About this course
Study film from a variety of perspectives: as popular art, big business and as a cultural record on our film degree with year abroad . Immerse yourself in the subject, from the earliest projected images to the present day. Learn how to view Hollywood blockbusters, European and world cinema with a critical eye. A year abroad will enhance your understanding of visual arts and let you experience a new culture.
You'll study familiar classics alongside contemporary cinema, and genres including:
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film noir
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horror
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science fiction
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documentary
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animation
You'll deepen your understanding and enjoyment of film and develop your critical thinking as part of a lively community.
You'll spend your third year studying at one of our partner universities abroad. Your options include: South Korea, Sweden, Ireland or the Czech Republic – countries with their own distinctive film cultures. You can take lectures in English but may also improve your languages. We'll help you plan your year abroad to suit your interests.
As part of this course you can:
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explore British, European and world cinema
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discover early film through archive visits
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use our extensive library resources, including over 5,800 films from around the world
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take modules from other courses, such as English, history and music
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volunteer at a cinema to develop new skills, such as team leading, projection and digital design
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submit your own film to our annual student film festival
Course location
This course is based at Avenue.
Awarding body
This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.
Download the Course Description Document
The Course Description Document details your course overview, your course structure and how your course is taught and assessed.
Changes due to COVID-19
Although the COVID-19 situation is improving, any future restrictions could mean we might have to change the way parts of our teaching and learning take place in 2021 to 2022. We're working hard to plan for a number of possible scenarios. This means that some of the information on this course page may be subject to change.
Find out more on our COVID advice page.
Entry requirements
For Academic year 202223
A-levels
ABB including an essay writing subject
A-levels additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
A-levels with Extended Project Qualification
If you are taking an EPQ in addition to 3 A levels, you will receive the following offer in addition to the standard A level offer: BBB including an essay writing subject and grade A in the EPQ
A-levels contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all applicants with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise an applicant's potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme, as follows: BBB including an essay writing subject.
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level
International Baccalaureate Diploma additional information
Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
International Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) statement
Offers will be made on the individual Diploma Course subject(s) and the career-related study qualification. The CP core will not form part of the offer. Where there is a subject pre-requisite(s), applicants will be required to study the subject(s) at Higher Level in the Diploma course subject and/or take a specified unit in the career-related study qualification. Applicants may also be asked to achieve a specific grade in those elements. Please see the University of Southampton International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme (IBCP) Statement for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
BTEC
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
BTEC additional information
Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
Access to HE Diploma
60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit, to include 6 Distinctions in an essay writing subject
Access to HE additional information
Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
Irish Leaving Certificate
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2017)
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H3 including an essay writing subject
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2016)
A2 A2 B1 B1 B2 B2 including an essay writing subject at B1
Irish certificate additional information
Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
Scottish Qualification
Offers will be based on exams being taken at the end of S6. Subjects taken and qualifications achieved in S5 will be reviewed. Careful consideration will be given to an individual’s academic achievement, taking in to account the context and circumstances of their pre-university education.
Please see the University of Southampton’s Curriculum for Excellence Scotland Statement (PDF) for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
Cambridge Pre-U
D3 M2 M2 in three principal subjects including an essay writing subject
Cambridge Pre-U additional information
Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
Welsh Baccalaureate
ABB from 3 A levels including an essay writing subject or AB from two A levels including an essay writing subject and B from the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate
Welsh Baccalaureate additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. Our preferred subjects are English Literature, English Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Law, Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.
Welsh Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
European Baccalaureate
77% overall including grade 8 in an essay writing subject
Other requirements
GCSE requirements
Applicants must hold GCSE English language (or GCSE English) (minimum grade 4/C) and mathematics (minimum grade 4/C)
Find the equivalent international qualifications for our entry requirements.
