Film Studies School of Art, Communication and English Undergraduate Program Major or Minor - The University of Sydney
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School of Art, Communication and English Semester 1 & 2 2023 Film Studies Undergraduate Program Major or Minor Honours Advanced coursework
Cover Image: iStock
Above: Les Tulipes (Segundo de Chomón, France, 1907)
B
In this edition
—
03 Welcome by Chair of Discipline
04 Film Studies at the University:
Undergraduate Program
06 Advanced Coursework and Honours in
Film Studies
09 2023 Units of Study
14 Research Degree Programs
15 Staff
16 Key Dates for 2023
The Host (Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2006)
Information in this booklet is to be used as a
guide only, as there may be changes closer to
the start of the academic year.
Please check the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences Future Students web page for complete
course and study information:
sydney.edu.au/arts/study.html
01
Still from Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1964),
Ruben Bentson Film and Video Study Collection,
Walker Art Center © Kenneth Anger).
02
From the Chair of Discipline
—
Welcome
In Film Studies we study the art, history and theory of film in all its
conventional and expanded forms, from Hollywood blockbusters
to virtual reality documentaries. Since its invention at the end
of the nineteenth century, film has been continuously reborn
across different kinds of screens and viewing situations – from the
commercial movie house to the art gallery, from home television to in-
flight monitors and mobile devices. Films entertain, educate, offend,
shock and surprise us, and in doing so they mirror and expand our
worlds and our sense of who we are. In our contemporary moment, it
is vital to reflect on how we are addressed by, and consume, moving
images as a ubiquitous technological form.
We offer an exciting program of study that will deepen your
appreciation of cinema in all its historical, political, philosophical and Dr Susan Potter
cultural dimensions. Our program is taught by award-winning and Chair of Film Studies
internationally recognised researchers who are passionate about
engaging students in their subjects, whether Hollywood cinema, film
genres, silent cinema, film philosophy, queer cinema, film theory,
documentary, the video essay, or the impacts of the digital.
Whatever your level of study, from undergraduate to PhD, you will
have access to the rich collections of films in Fisher Library and the
Schaeffer Fine Arts Library. You will also be connected to local and
international film festivals and related cultural events and, more
importantly, the filmmakers, critics, and scholars who make them
happen.
Study Film Studies and you will be immersed in the extraordinary
diversity of cinemas produced here in Australia, the Asia-Pacific
region, and around the world. Equipped with skills in critical inquiry
and research discovery, trained to think across the full range of
cinema’s industrial organisation and cultural influences, you will be
well prepared to take on new challenges and opportunities in the film
industry, the arts and cultural sectors, and any field that relies on the
audiovisual to communicate and engage audiences.
03
Film Studies as Major or Minor
Studying film draws on both our intellect and our Learning outcomes
imagination. As an accessible and even ubiquitous • Demonstrate an extensive, complex and
transnational cultural form, film opens us to other sophisticated knowledge of film as a cultural,
worlds, other lives, and other ways of seeing. historical, technological and aesthetic
phenomenon that spans local and global
People have been making, watching and writing contexts.
about movies since the late 19th century. In a • Apply high level skills in identifying and
culture arguably defined by visual information, an interpreting film texts from a range of
understanding of the moving image is essential historical and cultural backgrounds.
to understanding the societies we live in. The • Apply high level skills relevant to the
major in Film Studies is a vibrant interdisciplinary analytical study of film and become
program that develops this critical visual proficient in medium-specific modes of
Undergrauate | Film Studies (major or minor)
literacy. It equips you with a range of skills for analysis.
understanding and analysing cinema as a vital and • Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of key
yet everyday part of modern life. Through close concepts, theories and critical approaches
familiarity with a range of case studies, you will to the study of film and its relationship to
come to understand the social, cultural, aesthetic related humanities disciplines.
and political dimensions of cinema in different • Examine and solve complex problems related
contexts and at different times. to the study of film through research, critical
analysis and industry-relevant practical tasks.
