MA Film & Television

• Critical Media Practice: This unit introduces you to the rigours of Masters-level research through a critical exploration of practice-led research and research-led practice. It equips you with skills to critically frame your objects of study through interdisciplinary concepts and research methodologies. You will learn how to design research processes that lead to autonomous analyses of audio-visual data.
• Storytelling: This unit examines concepts of storytelling across audio visual formats, cultures and production industries. You will engage with practice research methodologies to engage critically with a diverse range of narrative forms and approaches.
• Media for Social Impact: This unit interrogates the role of media as a catalyst and a tool for social change. This occurs through both a critical re-evaluation of established media industry practices, and a consideration of approaches and methods to mobilise media for broader social, political or cultural impact. The unit invites you to critically analyse historically accepted media industry narratives and canons, thereby to question why particular groups have been marginalised and what factors might have led to this. The unit will also utilise critical perspectives to frame both the deployment of media and the make-up of industrial structures that surround them in the pursuit of social impact.
• Approaches to Industry: During this unit you will research and acquire an in-depth knowledge of the protocols and processes associated with professional practice within a specified creative industrial context. You will reflect on your own experience and performance and develop and implement your own sustainable career strategies underpinning your trajectory into a selected context from a diverse world of employment and self-employment.
• Masters Research Project in Film & Television: This unit facilitates your investigation of unique, creative and critically autonomous ideas through your specialist chosen field in film and television, as the intellectual culmination of your Masters study. It encourages you to deploy original critical thought, research, creativity and professional skills. You will deploy original critical thought, research, creativity and professional skills, to produce an extended artefact to the necessary professional standards required for wider distribution. The emphasis throughout is on the appropriate treatment of ideas, and on how those ideas, developmental processes and final products are communicated effectively to target audiences and users.

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the university's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

The admissions team will look at your online application including your qualifications, personal statement and any work experience. Please make sure your application stands out from the crowd and leaves us in no doubt that you want to study at Bournemouth University.

For more information, take a look at our how to apply pages.

There is no application deadline for this course. However, if you will need a visa to come to the UK to study, think carefully about the length of time it will take for your visa application to be processed and make sure your visa will be ready in time for the beginning of your course.

Click the green ‘Apply now’ button to submit your application free of charge online through myHub, our application portal. You will create your own myHub account so that you can track the progress of your application. Don’t forget to save your application as you go; you can return to it at as many times as you want before you submit it. For more information visit our how to apply pages.

This course has compulsory elements involving practical production activities. When required, students must complete a health and safety risk assessment to take part in these activities, for their safety and that of others. As part of that assessment students provide information about any conditions or disabilities that might affect their ability to undertake these activities fully or safely. 

If you have such a condition or disability, please let us know as soon as possible. You can contact our Additional Learning Support (ALS) service about this before or after making an application. We will then work with you to identify any support or adjustments you would need. Our ALS team works with the Faculty to seek to put in place reasonable adjustments and health and safety plans.

Exceptionally, it may not be possible to arrange for a student to access these courses without either over-riding their core standards or competencies or creating unacceptable risks to health and safety. If that is the case we will help you explore alternative course choices.

The normal requirements for embarking upon a postgraduate taught degree are:

• A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 in any subject, or equivalent
• Applicants are encouraged to provide details of relevant work experience.

If you lack the formal academic qualifications needed to enter a postgraduate or post-experience degree, there are several alternative routes to follow - some based on experience. Contact the Future Students Enquiry Team for more information.

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

• India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55% 
• Nigeria:  Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:2 
• China:  Chinese Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with 65% or above 
• Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0 
• Vietnam:  Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or 2.25/4, or a Master’s degree/Thac si. 

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

IELTS (Academic) 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in writing, speaking, listening and reading or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Bournemouth University International College offers a number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes to prepare international students for postgraduate study at BU. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level. 

• Researcher 
• Media consultant / policymaker 
• Activist filmmaker 
• Academic 
• Curator 
• Freelance media practitioner 

If you want to continue your studies after achieving your Master’s, you can look into our range of doctoral programmes.

