Join us as you develop your critical understanding of the theories, debates and methods that inform the study of cinema’s past. Focusing on the concepts of nation, canon and genre. You will explore how film histories are constructed and how they can be challenged through alternative frameworks.

Engaging with postcolonial, feminist, and queer historiographies, the module encourages you to question dominant narratives and consider how cinema reflects and shapes cultural memory across diverse historical and geographical contexts. Through close analysis of case studies and films, you will examine the socio-political impact of cinema in different periods and places.

The module also deepens your methodological skills by engaging with a range of research practices—including archival research, textual analysis, qualitative approaches such as interviews and questionnaires and digital tools – equipping you with a broader and more critical toolkit for independent research. It is ideal for students interested in cinema’s role in historical discourse and cultural transformation.

This module invites you to explore the key theoretical and methodological approaches that shape how we study and understand film today.

You’ll engage with a wide range of ideas—from early reflections on cinema’s unique properties to contemporary debates around gender, politics, affect, postcolonialism and digital media—developing the tools to think critically and independently about film and its role in the world.

Through close reading of theory and detailed film analysis, you’ll learn to apply complex concepts to your own research and writing. The module encourages you to consider how cinema relates to other art forms, how it evokes and shapes cultural values and how theoretical frameworks can open up new ways of seeing.

As you progress, you’ll build the confidence and fluency to position your work within wider scholarly conversations and to design your own research enquiry, laying the groundwork for your dissertation and for further academic or professional work.

Tailor your studies and undertake an independent research project on a topic of your choice, with guidance from a supervisor, in either a written or practice-based form.

At the beginning of this module, a series of workshops will support you in exploring and refining ideas before settling on your dissertation topic. You may choose to complete a written dissertation or pursue a practice-based project, which could include a short film, screenplay, video essay, or another creative output, accompanied by a shorter written critical reflection.

Whichever route you take, this module allows you to shape and develop your own research direction, applying advanced critical and analytical skills, engaging with relevant theories and contexts and demonstrating originality and independence.

This final project brings together your learning across the degree and offers you the space to pursue a sustained piece of work that reflects your individual interests, methods and creative or scholarly goals.

You are invited to explore the concept of transnational cinemas and how it helps us understand film in a rapidly changing global landscape. As patterns of production, distribution, and reception shift across borders, transnational cinema offers a critical framework for thinking beyond fixed notions of national or world cinema.

You’ll engage with key debates and theoretical approaches that reflect how contemporary film challenges traditional geographical divisions and gives voice to complex questions of identity, migration, diaspora and belonging.

The module considers the impact of global encounters and border politics, and examines how films negotiate cultural difference, hybridity and power.

Through case studies from a range of regions—including Asian cinemas, the Middle East, Eastern and Central Europe, and South America—you’ll develop a nuanced understanding of the diverse ways cinema operates across and between nations. This module supports your ability to think critically and comparatively about cinema in a global context.

On this module, you will encounter a series of intriguing texts that in one way or another explore the body. You will examine many models of the body, some old and some new, as well as such adjacent concepts as anatomy or flesh, and we will also be exploring the ways in which the texts we study work with, against and around those models.

You will be taught by several tutors who will present many very different and often competing models, including visions of the body as, variously, living, dying, political, prosthetic, gothic, suffering, fashioned, conscious, familiar, unfamiliar, fixed, unfixed.

The study of audience has a long history in media and cultural studies. However, in the digital age, how do we approach and understand audiences? From watching television to writing fanfiction, digital media has transformed our relationship with media texts.In this module, you will explore timely topical issues related to contemporary media culture, delving into the concept of fandoms. You will examine how fan communities and media industries engage in a dynamic interplay that shapes the evolving meanings and experiences of being a fan today.This module explores media participation in the globalised and digital era. You will develop a comprehensive understanding of media engagement by examining theoretical frameworks and contemporary issues that shape how communities interact with media. The module explores major theoretical trajectories that have shaped scholarly understandings of audience communities and participatory cultures.

In this module, you will focus on crucial feminist interventions in cultural production and cultural studies. You will explore the intersections of feminism media and culture while critically examining how gender identities and inequalities are constructed through various forms of media.

You will think about media as a global practice and address issues such as:

• Class
• Race
• Sexuality
• Disability

This module explores how feminist cultural theory connects with everyday culture by studying sources from popular media such as art, public culture and policy.

In this module you will focus on the fact, theme and idea of place. You will be taught by several tutors and you’ll encounter a range of texts that examine both very old and very new concepts of place and related concepts as space or location. You will consider how the texts we study sometimes work with those models and sometimes work against them.

Some of the places you will discover relate directly to the historic city of Lancaster itself and to its wonderful location near both the Lake District and the coast. Others will be further away. Some places will be familiar; for example, archive, stage, museum, castle, mountain, sea and others less so, such as desert, glacier, atom. You’ll explore how place is, and has been, seen as something to be variously, enclosed, owned, mapped, digitised, imagined, and even astonished by.

This module will see you develop an original screenplay while deepening your understanding of screenwriting as both a creative and professional practice. You will produce either the first act of a feature film or the pilot episode of a mini-series, accompanied by a detailed story bible outlining the broader narrative, characters, tone and structure of your project.

Through a combination of lectures, workshops and writing labs, you will refine key elements of screen storytelling, including narrative structure, character development, visual writing and dialogue. You will participate in peer critiques, table reads and structured feedback sessions to develop your work through multiple drafts. The module also considers the screenwriter’s role within wider production contexts, exploring development processes, pitching and industry expectations.

Alongside creative work, you will engage critically with professional scripts and storytelling models. By the end of the module, you will have developed a strong portfolio piece and a confident research-informed writing practice.

In this module you will develop, produce and complete a short film of up to ten minutes, working collaboratively in a small production team. You will take on a principal creative role—such as Writer/Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Sound Recordist or Editor—and be responsible for shaping the project from development through to post-production.

A series of specialised workshops will support you in building advanced skills across screenwriting, camera, sound, editing, and colour grading, engaging with both creative experimentation and industry-standard workflows. The collaborative process is documented through a group production booklet, which traces the film’s progression from initial concept to final cut.

Alongside your practical work, you will reflect critically on your role within the production, examining the creative, technical and collaborative challenges encountered throughout. This reflection will encourage you to situate your work within wider questions of film practice, authorship and collaboration. This module supports the development of professional production skills and critically informed creative practice.