Film Studies

About Film Studies at UCL

UCL was the first university to establish a Film Studies programme in the UK. 

Film Studies is housed within the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (CMII) at the School of European Languages, Culture and Society (SELCS). We draw on interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international thinking to explore the histories and forms of moving image material from across the globe.

Each year, we welcome students from all over the world, who spend a year amongst a thriving, cross-disciplinary community of cinema scholars and research students. We have particular research strengths in cinema history, film theory, and in an exceptionally broad range of national and regional cinemas. 

Our core faculty use a wide array of theoretical approaches to screen media in the classroom and in their research: from film theory and political economy to cultural studies and media infrastructural studies.

Our teaching draws from a variety of disciplines in UCL and, because of this comprehensive curriculum, we offer modules in cinemas from Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Core academic staff

• Dr Lucia Rinaldi -  Associate Professor (Teaching) and Director of Film Studies (MA/PhD)
• Dr Tom Cunliffe - Lecturer (Teaching) in East Asian Film and Media
• Professor Claire Thomson -  Professor of Cinema History
• Professor Deborah Martin - Professor of Latin American Cinema
• Professor Stephen Hart - Documentary-track PhD Programme Director
• Professor Lee Grieveson

• Professor Stella Bruzzi

   

Professor Lee Grieveson

Professor Claire Thomson

Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion 

Dr Kirsty Sinclair Dootson

Research partners and networks

• Screen Studies Group
• London’s Silent Cinemas
• The Cine-Tourist