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