In Film Studies you will learn scholarly terms • Demonstrate the skills, integrity and
that will enable you to describe what you see confidence to construct and defend
on screen in relation to, for instance, camera coherent, evidence-based arguments by
movements and editing techniques or traditions drawing on a critical understanding of the
of screen performance. You will develop rich medium and employing the language of
understandings of concepts such as national formal film analysis and interpretation.
cinema, genre and spectatorship through a • Exploring critical contexts surrounding the
diverse range of case studies. And you will development, application and use of digital
study the historical development of film as a and new media technologies and platforms.
cultural and technological form and analyse its • Synthesise knowledge and skills within the
transformations across the 20th century to the discipline through collaborative problem-
present day. solving tasks.
Consult the course resolutions in your faculty handbook
for advice on taking a second major or minor in your
degree at sydney.edu.au/handbooks/
Requirements for completion
A major in Film Studies requires 48 credit points A minor in Film Studies requires 36 credit points
including: including:
• 12 credit points of 1000-level core units • 12 credit points of 1000-level core units
• 6 credit points of 2000-level core units • 6 credit points of 2000-level core units
• 6 credit points of 2000-level selective units • 6 credit points of 2000-level selective units
• 6 credit points of 3000-level core units • 6 credit points of 3000-level core units
• 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units • 6 credit points of 3000-level selective units
• 6 credit points of 3000-level
Interdisciplinary Project units
04
1000-level units of study 3000-level units of study
Core Core
FILM1000 Introduction to Film Studies FILM3000 Cinematic Transformations
FILM1001 Hollywood: Art, Industry, Entertainment Selective
FILM3001 Cinematic Time
2000-level units of study FILM3002 Cinema Spectatorship
Core FILM3003 Screening Reality Since the 1960s
FILM2002 Film Genre, Genre Film FILM3004 National and Transnational Cinemas
(unit will be available from 2024) FILM3005 Queer Cinema
Selective FILM3006 Cinematic Ecologies
FILM2000 From Silent to Sound Cinema
FILM2001 Haunted Screens: Film and Memory Interdisciplinary project unit of study
ARBC2210 Screening the Arab World FASS3999 Interdisciplinary Impact
MUSC2663 Survey of Film Music FASS3333 Industry and Community Project
SPAN2621 Spanish and Latin American Film Studies
Bacehlor of Arts (Film Studies major) pathway
Year 1 Sem 1 Core: FILM1000 Bachelor of Arts Core: Elective unit from Table 1000-level unit in
Introduction to Film FASS1000 Studying A or S another major/minor
Studies the Arts and Social from Table A or S
Sciences
Sem 2 Core: FILM1001 Elective unit from Table Elective unit from Table 1000-level unit in
Hollywood: Art, A or S A or S another major/minor
Industry, Entertainment from Table A or S
Year 2 Sem 1 Core: FILM2002 Film Open Learning Elective unit from Table 2000-level unit in
Genre, Genre Film Environment units A or S another major/minor
(unit will be available from Table A or S
from 2024)
Sem 2 Selective: 2000-level Open Learning Elective unit from Table 2000-level unit in
unit listed for Film Environment units A or S another major/minor
Studies major from Table A or S
Year 3 Sem 1 Interdisciplinary Selective: 3000-level 2000/3000-level unit 2000/3000-level unit
project unit: FASS3999 unit listed for Film in another major/minor in another major/minor
Interdisciplinary Impact Studies major from Table A or S from Table A or S
Sem 2 Core: FILM3000 Selective: 3000-level 3000-level unit in 3000-level unit in
Cinematic unit listed for Film another major/minor another major/minor
Transformations Studies major from Table A or S from Table A or S
Film Studies minor pathway
Please refer to the units Year 1 Sem 1 Core: FILM1000 Introduction to Film Studies
of study descriptions. Sem 2 Core: : FILM1001 Hollywood: Art, Industry, Entertainment
* Table S: University shared Year 2 Sem 1 Core: FILM2002 Film Genre, Genre Film
pool of majors, minors and
(unit will be available from 2024)
units of study, excluding
