Film PhD Programs

University of California, Berkeley

• The Ph.D. program in film in the Rhetoric Department at the University of California, Berkeley, introduces students to a wide variety of disciplines to help them with their study of film. According to UC Berkeley, their students "integrate the traditions of history, law, literature, religion and political theory to the newer discipline of Film Studies and Digital Media." The program is small with an average of 23 students, which means that those enrolled receive plenty of individual attention for the doctoral qualifying examinations and dissertation. Admission to the program requires a writing sample of any length and three letters of recommendation.

  University of California, Berkely
  Film Graduate Admissions
  7408 Dwinelle Hall, MC 2670
  University of California
  Berkeley, CA 94720-2670
  berkeley.edu

Yale University

• The Film Studies program at Yale University is an interdisciplinary program. It lets students combine their film knowledge with information on American studies, African American studies, East Asian languages and literature, comparative literature, German, French, Italian, history of art, and Slavic literature and languages. Students apply their interest in one of these subjects with specialization in a film-related field including historiography, aesthetics, European film, American culture, world film, and documentary. Admissions requires prospective students to be admitted to the film program and another program to fulfill interdisciplinary requirements.

  Yale University
  Film Studies Program
  Yale University
  53 Wall Street, Rm. 216
  New Haven CT 06511
  203-436-4668
  yale.edu

University of California, Los Angeles

• The Cinema and Media Studies Ph.D. is a competitive program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). According to UCLA, their program helps "highly qualified, motivated students...to carry out original research of the highest quality." The program requires dedicated students to have few other commitments because it requires a full-time schedule. Prospective students must prepare top notch scholarly writing samples to be accepted.

  UCLA School of Theater, Film and Televison
  102 East Melnitz Hall
  Los Angeles, CA, 90095
  310-206-8441
  ucla.edu

New York University

• The Cinema Studies program at New York University (NYU) is highly competitive, and only admitted one third of its applicants in 2009. Admissions counselors try to keep the Ph.D. students to a low number, typically around six to eight. According to NYU, their Ph.D. in Cinema Studies is similar to a Comparative Literature program except that the focus is on film instead of on literature. The program focuses on the theory of film and only allows Ph.D. students to take one graduate level film-making course.

  New York University
  Graduate Division
  Kanbar Institute of Film & Television
  721 Broadway, 10th Floor
  212 998 1780
  nyu.edu