[The Major in Film Studies is a new program that is pending final approval in 2025. No offer of admissions will be made to the program pending final approval by the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance.]
The Major in Film Studies provides students with a firm understanding of the historical, aesthetic, cultural, and political contexts of cinema and moving image media. It gives students the tools they need to: analyze films closely; think critically and write persuasively about film and media; understand cinematic forms and genres; understand the history of film and media in a global context; place film and media in the contexts of social and political movements, larger discursive networks, and other forms of art and cultural production, especially literature; understand the aesthetics and politics of diverse traditions and practices in film; and use the vocabulary and research methodologies of film studies.
The program has unlimited enrolment, and students can select the Major after completing 4.0 credits. In A- and B-level courses, students receive a broad introduction to the critical study of film, the global history of cinema, and the larger cultural contexts of cinematic and literary production. In courses at the B- and C-level, students learn about various genres, traditions, and methodologies in film studies. Finally, D-level courses offer a more in-depth approach to specific topics, including a focus on directors, regions, particular practices, and specific theoretical approaches to film. This program is primarily delivered in-person, with some online delivery options for required and selected courses. Methods of assessment at the A-level and B-level include exams, short writing assignments, and collaborative projects. Assessments at the C- and D-level include research-based essays, oral presentations, collaborative projects, and, in some cases, creative/visual media assignments.
Program Requirements
Students must complete a total of 7.5 credits, to be completed as follows:
0.5 credit, as follows:
(ENGB70H3)/FLMA70H3 How to Read a Film
1.5 credits, from the following:
(ENGB75H3)/FLMB75H3 Cinema and Modernity I
(ENGB77H3)/FLMB77H3 Cinema and Colonialism
FLMB80H3 Cinema, Race, and Representation
(ENGC92H3)/FLMC92H3 Film Theory
*As per UTSC’s Academic Calendar conventions, courses enclosed in round brackets have been retired and are no longer offered. Students who have completed, in a previous session, a prerequisite or corequisite course that is no longer being offered may make use of the course to meet program requirements.
4.5 credits from FLM courses and/or from the courses listed below, of which at least 2.5 credits must be at the C- or D-level, with a minimum of 0.5 credit at the D-level:
(ENGB71H3)/FLMB71H3 Writing About Movies
(ENGB75H3)/FLMB75H3 Cinema and Modernity (if unused in component 2)
(ENGB77H3)/FLMB77H3 Cinema and Colonialism (if unused in component 2)
FLMB80H3 Cinema, Race, and Representation (if unused in component 2)
(ENGC44H3)/FLMC44H3 Self and Other in Literature and Film
FLMC55H3 The Documentary Film
(ENGC56H3)/FLMC56H3 Literature and Media: From Page to Screen
(ENGC75H3)/FLMC75H3 Freaks and Geeks: Children in Contemporary Film
ENGC78H3)/FLMC78H3 Dystopian Visions in Fiction and Film
FLMC81H3 Topics in National Cinemas
(ENGC82H3)/FLMC82H3 Topics in Cinema Studies
(ENGC83H3)/FLMC83H3 World Cinema
(ENGC84H3)/FLMC84H3 Cinema and Migration
(ENGC92H3)/FLMC92H3 Film Theory (if unused in component 2)
(ENGC93H3)/FLMC93H3 Gender and Sexuality at the Movies
(ENGC94H3)/FLMC94H3 Women Directors
(ENGC95H3)/FLMC95H3 Indian Cinemas: Bollywood, Before and Beyond
(ENGD52H3)/FLMD52H3 Cinema: The Auteur Theory
(ENGD62H3)/FLMD62H3 Topics in Postcolonial Literature and Film
(ENGD91H3)/FLMD91H3 Avant-Garde Cinema
(ENGD93H3)/FLMD93H3 Theoretical Approaches to Cinema
(ENGD94H3)/FLMD94H3 Theories and Practices of Documentary Film
(ENGD96H3)/FLMD96H3 Iranian Cinema
ENGA10H3 Literature and Film for our Time: Visions and Revisions
ENGA11H3 Literature and Film for our Time: Dawn of the Digital
ENGB29H3 Shakespeare and Film
ENGB74H3 The Body in Literature and Film
ENGC04H3 Creative Writing: Screenwriting*
MDSC85H3 Movies, Music and Meaning
*Please note ENGC04H3 requires ENGB61H3 as a prerequisite, and ENGB61H3 requires ENGA03H3 as a prerequisite.
1.0 additional credit, either from unused courses from the list above in component 3 of the program requirements, and/or from the following:
ENGC41H3 Video Games: Exploring the Virtual Narrative
ENGC54H3 Gender and Genre
ENGC79H3 Above and Beyond: Superheroes in Fiction and Film
MDSB63H3 Sound and Visual Media
WSTB13H3 Feminist Critiques of Media and Culture
WSTC22H3 Gender and Film