Visual Arts major or minor Sem 2 Selective: 2000-level unit listed for Film Studies major
* OLE: Open Learning Year 3 Sem 1 Selective: 3000-level unit listed for Film Studies major
Environment unit. Sem 2 Core: FILM3000 Cinematic Transformations
For more, visit
sydney.edu.au/handbooks/
05
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
(Chantal Akerman France/Belgium, 1975)
Advanced coursework Advanced Coursework units of study
SLAM4003 Meaning in the Anthropocene
SLAM4004 Working the Arts and Humanities
In the Bachelor of Advanced Studies offered through
CAVA4001 Art Writing and Artists
the School of Art, Communication and English (SACE),
students will engage in advanced seminars that
complement their individual research in project units. In
Advanced Coursework project units of study
SACE, this may be within the study of arts-based practices
SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures A
such as visual art, film, performance and writing, as well as
SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures B
literature, linguistics, or live and digitised media. Students
FASS4901 Advanced Industry and Community
will have the opportunity to apply disciplinary knowledges
Project A
and methodologies to the legacies of the past, present
FASS4902 Advanced Industry and Community
and possible futures in the areas of communication,
Project B
technology, literature and art in creative ways.
Advanced Coursework requires completion of a
minimum of 24 credit points, including:
• a research, community, industry or entrepreneurship
project of at least 12 and up to 36 credit points.
Students completing Advanced Coursework in this subject
area should complete 12 credit points of advanced
coursework units of study and 12 credit points of advanced
coursework project units of study.
06
Film Studies Advanced Studies Coursework pathway
Year 1 Sem 1 Core: FILM1000 Bachelor of Arts Elective/minor unit 1000-level unit in
Introduction to Film Core: FASS1000 from Table A or S another major/minor
Studies Studying the Arts and from Table A or S
Social Sciences
Sem 2 Core: FILM1001 Elective unit from Elective/minor unit 1000-level unit in
Hollywood: Table A or S from Table A or S another major/minor
Art, Industry, from Table A or S
Entertainment
Year 2 Sem 1 Core: FILM2002 Film Open Learning Elective/minor unit 2000-level unit in
Genre, Genre Film Environment units from Table A or S another major/minor
(unit will be available from Table A or S
from 2024)
Sem 2 Selective: 2000-level Open Learning Elective/minor unit 2000-level unit in
unit listed for Film Environment units from Table A or S another major/minor
Studies major from Table A or S
Year 3 Sem 1 Interdisciplinary Selective: 3000-level Elective/minor unit 2000/3000-level unit
Project Unit: unit listed for Film from Table A or S in another major/
FASS3999 Studies major minor from Table A
or S
Interdisciplinary
Impact
Sem 2 Core: FILM3000 Selective: 3000-level Elective/minor unit 2000/3000-level unit
Cinematic unit listed for Film from Table A or S in another major/
Transformations Studies major minor from Table A
or S
Year 4 Sem 1 Selective : SLAM4004 Project Unit: Elective unit from 3000-level unit in
Working the Arts SLAM4001 SLAM Table A or S another major/minor
and Humanities or Project: Pasts, from Table A or S
CAVA4001 Art Writing Presents, Futures A
and Artists
Sem 2 Selective : SLAM4003 Project Unit: Elective unit from 3000-level unit in
Meaning in the SLAM4002 SLAM Table A or S another major/minor
Anthropocene Project: Pasts, from Table A or S
Presents, Futures B
Please refer to the units of study descriptions.
* Table S: University shared pool of majors, minors and units of study, excluding Visual
Arts major or minor
* OLE: Open Learning Environment unit. For more, visit sydney.edu.au/handbooks/
07
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, US, 1991)
Honours Honours in Film Studies requires 48 credit points
from this table including:
• 12 credit points of 4000-level Honours
An honours year in Film Studies allows students to specialise
seminar units
further in their area of interest. The honours year comprises
• 36 credit points of 4000-level Honours thesis
two 4000-level seminar units of study and a thesis of
units
18,000-20,000 words in length.
