Cite book |title=Film Studies: Critical Approaches |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-874280-0 |editor-last=Gibson |editor-first=Pamela Church |location=Oxford |pages=1–8 |chapter=Introduction |oclc=42835361 |editor-last2=Dyer |editor-first2=Richard |editor-last3=Kaplan |editor-first3=E. Ann |editor-last4=Willemen |editor-first4=Paul}}</ref> In searching for these social-ideological values, film studies takes a series of critical approaches for the analysis of production, theoretical framework, context, and creation.<ref>Sikov, Ed. 2010. "Introduction." Pp. 1–4 in ''Film Studies: An Introduction''. New York: Columbia UP. Print. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zbCK8ETCWzwC&q=film+studies Google Books]</ref> Also, in studying film, possible careers include critic or production. Overall the study of film continues to grow, as does the [[Film industry|industry]] on which it focuses.

[[List of film periodicals|Academic journals]] publishing film studies work include ''[[Sight and Sound]]'', ''[[Film Comment]]'', ''[[Film International]]'', ''[[CineAction]]'', ''[[Screen (journal)|Screen]]'', ''[[Journal of Cinema and Media Studies]]'', ''[[Film Quarterly]]'', and ''[[Journal of Film and Video]]''.

==History==
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2024}}
Film studies as an academic discipline emerged in the 20th century, decades after [[History of film technology#First motion pictures|the invention of motion pictures]]. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of film production, film studies are concentrated on [[film theory]], which approaches film critically as an art, and the writing of [[film historiography]]. Because film became an invention and industry only in the late 19th century, a generation of film producers and [[Film director|directors]] existed significantly before the academic analysis that followed in later generations.

Early [[film school]]s focused on the production and subjective critique of film rather than on the critical approaches, history and theory used to study academically. The concept of film studies arose as a means of analyzing the formal aspects of film as the films were created. Established in 1919, the [[Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography|Moscow Film School]] was the first school in the world to focus on film. In the United States, the [[USC School of Cinematic Arts]], established in 1929, was the first cinematic-based school, which was created in agreement with the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]. It was also the first to offer an [[academic major]] in film in 1932, but the program lacked many of the distinctions associated with contemporary film study. Universities began to implement cinema-related curricula without separation of the abstract and practical approaches.

The German ''Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg'' was founded during the era of the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] in 1938. Its lecturers included [[Willi Forst]] and [[Heinrich George]]. Students were required to create films in order to complete their studies at the academy.

A movement away from [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] productions in the 1950s turned cinema into a more artistic [[independent films|independent]] endeavor. It was the creation of the [[auteur theory]], which examines film as the director's vision and art, that broadened the scope of academic film studies to a worldwide presence in the 1960s. In 1965, film critic [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]], in his writings on [[Alfred Hitchcock]], declared that Hitchcock's films contained the same complexities of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s plays.<ref>Grant, Barry Keith. ''Film Study in the Undergraduate Curriculum''. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1983.15. Print.</ref> Similarly, French director [[Jean Luc Godard]], a contributor to the influential magazine ''[[Cahiers du Cinéma]]'', wrote: "Jerry Lewis [...] is the only one in Hollywood doing something different, the only one who isn't falling in with the established categories, the norms, the principles. [...] Lewis is the only one today who's making courageous films."<ref>{{cite book|editor=Jim Hillier|title=Cahiers du Cinema 1960–1968 New Wave, New Cinema, Re-evalutating Hollywood (Godard in interview with Jacques Bontemps, Jean-Louis Comolli, Michel Delahaye, and Jean Narboni)|year=1987|page=295|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674090651}}</ref>

A catalyst in the success and stature of academic film studies has been large donations to universities by successful commercial filmmakers. For example, director [[George Lucas]] donated $175 million to the [[USC School of Cinematic Arts]] in 2006.<ref name="la">{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/education/highered/la-125highed-11,0,2054908,full.story?coll=la-home-right2 |title=LA's Screen Gems |first=Rachel |last=Abramowitz |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |year=2010 |access-date=18 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124180156/http://www.latimes.com/news/education/highered/la-125highed-11,0,2054908,full.story?coll=la-home-right2 |archive-date=24 January 2010 }}</ref>

