Film and Screen Media (with Television)

Our MA Film and Screen Media (with Television) explores the history, development and interaction of film, television and other screen media. The course encourages you to explore a wide variety of screen media in historical, sociological, aesthetic and anthropological terms and in a variety of cultural and national contexts, with special focus on television. The pathway allows you to focus and personalise your MA studies and specialise in television to match your intellectual interests and career goals, while a work placement option allows you to gain practical experience that could enhance your career prospects.

The course is unique in its combination of world-class, rigorous postgraduate study with creative and practical opportunities. Some of the option modules, including the two-month work placement module, could help you stand out in a competitive job market and further your career in the media, creative and cultural industries. The course will also prepare you for advanced research at MPhil/PhD level if you wish to continue studying.

This course has three other pathways: MA Film and Screen Media, MA Film and Screen Media (with Study Abroad) and MA Film and Screen Media with Film Programming and Curating.

• Teaching and supervision are delivered by leading film and media academics, including Drs Mike Allen, Janet McCabe and Dorota Ostrowska, and Professors Laura Mulvey and Ian Christie. The research expertise of our academics is in cinema history, exhibition cultures, programming and curating, film aesthetics, television industry and form, and contemporary and future new media opportunities inform every aspect of the course.
• Birkbeck was ranked as one of the top four universities in the UK for its Art and Design research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• The award-winning Birkbeck Cinema is central to this course. The 70-seat cinema is equipped with 35mm and state-of-the-art DVD projection. The Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) runs a busy, intellectually stimulating programme of events, including conferences, screenings and film-related events of all kinds. You will have the opportunity to participate in and attend the Essay Film Festival, jointly run by BIMI and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), with free admission to events hosted at Birkbeck. There are practical film-making opportunities offered through the Derek Jarman Lab.
• Located in central London, in the heart of historic Bloomsbury, Birkbeck is within easy reach of cinemas and galleries, as well as facilities such as the British Film Institute and the British Library.
• We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.