Honours admission requirements
Honours is separate fourth year program in the Bachelor Honours seminar units of study
of Advanced Studies. Admission into Honours requires the FILM4113 What is Cinema Studies?
completion of a major in Film Studies with an average of 70 FILM4114 The Cinematic Experience
percent or above and completion of a second major.
Honours thesis units of study
Prior to commencing honours, you will need to ensure you FILM4111 Film Studies Honours Thesis 1
have completed all other requirements of the Bachelor of FILM4112 Film Studies Honours Thesis 2
Arts or other bachelor degrees, including Open Learning
Environment (OLE) units.
082023 Units of Study
Undergraduate units of study taught within the Discipline
Semester 1
FILM1000 Introduction to Film Studies
FILM2000 From Silent to Sound Cinema
(this unit is still a core for students
who commenced their degrees prior to 2023)
FILM2001 Haunted Screens: Film and Memory
ARBC2210 Screening the Arab World
FILM3001 Cinematic Time
FILM4111 Film Studies Honours Thesis 1
FILM4112 Film Studies Honours Thesis 2
FILM4113 What is Cinema Studies?
SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures A
SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures B
SLAM4004 Working the Arts and Humanities
Semester 2
FILM1001 Hollywood: Art, Industry, Entertainment
MUSC2663 Survey of Film Music
SPAN2621 Spanish and Latin American Film Studies
FILM3000 Cinematic Transformations
FILM3003 Screening Reality Since the 1960s
FILM3004 National and Transnational Cinema
FILM3006 Cinematic Ecologies
FILM4111 Film Studies Honours Thesis 1
FILM4112 Film Studies Honours Thesis 2
FILM4114 The Cinematic Experience
SLAM4001 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures A
SLAM4002 SLAM Project: Pasts, Presents, Futures B
SLAM4003 Meaning in the Anthropocene
09Samson and Delilah (Warwick Thornton, Australia, 2009)
Unit of Study descriptions*
1000 Level Units 2000 Level Units
FILM2000 From Silent to Sound Cinema
FILM1000 Introduction to Film Studies Examining cinema as a manifestation of modernity, this
How does film function as an artistic, technological and unit of study contextualizes early film as art, commodity,
cultural form? This unit provides a critical introduction industry, institution and mass production of the senses.
to elements of filmmaking and viewing, exploring the It introduces students to the study of the history and
components of film form as they have evolved through aesthetics of silent cinema, including major genres such as
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will study melodrama and slapstick, and the impacts of the transition
films in a variety of cultural and historical contexts, from to sound.
early cinema to the emergence of new digital cinemas,
and discuss topics that include visual style, sound design, FILM2001 Haunted Screens: Film and Memory
narrative, genre, and film authorship. From the nostalgia film to the Holocaust documentary,
cinema is implicated in complex processes of forgetting
FILM1001 Hollywood: Art, Industry, Entertainment and remembering. This unit introduces students to
Since the early 20th century, Hollywood has dominated thinking about how film represents memory formally
film screens around the world. This unit considers and narratively, and its thematic, cultural and ethical
America’s ‘dream factory’ as profit-oriented industry, implications. It traces film’s relation to nostalgia and
mass entertainment, and cinematic art form. It covers history, while approaching cinema more broadly as an
key historical developments including the star system, archive of memory, especially of those ephemeral or
Production Code censorship, New Hollywood, and the affective experiences not often thought of as historical.
franchise film.
* Please note that not all units of study are offered every calendar year.
10FILM2002 Film Genre, Genre Film 3000 Level Units
This unit examines the development of film genre in the
context of technological and industrial change in the FILM3000 Cinema Transformations
making, delivery and consumption of audiovisual media. What is the cinematic object of the twenty-first century?
