Film

Entry requirements

Master’s Degree: Master’s degree or equivalent in an appropriate discipline

Undergraduate Degree: 2:1 (Hons) degree (UK or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline

We may also consider non-standard applicants, please contact us for information.

If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.

Additional Requirements

As part of your application you will also need to provide

• A PhD Proposal Form (Once completed, please upload your proposal form to your online application)
• Practice based Research applicants are also required to submit a portfolio

Months of entry

October

Course content

Your PhD at Lancaster could focus on one of a wide range of topics within Film Studies or on a subject that crosses different disciplines. As a PhD student you will normally be supervised by a team of two supervisors who will ensure that you receive focused critical feedback and encouragement throughout the programme. In some cases the second supervisor will be based in a different discipline within the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), or a different department within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in order to ensure that you have the most appropriate supervisory team for your chosen project.

We have supervised PhD projects on an exciting variety of topics that extends from global cinema history and cultural politics through to contemporary philosophy and film and media theory. These have included: the history of made-for-TV movies in the US; affect theory and first-person documentaries from the 1980s and 1990s; stardom, fandom and real-person fanfiction; distracted spectatorship and the franchise film; theatre and film in post-martial law Taiwan; terrorism, power and global media; cultural symbolism in Indonesian documentary; Gothic fantasy and the films of Guillermo del Toro.

You can take your Film Studies PhD at Lancaster either in the standard format of a written thesis, or as a project that combines the written thesis with creative practical work. Many of our academic staff are engaged with practice-based research in the fields of film, theatre, art and design, and we have a dedicated team of technicians to support you as well as workshops, editing suites and technical resources for our students.

As a PhD student based in the LICA and part of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), you will be part of a multidisciplinary community of research students, able to participate in seminars, reading groups, conferences, and research training courses. We also offer opportunities to study for a certificate in higher education teaching.

We encourage you to contact the LICA postgraduate coordinator at lica-pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk or any member of the Film Studies staff team to discuss your ideas for PhD research.

Information for international students

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Fees and funding

Learn more at our fees and funding page.