World Film Studies

In the 1990s, films by Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Mohsen and Samira Makhmalbaf announced Iranian cinema on the global stage as one of the most exciting national cinemas around. But even now, the history and culture behind these films, as well as the many other masterpieces of Iranian cinema, remain too little-known. This course shall give an overview of the wider story of Iranian cinema.

What is anime? What are the artistic and narrative features that make these films so instantly recognizable? This one-day film course will provide an overview of the history of Japanese animation cinema, its inextricable links with manga and its multi-faceted and varied productions that range from children’s films to genres such as cyberpunk and yaoi. During the course, we will watch and discuss clips from a variety of production companies and directors, such as Haya Miyazaki, the Studio Ghibli and Katsuhiro Otomo.

This course will examine a crucially important but often neglected area of film history, namely the responses to and against colonialist legacy made by many different strands of filmmaking around the Global South, from films like The Battle of Algiers, to Latin American Third Cinema, via Sub-Saharan African filmmakers such as Sembene or Mambety, in order to enrich the canon of world cinema.

Have you ever wondered what lies beyond Hollywood? Are you interested in films from across the globe? Then this six-week introductory course is for you. We will consider alternative cinemas to the dominant North American industry and will focus each week on a selection of illustrative films from movie producing continents such as India, Asia, South America and Africa.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Are you curious about world cinema? Do you want to learn more about a dynamic but often neglected region of cinema culture – the Arab world? This course will introduce you to some of the classic films of the of the Egyptian cinema and its stars like Omar Sharif, including The Land (1970) and Cairo Station (1958), alongside recent films such as Chaos, Disorder (2012) and Lebanese film Capernaum (2018). Each session will include a film screening, short lecture and group discussion.

Akira Kurosawa is one of the leading figures of Japanese cinema with a career – from Shanshiro Sugata (1943) to Madadayo (1993) – as varied as it was influential. Most famous for directing a series of iconic samurai films, including Yojimbo (1961), Hidden Fortress (1958) and Seven Samurai (1954), his filmography also includes crime dramas and police thrillers (Stray Dog 1958), literary adaptations (Throne of Blood 1957) and profound meditations on life and death (Ikiru 1952). This six-week course, led by Professor Stacey Abbott, will examine the richness of Kurosawa’s work and his lasting global legacy through his dynamic visual style; innovative storytelling; revitalised approaches to genre and adaptation; and preoccupation with themes of family, society, and honour.

Hammer's vivid, full-bloodied horror films were met with popular acclaim and critical disapproval but are now recognised as constituting a major area in British popular cinema. Explore the films, their popular and critical reception, Hammer's distinctive approach to style, and the way in which the films offer an alternative to other, more restrained and respectable modes of British cinema.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Marriage has always been fertile ground for filmmakers, and some directors – Rossellini, Bergman, Godard – have gone deeper than most. This course looks at the ways cinema’s greatest filmmakers have approached the subject. It explores original works by artists who have “mined” their own lives for material, while showing how adaptations of literary works can, in the hands of great film-makers, become a kind of veiled autobiography.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.