The unit considers changing aesthetic, commercial, Where do we locate the essence of a medium that has
ideological and social functions of genre in terms of the undergone such a radical transformation? This course
needs of film industries, filmmakers and audiences. Each examines the intersection of film, digital cinema, and
year two genre case studies will be covered in depth, such new media experiences such as YouTube, machinima
as the action film, the art film, the coming-of-age film, film and mobile cinema. Where many have spoken of the
noir, the gangster film, horror, melodrama, the musical, death of cinema in a digital era, we will conceptualise the
science fiction, the thriller, or the western. complexity of cinema’s evolution from its earliest celluloid
incarnation to the technologies of digital simulation.
ARBC2210 Screening the Arab World
This unit focuses on the history of cinema in the FILM3001 Cinematic Time
Arab world. The chefs-oeuvre of Arab cinema, the Time is one of the most exciting and perplexing concepts
contemporary independent productions, and the poetic in Film Studies. How does the cinema create time and
of their authors are studied in relation to the cultural, what effect does it have on our own sense of time? Can
social and political history of the Arab world. we sense times other than our own? This unit explores
cinematic time in a global context. A survey of key films
MUSC2663 Survey of Film Musis and reflection on the experience of cinema will serve as
This unit is an introductory survey of the history and focal points for thinking time cinematically.
aesthetics of film music from the late 1890s to the present
day. Topics for discussion will include the dramatic FILM3002 Cinema Spectatorship
function of music as an element of cinematic narrative, What is the nature of the cinematic experience between
the codification of musical iconography in cinematic spectator and screen? How do we think about some of
genres, the symbolic use of pre-existing music, and the those experiences that cinema provides that we value
evolving musical styles of film composers. so much as spectators? In this unit we will closely view
some of the key films central to debates on cinema
SPAN2621 Spanish and Latin American Film Studies spectatorship in Film Studies, as well as examining more
While approaches to Latin American cinema neglect the recent developments in the field.
relationship of the region with Spain as former colonial
center, this unit, taught in English, will introduce you to FILM3003 Screening Reality Since the 1960s
Spanish and Latin American film studies exploring the In the age of reality television and instantaneous
tensions, negotiations, and complex flows of influence sharing of social media, why do documentary’s truth
from a transatlantic angle. Comprising history, theory claims, and modes of representing reality, continue to
and criticism through the exploration of ‘national’ be so compelling? This unit introduces students to he
cinema industries, we will explore sites of production and history and poetics of documentary cinema, its codes
circulation, by examining the role coproductions and film of realism and its reality effects. It focuses in articular
festivals play in the conceptualisation and consumption on transformations since the 1960s, including the
of Latin American and Spanish cinema. This unit offers impacts of new film technologies, television, new media,
a regional overview and delves into case studies of the computerisation and the Internet.
history of film production.
FILM3004 National and Transnational Cinema
What does it mean to acquire a global perspective on
film? How does a global perspective on film affect our
understanding of film culture? This unit surveys cinema
from around the world to piece together a picture of film
culture derived from the close analysis of contemporary
film form, style criticism and theory. Particular focus will
be placed on the complex relation of the film text and the
film audience. How do films address multiple and diverse
audiences from different places with different histories
and identities?
11La La Land (Damien Chazelle, US, 2016)
FILM3005 Queer Cinema partner. This experience will allow students to apply their
This unit introduces students to queer cinema as a now academic skills and disciplinary knowledge to a real-world
recognisable global and world-making phenomenon issue in an authentic and meaningful way.
produced within and beyond institutions of mass media.
It focuses on films, videos and moving image media FASS3999 Interdisciplinary Impact
produced by LGBTQIA+-identified people, whether Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life
as individuals, groups, collectives or in the context of and work. This unit provides learning experiences that
activist movements. Drawing on feminist, queer and trans build students’ skills, knowledge and understanding
theories, the unit explores representations of sex, bodies, of the application of their disciplinary background to
identities, communities and cultures across mainstream, interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work
independent and avant-garde traditions. in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through
problem-based learning projects responding to ‘real world
FILM3006 Cinematic Ecologies problems’.