== Approaches to film studies ==
{{Main|Film theory}}

* [[Analytic philosophy|Analytic]]
** [[Cognitivism (aesthetics)|Cognitive film theory]]
** [[Historical poetics]]
** [[Linguistic film theory]]
** [[Neoformalism (film theory)|Neoformalism]]
* [[Classical Hollywood cinema|Classical]]
** [[Formalist film theory]]
* [[Continental philosophy|Continental]]
** [[Feminist film theory]]
** [[Film semiotics]]
** [[Marxist film theory]]
** [[Psychoanalytic film theory]]
** [[Screen theory]]
** [[Structuralist film theory]]
* [[Film criticism|Criticism]]
** [[Auteur theory]]
** [[Schreiber theory]]
* [[Historiographical]]
** [[History of film|Film history]]
** [[History of film technology]]
** [[New Cinema History|New cinema history]]
** [[Media archaeology]]

== Modern film studies ==
Today, film studies are taught worldwide and has grown to encompass numerous methods for teaching history, culture and society. Many [[liberal arts]] colleges and universities, as well as American high schools, contain courses specifically focused on the analysis of film.<ref name="colbo">{{cite web
|url= http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/majors/50.0601.html
|title= Major:Film Studies
|publisher= Collegeboard.com
|year= 2010
|access-date= 18 October 2010
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120319201133/http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/majors/50.0601.html
|archive-date= 19 March 2012
|url-status= dead
}}</ref> Modern-day film studies increasingly reflect popular culture and art, and a wide variety of curricula have emerged for analysis of critical approaches used in film.<ref>Grieveson, Lee. "Cinema Studies." ''Inventing Film Studies''. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. 67. Print.</ref> Students are typically expected to form the ability to detect conceptual shifts in film, a vocabulary for the analysis of film form and style, a sense of ideological dimensions of film and an awareness of extra textual domains and possible direction of film in the future.<ref>Dix, Andrew. ''Beginning Film Studies''. Manchester UP. 2-14. Print.[https://books.google.com/books?id=kScbAQAAIAAJ&q=beginning+film+studies Google Books]</ref> Universities often allow students to participate in film research and attend seminars of specialized topics to enhance their critical abilities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gsh.uva.nl/content/masters/film-studies-media-studies/film-studies.html|title=Film Studies (Media Studies) - GSH - University of Amsterdam|last=Amsterdam|first=Universiteit van|date=2019-07-02|website=gsh.uva.nl|language=en|access-date=2019-02-07}}</ref>

===Common curriculum===
{{See also|List of film schools|List of film schools in the United States}}
The curriculum of [[tertiary education|tertiary-level]] film studies programs often include but are not limited to:<ref name="film">{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Film Studies Program |url=http://www.yale.edu/filmstudiesprogram/courselisting.html |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=Yale University}}</ref><ref name="gt">{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Film and Media Studies |url=http://filmandmediastudies.georgetown.edu/ |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=Georgetown University}}</ref><ref name="usc">{{cite web |year=2010 |title=USC School of Cinematic Arts |url=http://cinema.usc.edu/students/schedule.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618065454/https://cinema.usc.edu/students/schedule.htm |archive-date=18 June 2010 |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=University of Southern California}}</ref>
* Introduction to film studies
* Modes of film studies
* Close analysis of film
* History of film/media
* Analysis with emphasis
# Attention to time period
# Attention to regional creation
# Attention to genre
# Attention to creators
* Methods of film production
===American film studies===
A total of 144 [[tertiary institutions]] in the United States offer a major program in film studies.<ref name="colbo" /> This number continues to grow each year with new interest in film studies. Institutions offering film degrees as part of their arts or communications curricula differ from institutions with dedicated film programs.

