Film studies

Not to be confused withcinematography orfilm criticism.

Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with varioustheoretical,historical, andcritical approaches tocinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed withinmedia studies and is often compared totelevision studies.^[1]

Film-screening room atGeorgetown University,Washington, D.C.

Film studies is less concerned with advancing proficiency infilm production than it is with exploring thenarrative, artistic, cultural, economic, and political implications of the cinema.^[1] 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.^[2] Also, in studying film, possible careers include critic or production. Overall the study of film continues to grow, as does theindustry on which it focuses.

Academic journals publishing film studies work includeSight & Sound,Film Comment,Film International,CineAction,Screen,Journal of Cinema and Media Studies,Film Quarterly,Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, andJournal of Film and Video.

History

edit

This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Film studies" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Film studies as an academic discipline emerged in the 20th century, decades afterthe invention of motion pictures. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of film production, film studies are concentrated onfilm theory, which approaches film critically as an art, and the writing offilm historiography. Because film became an invention and industry only in the late 19th century, a generation of film producers anddirectors existed significantly before the academic analysis that followed in later generations.

Earlyfilm schools 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, theMoscow Film School was the first school in the world to focus on film. In the United States, theUSC School of Cinematic Arts, established in 1929, was the first cinematic-based school, which was created in agreement with theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was also the first to offer anacademic 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 GermanDeutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg was founded during the era of theThird Reich in 1938. Its lecturers includedWilli Forst andHeinrich George. Students were required to create films in order to complete their studies at the academy.

A movement away fromHollywood productions in the 1950s turned cinema into a more artisticindependent endeavor. It was the creation of theauteur 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 criticRobin Wood, in his writings onAlfred Hitchcock, declared that Hitchcock's films contained the same complexities ofShakespeare's plays.^[3] Similarly, French directorJean Luc Godard, a contributor to the influential magazineCahiers 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."^[4]

A catalyst in the success and stature of academic film studies has been large donations to universities by successful commercial filmmakers. For example, directorGeorge Lucas donated $175 million to theUSC School of Cinematic Arts in 2006.^[5]

Approaches to film studies

edit

Main article:Film theory

Modern film studies

edit

Today, film studies are taught worldwide and has grown to encompass numerous methods for teaching history, culture and society. Manyliberal arts colleges and universities, as well as American high schools, contain courses specifically focused on the analysis of film.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8] Universities often allow students to participate in film research and attend seminars of specialized topics to enhance their critical abilities.^[9]

Common curriculum

edit

The curriculum oftertiary-level film studies programs often include but are not limited to:^[10]^[11]^[12]

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

edit

A total of 144tertiary institutions in the United States offer a major program in film studies.^[6] 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, especiallydirecting andproducing films.^[13] Courses often combine alternate media, such as television ornew media, in combination with film studies.^[14]

Worldwide film studies

edit

Film-studies programs at all levels^[15] are offered worldwide, primarily in the countries in theGlobal North. In many cases, film studies can be found in departments ofmedia studies orcommunication studies.^[16]Film archives and museums such as theEye Filmmuseum inAmsterdam^[17] also conduct scholarly projects alongside educational and outreach programs.

Film festivals 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 theCannes Film Festival^[18] offer extensive programs with talks and panel discussions. They also inform film historiography,^[19] most actively through retrospectives and historical sections such as Cannes Classics.

Film festivalFESPACO serves as a major hub for discourse on cinema on the African continent.^[20]

Prominent scholars

edit

Academic journals

edit

Main article:List of film journals

References

edit

^^a ^bGibson, Pamela Church; Dyer, Richard; Kaplan, E. Ann; Willemen, Paul, eds. (2000). "Introduction".Film Studies: Critical Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–8.ISBN 0-19-874280-0.OCLC 42835361.
^Sikov, Ed. 2010. "Introduction." Pp. 1–4 inFilm Studies: An Introduction. New York: Columbia UP. Print.Google Books
^Grant, Barry Keith.Film Study in the Undergraduate Curriculum. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1983.15. Print.
^Jim Hillier, ed. (1987).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). Harvard University Press. p. 295.ISBN 9780674090651.
^Abramowitz, Rachel (2010)."LA's Screen Gems".Los Angeles Times. Archived fromthe original on 24 January 2010. Retrieved18 October 2010.
^^a ^b"Major:Film Studies". Collegeboard.com. 2010. Archived fromthe original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved18 October 2010.
^Grieveson, Lee. "Cinema Studies."Inventing Film Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. 67. Print.
^Dix, Andrew.Beginning Film Studies. Manchester UP. 2-14. Print.Google Books
^Amsterdam, Universiteit van (2 July 2019)."Film Studies (Media Studies) - GSH - University of Amsterdam".gsh.uva.nl. Retrieved7 February 2019.
^"Film Studies Program". Yale University. 2010. Retrieved25 October 2010.
^"Film and Media Studies". Georgetown University. 2010. Retrieved25 October 2010.
^"USC School of Cinematic Arts". University of Southern California. 2010. Archived fromthe original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved25 October 2010.
^Polan, Dana, and Haidee Wasson. "Young Art, Old Colleges." Inventing Film Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. Print.
^"History of Film Studies in the United States and at Berkeley." Film Studies. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. <"Film Studies". Archived fromthe original on 24 August 2010. Retrieved11 November 2010.>.
^Studyportals."PhD Programmes in Film Studies in Europe".PhD Portal.
^"Communication & Media Studies".Top Universities. Retrieved19 December 2023.
^"Academic".Eye Filmmuseum. Retrieved19 December 2023.
^Dargis, Manohla."Cannes International Film Festival".The New York Times.
^Vallejo, Aida (3 May 2020)."Rethinking the canon: the role of film festivals in shaping film history".Studies in European Cinema.17 (2):155–169.doi:10.1080/17411548.2020.1765631.ISSN 1741-1548.
^Aveh, M. Africanus (2020)."FESPACO—Promoting African Film Development and Scholarship".Black Camera.12 (1):117–128.ISSN 1947-4237.