English language requirements
If English isn't your first language, you'll need to complete an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to demonstrate your competence in English. You'll need all of the following scores as a minimum:
IELTS score requirements
- overall score
- 6.5
- reading
- 6.0
- writing
- 6.0
- speaking
- 6.0
- listening
- 6.0
We accept other English language tests. Find out which English language tests we accept.
You might meet our criteria in other ways if you do not have the qualifications we need. Find out more about:
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our Access to Southampton scheme for students living permanently in the UK (including residential summer school, application support and scholarship)
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skills you might have gained through work or other life experiences (otherwise known as recognition of prior learning)
Find out more about our Admissions Policy.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
Course structure
The main teaching format is a tutor-led lecture, followed by a seminar. Most film modules also have a screening each week that links to a particular topic or theme.
Each year, we offer a customisable course programme with a mix of compulsory and optional modules. You can also study topics from other subjects, including languages and English literature.
Year 1 overview
You'll take modules in European and Hollywood cinema, and explore the connections between film and other disciplines, like music, literature and science.
You'll study the theories and philosophies that have shaped the development of film studies, such as:
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psychoanalysis
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postmodernism
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structuralism
Year 2 overview
You'll study early and silent cinema, and choose from topics including:
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film noir
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animation
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film adaptation
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women and Hollywood
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film industry
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scriptwriting
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British, European, and World cinema
A special module will help you plan your year abroad.
Year 3 overview
You'll spend your third year at one of our partner universities in another country. You can study in English, but will also have the opportunity to develop your language skills. You'll write a year abroad report with support from an academic supervisor.
Year 4 overview
You will take a module examining your experiences abroad. This will help you produce an enhanced CV.
You'll write a dissertation on a topic of your choice to develop your independent research skills. A supervisor with research expertise on your topic will support you.
You can also choose from modules on topics including:
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horror, science fiction and fantasy film
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stardom
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race, gender and sexuality in British cinema
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contemporary American cinema
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television studies
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music in film and television
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how the arts work (a module on programming in arts venues)
Want more detail? See all the modules in the course.
Modules
Changes due to COVID-19
Although the COVID-19 situation is improving, any future restrictions could mean we might have to change the way parts of our teaching and learning take place in 2021 to 2022. We're working hard to plan for a number of possible scenarios. This means that some of the information on this course page may be subject to change.
Find out more on our COVID advice page.
For entry in Academic Year 2021-22
Year 1 modules
You must study the following modules in year 1:
This module introduces students to the dominant mode of filmmaking: popular Hollywood. This module is primarily concerned with familiarising you with the basic principles of film form, narrative, style and methodologies of film criticism.
The module covers the history of European film from silent cinema to the present day, placing particular emphasis on the inter-war years, the post-war period and the contemporary moment. It examines national film cultures as well as the transnational elem...
The module will introduce you to some of the debates key to film criticism, by reference to influential film theorists and to some fundamental ideas from which contemporary critical approaches have been developed, focusing in particular on selections from...
This module addresses the question ‘What is Cinema?’ through an exploration of how cinema has converged with art and technology from its earliest manifestations to the digital forms of the present day. It traces film’s emergence and continued development ...
Year 2 modules
You must study the following modules in year 2:
This module is an exploration of the main issues and debates that surround the study of film in the period between 1895-1929.
This module will prepare you for study abroad. You are required to take out appropriate insurance policies and engage in on-going monitoring of risk and this module will provide professional input in both areas as well as rigorous assessment of the docume...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:
Animation has been a part of cinema from its inception and remains one of the most popular forms of moving image in the 21st century. Some theorists have even argued that animation has preceded, contained, or replaced cinema. Yet, animation has been lar...
This module will introduce you to psychoanalytic theories of trauma and their relation to post-war film and literature in French. You will be asked to consider how writers and filmakers have sought to remember both national and personal traumas, and how...
The module builds on the foundation established by your work during year 1 Film. Furthermore the view that film can be viewed as an artform, cultural and historical artefact, and an industry is central to its rationale will be examined.
