Program Overview

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PGCert in Film & Screen Studies

Overview

The Postgraduate Certificate in Film and Screen Studies offers a unique combination of critical and creative approaches to the past and the future of audiovisual media.

Why study Film and Screen Studies at Goldsmiths?

• This qualification will equip you with skills and knowledge to address current transformations of moving image media in a globalised world, from the media in your pocket to architectural screens.
• It explores both the old and the new, philosophy and history, theory and practice, to help you understand the challenges of the 21st century's culture of moving images, changing artistic and political contexts as well as ever-developing technologies.

Innovative learning and research

• What distinguishes the PGCert in Film and Screen Studies is an innovative approach to learning and research. It takes you well beyond the borders of traditional film studies. It encourages you to think critically and imaginatively, across media forms, disciplinary boundaries as well as conceptual and creative work. Students taking the Media Arts pathway will have the opportunity to submit some work in non-traditional forms.
• The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.

Learn from international experts

• Teaching draws on the diverse research strengths of the globally renowned academics at one of the world's leading media communications, and cultural studies departments, which also has strong traditions in audiovisual practice.
• You'll be taught by scholars of international standing who have expertise in the interface between film criticism and creation; new screen technologies; in early cinema and the media archaeology of modernity; in artist’s film; and in non-fiction film (eg documentary and avant-garde).

Length

• Three academic terms (September-June) equivalent to part-time study

Entry requirements

• Applicants will normally have, or expect to gain a first degree of at least upper second class standard (or equivalent).
• The programme is suitable for students from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds within the humanities and limited prior knowledge of scholarship on screen-based media is required.

Department

• Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Pathways

Media Arts Pathway

• The most intense and extreme forms of media, experimental media arts, test our established ideas and practices to breaking point. From wild abstraction and surrealist visions to activist and community arts, they ask profound questions about high art and popular culture, the individual and the social, meaning and beauty.
• This pathway explores these emerging experimental practices of image-making and criticism. Students on this pathway are encouraged not just to study but to curate and critique past, present and future media arts by building exhibitions and visual essays of their own. Short practical workshops will enable you to make the most of the skills you bring onto the programme.

Moving Image Studies Pathway

• The moving image media today are a concentrated form of culture, ideas, socialisation, wealth, and power – 21st-century globalisation, ecology, migration, and activism. How have the media built on, distorted and abandoned their past? How are they trying to destroy, deny or build the future?
• This pathway explores new critical approaches that address the currency of moving image media in today's global context – their aesthetics, technology, and politics. It seeks to extend the boundaries for studying moving images by considering a wider range of media and will introduce you to a wider range of approaches for investigating moving images' past and present.

What you'll study

• Media Arts Pathway
  • Experimental Media (15 or 30 credits)
• Moving Image Studies Pathway
  • Politics of the Audiovisual (Postgraduate)

How you'll be assessed

• Taught sessions and lectures provide overviews of themes, which students are encouraged to complement with intensive reading for presentation and discussion with peers at seminars. Assessments build on lectures and seminars so students are expected to attend all taught sessions to build knowledge and their own understanding of their chosen discipline.
• All assessed work is accompanied by some form of feedback to ensure that students’ work is on the right track. It may come in a variety of forms ranging from written comments on a marked essay to oral and written feedback on developing projects and practice as they attend workshops.

International qualifications

• We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

English language requirements

• If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme.

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees

• Home - Part-time: £3750

Funding opportunities

• Explore the Goldsmiths scholarships finder to find out what funding you may be eligible for.

Paying your fees

• Find out about paying your tuition fees.

Additional costs

• In addition to your tuition fees, you'll be responsible for any additional costs associated with your course, such as buying stationery and paying for photocopying.

Careers

• This programme could lead to work in:
  • Film and video distribution
  • Museums
  • Film and television criticism
  • New media criticism
  • New media art
  • Other jobs associated with screen culture, as well as further academic study.