Film and Media Studies

Columbia University has the distinction of being the first university in the United States to recognize the importance of Film Studies as an academic discipline, back when Victor Freeburg launched the Photoplay Composition class in 1915. Today, the Film and Media Studies Program remains committed to evolving with moving-image media.

Students explore cinema's historical place as both an American and an international phenomena, in addition to emergent media such as advertising, video games, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. We offer the Master of Arts in Film and Media Studies, with a choice of concentrating in Cinema/Media or Emergent Media, and an undergraduate major leading to a Bachelor of Arts awarded by Columbia College and the School of General Studies. Learn from world-class faculty while living in one of the leading cities for film research and filmgoing. 

In 2013, the School of the Arts founded the Digital Storytelling Lab (DSL). Today the DSL plays a vital role educating students in new media and creative technologies. The DSL also offers students in the Theatre, Writing, and Film MFA programs an opportunity to learn and collaborate.

_{^{Above: Professor Robert King discusses experimental film with his Introduction to Film Studies class.}}