Film Noir is one of Hollywood’s perennial cult genres, yet it is notoriously difficult to define, as it essentially amounts to a retrospective invention by critics. This module will attempt to place the main corpus of the genre’s classics within its origi...
Moving pictures are often thought of as having a unique ability to uncover reality, because their basis in photography offers a mechanical record of the world rather than a creation dependent on the hand of the artist. Indeed, the very first films were do...
This module presents a history of post-war multicultural Britain through the lens of British film and television, considering how our attitudes to 'race', sexuality and British identity more generally have been defined, challenged and changed by film and...
This module offers an introduction to the scholarly study of television as an audio-visual medium and cultural practice. By the end of the module you will be familiar with a number of key themes, critical approaches and theoretical debates within televisi...
Using ‘Women and Hollywood' as its starting point, this module offers three areas of investigation: Hollywood's representation of women; women who make films in Hollywood and outside it; and the female spectators who make up the audiences and fans of Holl...
In many DVD stores, we often find a shelf labelled ‘world cinema’ – a label on the lines of ‘world music’. This signals the universality of diversity and mobility, compared to categories such as ‘third cinema’ or ‘non- Western cinema’. This module will di...
Year 3 modules
You must study the following module in year 3:
This non-credit bearing module is a required element for all Humanities students on a Year Abroad Programme. It builds on the Year Abroad preparation module, HUMA2012. It is taken as a long thin single module whilst on the Year Abroad with a two hour prep...
Year 4 modules
You must study the following module in year 4:
The dissertation is an extended piece of work of 8,000 words in length which is the result of an in-depth study of an area of film studies. The subject matter could be a movement, a director, a studio or production company, a national cinema, genre or the...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 4:
The module offers a history of American cinema since 1965, covering the decline of the Hollywood studio system and the moment, from 1968 to 1975, when a new wave of directors produced a number of key films sometimes known as constituting the Hollywood art...
Animation has been a part of cinema from its inception and remains one of the most popular forms of moving image in the 21st century. Some theorists have even argued that animation has preceded, contained, or replaced cinema. Yet, animation has been lar...
Crime detection is prolific on television; a topic discussed across news and current affairs programming, documentaries, reality TV and, not the least, numerous crime dramas. This module examines different type of crime investigation narratives on televis...
Fantasy film and fiction spans a wide range of texts, from Gothic 'classics' and feminist fairy tales, to Utopian literature and musicals. Analysing fantasy texts alongside psychoanalytic and cultural theories will enable you to engage with questions conc...
Moving pictures are often thought of as having a unique ability to uncover reality, because their basis in photography offers a mechanical record of the world rather than a creation dependent on the hand of the artist. Indeed, the very first films were do...
This module explores cinema’s relationship to the past, whether distant, as in that of ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt, or from a more recent history.
Horror films have been one of the most consistent areas of cinema throughout its history. Despite horror quickly establishing itself in films, it was not until the 1930s and Hollywood's studio system that it became standardized as a genre with a repertoir...
Film as industry plays out against the backdrop of a global economy, and at any given location witnesses high volumes of transnational flows of money, ideas and talent. At the intersections of these transnational flows we can detect influences of stakeho...
In recent years, film culture has become increasingly aware of the film industry’s connections with the music industry. In some cases, critics have decried the use of films as vehicles for the sale of unconnected pop songs as if it were a new development,...
This module aims to introduce you to the genre of utopian and dystopian science-fiction film, in order to examine utopian and dystopian constructions of identity in science-fiction film.
This module offers an introduction to the scholarly study of television as an audio-visual medium and cultural practice. By the end of the module you will be familiar with a number of key themes, critical approaches and theoretical debates within televisi...