What's included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course, including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Materials for laboratory and mandatory field-based teaching activity.
• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement if this is part of your course of study.
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service.
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces.
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow.
• Free software download to your personal device of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus while you are studying, as well as access to applications provided on AppsAnywhere, subject to licensing and compatibility restrictions.
• Disability and additional learning support, according to individual circumstances.
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills.
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds.
• Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of text books and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shop stocks a wide range of stationery supplies. 
• Accommodation and living costs. Please visit our website for more information.
• Travel costs for optional field trips, outdoor wear and footwear for mandatory and optional field trips (if applicable).
• Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass can be purchased alongside your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or may be purchased separately.
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas) if this is part of your course of study. Placement year funding information can be found on our website.
• Clothing or equipment costs required for your placement if this is part of your course of study.
• SportBU membership.

While all aspects of the programme, including required field trips, are included in the fee, additional, optional or extra curricula activities may be available for which a student contribution is required.

If you need to repeat one or more units during the course of your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full time fee.

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. For September 2024 and January 2025 entry, a £5,000 deposit is required. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

• You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
• You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

We offer a range of scholarships to eligible students who are beginning their studies at BU. Please visit our funding pages for details on living costs, budgeting and paying your tuition fees.

Austin is an award-winning cultural historian, with primary research interests in the history, politics and cinema of Italy and the USA. He has also published research on the cultural significance of exploitation cinema, transnational cinemas, and various kinds of political filmmaking. Austin is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and convenes the History Research Group at Bournemouth University. He is also founding co-editor of Bloomsbury’s “Global Exploitation Cinemas” book series. 

Reina has been conducting practice-based research for over a decade. Her work predominantly focusses on docudrama and documentary storytelling that promote movement building, reconciliation, human rights and conservation. She completed her practice-based PhD on the concept of “documemory” and the ethical representation of war trauma on screen. Her films have received several awards from international film festivals including, for example, the Durban International Film Festival. Reina also conducted extended fieldwork in South Africa entailing the socio-political value of Ubuntu – the experience of which deeply influences her practical and pedagogical work. 

Maxine is an internationally produced playwright, whose stage adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band has been performed in both York, England and Sydney, Australia. As a screenwriter, her work includes the medieval webseries Tales of Bacon and science fiction short films Terminal, developed from her PhD practice screenplay and Standing Woman, adapted from a short story by acclaimed Japanese author Yasutaka Tsutsui. Her screenplays have also placed in a variety of international screenwriting competitions. 

Dr. Catalin Brylla’s research focuses on the de-stigmatisation of marginalised groups through strategic interventions in media practices and policies, bridging media studies, research-led practice and social psychology.

Catalin has collaborated with post-colonial filmmaker Prof. Florence Ayisi on two documentaries, “Zanzibar Soccer Queens” (2006) and “Zanzibar Soccer Dreams” (2016), both of which have contributed to the promotion of women’s football and the deconstruction of patriarchal traditions. He has also engaged in a public engagement campaign to empower visually impaired people to adopt arts as a vehicle for empowerment and stigma reduction, using his documentaries “The Terry Fragments” and “June’s Patchwork” as case studies and collaborating with a variety of charities, such as London Vision and the Royal National Institute of Blind People. He has edited the volumes “Documentary and Disability” (with Helen Hughes) and “Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film” (with Mette Kramer), and he is currently completing his monograph “Stigma and Stereotypes in Documentary Film” for Palgrave Macmillan.

Laura's research interests include national identity, British film, nostalgia, postmodernism and post-colonialism. Her specific areas of interest are on British spy fictions, particularly on film and television. She is currently researching aspects of nostalgia culture in contemporary Cold War fictions as part of a wider research project. Laura is founding co-editor of 'Routledge Studies in Espionage and Culture' (Routledge) and is part of the BAFTSS Special Interest Group on British Film and Television.

Carolina has been working in film and media production across the UK and Europe for over ten years. undertakes research in the areas of First Person Documentary, Social Activist Documentary, Latin American Cinema, Cultural Studies and practice-led research. As a practice-led researcher, Carolina produced a feature length, first person documentary film exploring Brazil’s recent history of social movements through the personal lens of her own emotional and physical journey as a transnational filmmaker.