The success of the American film industry has contributed to the popularity of academic film studies in the U.S., and film-related degrees often enable graduates to pursue careers in the production of film, especially [[Film director|directing]] and [[Film producer|producing]] films.<ref>Polan, Dana, and Haidee Wasson. "Young Art, Old Colleges." Inventing Film Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. Print.</ref> Courses often combine alternate media, such as television or [[new media]], in combination with film studies.<ref>"History of Film Studies in the United States and at Berkeley." Film Studies. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. <{{cite web |url=http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/About_us.html |title=Film Studies |access-date=2010-11-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824061159/http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/About_us.html |archive-date=24 August 2010}}>.</ref>

===Worldwide film studies===
Film-studies programs at all levels<ref>{{Cite web |last=Studyportals |title=PhD Programmes in Film Studies in Europe |url=https://www.phdportal.com/search/phd/film-studies/europe |website=PhD Portal}}</ref> are offered worldwide, primarily in the countries in the [[Global North and Global South|Global North]]. In many cases, film studies can be found in departments of [[media studies]] or [[communication studies]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Communication & Media Studies |url=https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2017/communication-media-studies |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Top Universities |language=en}}</ref> [[List of film archives|Film archives]] and museums such as the [[EYE Film Institute Netherlands|Eye Filmmuseum]] in [[Amsterdam]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Academic |url=https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/academic |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Eye Filmmuseum |language=en}}</ref> also conduct scholarly projects alongside educational and outreach programs.

[[Film festival]]s play an important role in the study of film and may include discourses on topics such as film style, aesthetics, representation, production, distribution, social impact, history, archival and curation. Major festivals such as the [[Cannes Film Festival]]<ref>{{cite news|url = http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cannes_international_film_festival/index.html|title = Cannes International Film Festival|work = The New York Times| first=Manohla | last=Dargis}}</ref> offer extensive programs with talks and panel discussions. They also inform film historiography,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vallejo |first=Aida |date=2020-05-03 |title=Rethinking the canon: the role of film festivals in shaping film history |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411548.2020.1765631 |journal=Studies in European Cinema |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=155–169 |doi=10.1080/17411548.2020.1765631 |issn=1741-1548|url-access=subscription }}</ref> most actively through retrospectives and historical sections such as Cannes Classics.

Film festival [[Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou|FESPACO]] serves as a major hub for discourse on cinema on the African continent.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aveh |first=M. Africanus |date=2020 |title=FESPACO—Promoting African Film Development and Scholarship |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/780256 |journal=Black Camera |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=117–128 |doi=10.2979/blackcamera.12.1.09 |issn=1947-4237|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Prominent scholars==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
*[[Hugo Münsterberg]]
*[[Ricciotto Canudo]]
*[[Germaine Dulac]]
*[[Béla Balázs]]
*[[Siegfried Kracauer]]
*[[Vsevolod Pudovkin]]
*[[Jean Epstein]]
*[[Sergei Eisenstein]]
*[[Lev Kuleshov]]
*[[Jean Mitry]]
*[[Rudolf Arnheim]]
*[[Paul Rotha]]
*[[André Bazin]]
*[[Alexandre Astruc]]
*[[Gilles Deleuze]]
*[[Stanley Cavell]]
*[[Andrew Sarris]]
*[[Jean-Louis Baudry]]
*[[Christian Metz (critic)|Christian Metz]]
*[[François Truffaut]]
*[[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]]
*[[Noël Burch]]
*[[Raymond Durgnat]]
*[[E. Ann Kaplan]]
*[[Jeanine Basinger]]
*[[Teresa de Lauretis]]
*[[Peter Wollen]]
*[[Richard Barsam]]
*[[Teshome Gabriel]]
*[[Raymond Bellour]]
*[[Molly Haskell]]
*[[Marsha Kinder]]
*[[Vivian Sobchack]]
*[[Claire Johnston (film theorist)|Claire Johnston]]
*[[Laura Mulvey]]
*[[Robert Stam]]
*[[James Naremore]]
*[[Bill Nichols (film critic)|Bill Nichols]]
*[[James Monaco]]
*[[Jacques Aumont]]
*[[Pam Cook]]
*[[Peter Bondanella]]
*[[Barbara Creed]]
*[[Jonathan Rosenbaum]]
*[[Thomas Elsaesser]]
*[[Serge Daney]]
*[[Hamid Naficy]]
*[[Richard Dyer]]
*[[Ian Christie (film scholar)|Ian Christie]]
*[[Dudley Andrew]]
*[[Annette Kuhn]]
*[[Janet Staiger]]
*[[Linda Williams (film critic)|Linda Williams]]
*[[Noël Carroll]]
*[[Francesco Casetti]]
*[[David Bordwell]]
*[[Michel Chion]]
*[[B. Ruby Rich]]
*[[Slavoj Žižek]]
*[[Colin MacCabe]]
*[[Kristin Thompson]]
*[[Mary Ann Doane]]
*[[Elizabeth Cowie]]
*[[Jonathan Beller]]
*[[Geoff Andrew]]
*[[Adrian Martin (film critic)|Adrian Martin]]
*[[David Kipen]]
*[[Mark Cousins (film critic)|Mark Cousins]]
{{div col end}}

