Department Website
Program Description
The Department of Cinema Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts holds a preeminent place among cinema studies programs in the world. Its approach to cinema focuses on the processes of understanding film and the moving image in multiple cultural and interdisciplinary contexts. The undergraduate program treats the study of cinema both as an art form and as a form of mass culture. The study of film, as an art, is concerned with the relationships among film style, narrative form, and the material practices that shape the medium. The study of film as mass culture explores how film reflects societal values and processes of social change. The department offers courses in the history, theory, aesthetics, and criticism of film, as well as film genres and techniques. Certain film courses given in the College of Arts and Science (CAS) may also be approved for the major or minor. Most of the Tisch courses include extensive film screenings and are supplemented by weekly academic departmental events open to all students. Students have access, with permission, to graduate level courses in the department, to Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) courses, and to the Orphans Symposium. Students also have access to extensive film and film-related resources in the department's George Amberg Study Center. The video collection in Bobst Library's Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media provides additional resources. Finally, various New York City institutions make this an extraordinary environment for cinema studies.
Admissions
New York University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions supports the application process for all undergraduate programs at NYU. For additional information about undergraduate admissions, including application requirements, see How to Apply.
Program Requirements
The major in cinema studies requires ten 4-credit courses (40 credits) as outlined below. It is divided into four areas of study:
- Tier I consists of a core curriculum of five courses taken in sequence.
- Tier II consists of elective small lecture courses in the areas of film auteurs, genres, historical movements, aesthetics, national cinemas, television studies, and special topics.
- Tier III consists of large survey courses in American and international cinema (each having a two-semester sequence: fall, origins to 1960; spring, 1960 to present).
- Tier IV consists of small theory and practice courses (open only to cinema studies majors) in script analysis/writing, film criticism, and forms of filmmaking.
Course List
Course |
Title |
Credits |
| 4 |
EXPOS-UA 1 | Writing as Inquiry | 4 |
1 | 16 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| 4 |
| |
CORE-UA 750 | Expressive Culture: Film (preferred gateway course for CAS students) 2 | 4 |
CINE-UT 15 | Film History: Silent Cinema (offered in the spring, can be taken same semester as TV History) | 4 |
CINE-UT 16 | Film Theory (offered in the fall, prerequisite for Advanced Seminar) | 4 |
CINE-UT 21 | Television: History and Culture (offered in the spring) | 4 |
| | 4 |
| 4 |
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 40 |
Total Credits | 128 |
CINE-UT courses used to satisfy cinema studies major requirements do not count against the limit of 16 credits taken outside of the College; in addition, they can be applied toward the 64 credits that internal and external transfer students are required to complete in CAS (-UA) courses.
Students must earn a C or better in CINE-UT courses to fulfill major requirements; otherwise they will count only as electives toward the degree.
See course offerings for a list of major course offerings.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of program requirements, students are expected to have acquired:
- Fluency in the vocabulary of film form.
- Recognition of variations in mode and style within the dominant modes of production (narrative, documentary, and experimental).
- An appreciation of the relationship between formal analysis and questions of interpretation.
- The ability to structure well-supported written arguments about meaning in film(s).
Policies
NYU Policies
University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages.
College of Arts and Science Policies
A full list of relevant academic policies can be found on the CAS Academic Policies page.