Learning and assessment
The learning activities for this course include the following:
- lectures
- classes and tutorials
- coursework
- individual and group projects
- independent learning (studying on your own)
Course time
How you'll spend your course time:
Year 1
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 1:
How we'll assess you
- blogs
- coursework, laboratory reports and essays
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
Your assessment breakdown
Year 1:
Year 2
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 2:
How we'll assess you
- blogs
- coursework, laboratory reports and essays
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
Your assessment breakdown
Year 2:
Year 3
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 3:
How we'll assess you
- blogs
- coursework, laboratory reports and essays
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
Your assessment breakdown
Year 3:
Year 4
Study time
Your scheduled learning, teaching and independent study for year 4:
How we'll assess you
- blogs
- coursework, laboratory reports and essays
- dissertations
- essays
- individual and group projects
- oral presentations
Your assessment breakdown
Year 4:
Academic support
You’ll be supported by a personal academic tutor and have access to a senior tutor.
Course leader
Shelley Cobb is the course leader.
Careers
Our Film Studies degree at Southampton gives you a strong foundation in skills that are attractive to all graduate employers:
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written and verbal communication
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analytical and critical thinking
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research
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organisation
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project management
Our research staff and industry experts will help you gain a picture of the film and TV industries today.
Some modules include work experience. How the arts work, for example, shows you how to programme and manage a professional arts venue.
Humanities students can take employability modules to learn how to plan a future career. These consist of lectures and seminars given by experts, employers and alumni. They cover:
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careers opportunities for humanities graduates, including digital jobs
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entrepreneurial and start-up options
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psychometric and skills assessment to help you discover hidden talents
Volunteering opportunities will help you improve your work-related skills. For example:
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Union Films is our on-campus cinema where you can develop new skills, such as team leading, projection and digital design
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our student film societies, FilmSoc and Wessex Films, where you arrange film screenings, help organise the University's Film Festival or take workshops to develop your skills
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our radio and TV societies can give you hands-on experience of making television and radio shows
Some of our graduates go on to careers at film and media companies, including film production, editing and post-production, distribution and marketing. Others continue into postgraduate studies or find employment in careers such as:
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advertising, marketing and PR
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arts based careers
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charities
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civil service
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financial sector jobs
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journalism
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legal sector jobs
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teaching
Careers services at Southampton
We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2019). Our Careers and Employability Service will support you throughout your time as a student and for up to 5 years after graduation. This support includes:
work experience schemes
CV and interview skills and workshops
networking events
careers fairs attended by top employers
a wealth of volunteering opportunities
study abroad and summer school opportunities
We have a vibrant entrepreneurship culture and our dedicated start-up supporter, Futureworlds, is open to every student.
Work in industry
We can help you find placements and work with local, national and international employers. You could even spend a full paid year in employment.
Fees, costs and funding
Tuition fees
Fees for a year's study:
- UK students pay £9,250.
- EU and international students pay £18,520.
What your fees pay for
Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and all examinations.
Find out how to:
Accommodation and living costs, such as travel and food, are not included in your tuition fees. Explore:
Bursaries, scholarships and other funding
If you're a UK or EU student and your household income is under £25,000 a year, you may be able to get a University of Southampton bursary to help with your living costs. Find out about bursaries and other funding we offer at Southampton.
If you're a care leaver or estranged from your parents, you may be able to get a specific bursary.
Get in touch for advice about student money matters.
Scholarships and grants
You may be able to get a scholarship or grant that's linked to your chosen subject area.
We award scholarships and grants for travel, academic excellence, or to students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Support during your course
The Student Services Centre offers support and advice on money to students. You may be able to access our Student Support fund and other sources of financial support during your course.
Funding for EU and international students
Find out about funding you could get as an international student.
How to apply
When you apply use:
- UCAS course code: P304
- UCAS institution code: S27
What happens after you apply?
We will assess your application on the strength of your:
- predicted grades
- academic achievements
- personal statement
- academic reference
We aim to respond to you within 2 to 6 weeks with a decision about your application.
Equality and diversity
We treat and select everyone in line with our Equality and Diversity Statement.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
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