== Academic journals ==
{{Main|List_of_film_periodicals#Scholarly_journals|l1 = List of film journals}}

* ''[[Cinema Journal]]''
* ''[[Film-Philosophy]]''
* ''[[Film Quarterly]]''
* ''[[Film & History]]''
* ''[[Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television]]''
* ''[[Journal of Film and Video]]''
* ''[[Journal of Popular Film & Television]]''
* ''[[New Review of Film and Television Studies]]''
* ''[[Screen (journal)|Screen]]''
* ''[[The Velvet Light Trap]]''
* ''[[Television & New Media]]''

==See also==
{{portal|Film}}
*[[Audiovisualogy]]
*[[Cinemeducation]], the use of film in medical education
*[[Cinephilia]]
*[[Film genre]]
*[[Filmmaking]]
*[[Glossary of motion picture terms]]
*[[Experimental film]]
*[[Fictional film]]
*[[History of film]]
*[[Philosophy of film]]
*[[Outline of film]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Bergan, Ronald. ''Film''. New York: DK Pub., 2006.
*Dix, Andrew. ''Beginning Film Studies''. Manchester UP.
*Grant, Barry Keith. ''Film Study in the Undergraduate Curriculum''. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1983.
*Osborne, Richard. ''Film Theory for Beginners''. London, Zidane Press. 2016.
*Polan, Dana, and Haidee Wasson. "Young Art, Old Colleges." ''Inventing Film Studies''. Durham: Duke UP, 2008.
*Polan, Dana. ''Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film'' (UC Press, 2007)
*Sikov, Ed. ''Film Studies: an Introduction''. New York: Columbia UP
*Stam, Robert. ''Film Theory: an Introduction''. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000.
*Villarejo, Amy. ''Film Studies: the Basics''. London: Routledge, 2007.

==External links==
{{Wikiversity|Film studies}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20191103092343/http://filmdrippink.com/ FILMdrippink.com - Database providing academic & journalist texts about film & TV]}}
*[http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/ Main website for the Berkeley film studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103092336/http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/ |date=3 November 2019 }}
*[https://www.colorado.edu/cinemastudies/ Main website for the CU Boulder department of Cinema studies]
*[http://cinema.usc.edu/ Main website for USC School of Cinematic Arts]
*[http://www.lafilm.com/ Main website for the Los Angeles Film School]
*[http://www.nyfa.edu/ Main website for the NYFA Film School]
*[http://www.film-tvstudies.com Film Studies in New Delhi, India]
*[http://www.filmconnection.com/Metro-WashingtonDC.html Film Connections in Washington D.C.]
*[http://www.filmsite.org/film100_3.html Website dedicated to the introduction to film art]
*[http://education-portal.com/top_ranked_film_universities_in_united_states.html List of the Top US Film Schools]
*[https://screensite.org/data/data_colleges.php Screensite listing of college film programs]

{{Filmstudies}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Media studies]]

Film studies - Revision history

MarylinBrantley at 00:07, 28 February 2026