About Film At York University

York University's Department of Film is a premier centre for professional education in the field. Canada's first and most comprehensive university-based film school, we've been the springboard for a generation of outstanding film talent.

The department offers an extensive curriculum encompassing both practice and theory in state-of-the-art facilities housed in country's largest fine arts teaching complex. We currently have more than 500 undergraduate and graduate film students, taught by a faculty of award-winning filmmakers, screenwriters, theorists and historians.

Our BFA and MFA programs in Production and Screenwriting provide hands-on professional training in the creative concepts and practices of film and digital production (cinematography, editing, sound, directing and producing for fiction, documentary and alternative projects) and screenwriting (story editing, transmedia storytelling, feature film screenwriting, writing for television).

Our BA, MA and PhD programs in Cinema & Media Studies offer in-depth academic studies in cinema and media history, theory and criticism, including studies in Canadian, international, documentary and alternative cinema.

The Department of Film also offers a joint undergraduate degree/diploma program in Film and Media Art in conjunction with Sheridan in Oakville, and an exchange program in Media Production with the University of Northumbria – Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Our spring/summer internship program provides students with the opportunity of working with professionals in the Canadian film and media industries.

Screenwriting and production students present their work each year in public screenings in the Price Family Cinema on campus, and the externally juried CineSiege showcase, which moved into TIFF Bell Lightbox in 2010. York student productions compete - and regularly win prizes - in film festivals around the world.

Throughout the academic year, the sponsored Norman Jewison Series and York Film Downtown industry panels feature public talks and screenings leading filmmakers, producers, screenwriters, curators, critics and theorists. The annual Summer Institute in Film offers York's graduate film students and the wider community the opportunity to engage with prominent international guests in seminars, workshops and public lectures..

The Department of Film is part of York's Faculty of Fine Arts – the largest fine arts faculty in Canada and the only program of its kind in the province. The Faculty also offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Dance, Design, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts, plus a BA in digital media through a joint program with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Cross-departmental activities are strongly encouraged, and film students enrich their educational experience by drawing on courses and resources from these areas as well as York University at large.