In a world where we interact daily with one screen after another—on our cell phones, televisions, laptops, and iPods, as well as at the multiplex and the art house—the Film Studies Program provides students with crucial knowledge and analytical skills, as well as the core strengths of a liberal arts education.  

The major is devoted to the critical study of moving images.  Students learn about their international history; theories of how we consume, enjoy, resist, and interact with them; and a range of critical methods for analyzing their meanings and implications in multiple contexts—social, historical, political, aesthetic, and psychological. 

In short, the Film Studies major offers an array of critical tools for actively interpreting and productively engaging film and media culture—from essential media literacy skills to advanced research methods in film and media analysis. 

While our emphasis is thus on the critical study of film and media, the curriculum also includes some film and media production courses as well.  (Students interested in a major or minor in production should consider the Media Arts program in the Department of Art.) 

See Current Courses for a complete list of film and media studies courses in any given term.

Like the fields of film and media studies more generally, our program is genuinely interdisciplinary. Faculty reside in a variety of departments on campus, and courses in film and media studies are often listed and cross-listed in departments like Anthropology, Art, English, History, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and Theater and Dance. (See Current Courses.)

Established first as an undergraduate minor in 1996, the Film Studies Program at USC has seen tremendous growth in its first decade.  The major has grown steadily since being unveiled in 2001, and has quickly become among the most popular of interdisciplinary majors in the College of Arts and Sciences.   

The recent excitement and growth of film and media at USC is tied in part to several unique resources here, which include our faculty’s ongoing involvement in the Orphan Film Symposium, the opportunities for production and collaboration in Media Arts, and the remarkable film and television archival collection of USC’s Newsfilm Library. 

While there is currently no graduate degree offered through the Film Studies Program, graduate students enrolled in other departments (e.g. English, Art/Media Arts, History, and Anthropology) have been able to fold film studies into their course of study, through 500-level offerings (open to graduate as well as undergraduate students) as well as graduate courses and independent studies. The Film Studies faculty is currently strategizing the best ways to develop graduate-level education as we grow our program. 

We welcome your interest and any questions or ideas you might have about our program.