Department of Film Studies

Our flexible and wide-ranging undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses trace the development of film from its 19th century origins to the digital age. They encompass a diverse array of topics, including:

• history
• gender and sexuality studies
• television
• music and sound
• cultural studies
• film and media industries

Most of our undergraduate courses include year abroad options, with destinations including South Korea, Sweden, Ireland and the Czech Republic.

Students benefit from access to our video editing suite, and can get involved with a student-run TV station, Surge.

Graduate outcomes

Our graduates follow a diverse range of career paths, including film editing, television production, journalism, arts management, social media and marketing, and teaching. The transferable skills developed across our degree programmes also make our students excellent candidates for competitive graduate schemes.

Graduate destinations have included:

• BBC
• Netflix
• StudioCanal
• British Film Institute
• Universal Pictures
• Sky

Graduates have also gone on to work at leading visual effects companies such as Moving Picture Company, Double Negative, and Framestore.

Postgraduate community

We hold an annual postgraduate research conference and masterclass, led by students, with an eminent film scholar as keynote speaker.

Our postgraduate students regularly collaborate with The Confucius Institute to run research events on film, television, and media in China.

Conferences and publications

We have hosted the Doing Women's Film and Television History Conference (2018) and the annual conference for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (2021).

Our staff and research students are frequent contributors to leading journals and have won association awards for best article and edited collection.

Awards

Our research has won large Art and Humanities Research Council and European Research Council grants in the areas of gender equality in the film industry and the cultures of film studios in early 20th century Europe.

Public engagement and knowledge exchange

We regularly engage in public outreach activities in Southampton and beyond. We've organised screenings on filmmakers from Hong Kong, contributed to music and film events at Turner Sims concert hall, and had an impact on the UK film industry's equality, diversity and inclusion policies. 

• an industry-standard video-editing suite
• 360-degree immersive audiovisual centre
• virtual reality equipment
• videogaming equipment

The space includes several areas for individual and group work. We also use these to host workshops, peer learning sessions, demonstrations, talks and drop-in surgeries.

We also offer a film library with more than 5,800 titles, and a lecture theatre with Blu-ray projection, surround-sound, cinema-size screen and 140 seats.

The main University library offers a wealth of audiovisual resources, including access to Box of Broadcasts, an archive of more than 1 million TV and radio recordings.

Explore library resources for film students.

In both teaching and research, we engage with screen media in all its sociocultural complexity, encouraging a global, interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to the analysis of film and media cultures.

We use a variety of teaching and assessment methods across our degree programmes. This allows students to develop transferable skills and demonstrate their strengths beyond the traditional essay format.

As a community of staff and researchers, we address and combat inequalities based on race, gender and sexuality across a range of media cultures and industries.

Our department is part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities’ LGBTQ+ Positive Space Initiative, offering support and advice for students with questions about LGBTQ+ issues.

We also have a departmental EDI representative, ensuring our research and teaching cultures are in line with faculty standards and values of inclusivity.