Major program: To fulfill the major, students must complete satisfactorily:

  • Film 304: History of World Cinema to the 1960s and Film 310: Introduction to Film Analysis
  • One basic production course (Film 440: Virtual Filmmaking or Film 450: Sight and Sound)
  • Film 414: Senior Seminar
  • A minimum of six electives

The Film Studies Department at Wesleyan is firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition of integrating history and theory with practice. Faculty in the Film Studies Department teach films from the vantage point of how they are made and received, asking students to analyze the industrial and technological conditions of a film’s production, the choices the filmmakers made, and the effects of these conditions and choices on our viewing experience. With a solid grounding in this approach to the study of film, senior film majors are then prepared to write historical theses, craft screenplays, or direct films, videos, or virtual projects. 

Sample Courses:  Contemporary East Asian Cinema; Melodrama and the Woman’s Picture; The New German Cinema; The Cinema of Horror; Color in the Cinema; Advanced Filmmaking; Screenwriting; Sight & Sound

Number of Professors: 7

Film Studies Building

For more information, visit the Department Homepage .

Title: Faculty Spotlight
Film Studies Building

Jeanine Basinger

Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Founder and Curator of The Cinema Archives, Chair, Film Studies


Research Interests: The history of American Cinema; the film industry, auteurs, and genres.