This unit explores cinema’s engagement with earth’s
ecologies, from its environmental impacts as a resource- 4000 Level Units
intensive industry, to its capacity to shape human
perceptions and relations to the more-thanhuman world. SLAM4001 Advanced Studies Project Part 1
From the ocean waves and fluttering leaves that captivated Each student will develop, in consultation with
early film audiences, to contemporary representations their teacher, a project involving the application of
of ecological collapse, this unit tests film’s capacity to contemporary scholarship in their discipline to a question
transform the centrality of ‘the human’, and to activate arising within their disciplinary specialisation, for example:
non-anthropocentric approaches to ecological renewal. A issues concerned with cultural, institutional or digital
range of critical approaches to film, including ecocriticism, archives (with links to Fisher Library or other libraries/
animal studies and posthumanism, will be used to online data repositories/community organisations); the
illuminate diverse moving-image case studies. creation and development of contemporary practice[s];
or how cultural practices, from arts-based work through
FASS3333 Industry and Community Project to the practice of language, address futures, dystopian,
This unit is designed for third year students to undertake utopian or otherwise.
a project that allows them to work with one of the
University’s industry and community partners. Students
will work in teams on a real-world problem provided by the
12SLAM4002 Advanced Studies Project Part 2 Honours units
Each student will complete, in consultation with
their teacher, a project involving the application of
FILM4111 Film Studies Honours Thesis 1
contemporary scholarship in their discipline to a question
This unit involves research towards and preliminary
arising within their disciplinary specialisation, for example:
writing of an Honours thesis of 18000-20000 words, in
issues concerned with cultural, institutional or digital
collaboration with a supervisor approved by the Film
archives (with links to Fisher Library or other libraries/
Studies Program Honours Coordinator.
online data repositories/community organisations); the
creation and development of contemporary practice[s];
FILM4112 Film Studies Honours Thesis 2
or how cultural practices, from arts-based work through
This unit involves completion and submission of an
to the practice of language, address futures, dystopian,
Honours thesis of 18000 - 20000 words in collaboration
utopian or otherwise.
with a supervisor approved by the Honours coordinator.
SLAM4003 Meaning in the Anthropocene
FILM4113 What is Cinema Studies
This unit focuses on key themes for understanding
Many scholars take Andre Bazin’s four-volume work,
meaning in the Anthropocene, an age of human
”Qu’est-ce que le cinema?”, as the moment of
planetary impact: human-nature relations, social and
inauguration for the critical project of film studies.
environmental activism. Students will learn how the
Echoing Bazin’s famous question, this seminar investigates
various disciplines in the School of Art, Communication
what it means to take cinema as a scholarly object.
and English engage with the Anthropocene in literary,
Covering materials from early cinema to post-cinema, this
visual, digital and performative modes. Collaborating with
seminar is organised around a series of mutually informing
the Sydney Environment Institute, the unit underscores
concepts that have structured film studies scholarship:
the contribution of the arts to the ethics and aesthetics
disciplinarity, temporality, realism, indexicality, sound,
of meaning in an age of global economic crisis. This unit
spectatorship and digitality.
is team-taught and assessment will accommodate a
student’s research interests.
FILM4114 The Cinematic Experience
What is the cinematic experience today, in an age of
SLAM4004 Working the Arts and Humanities
fragmented audiences and multiple platform delivery?
We will explore how we might think about ‘work’ in the
Taking the film festival as its central case study, this unit
arts and humanities. First: works of art, culture, literature,
examines the festival as a cultural institution, as a site for
film. What is a work of art? How do works ‘work’? How do
the making of film history, and as a scene of the curious
they function? Second, labour in the humanities and arts:
mixture of the festive and the cerebral, the sensual and
the industrial conditions cultural work in contemporary
the serious.
conditions of precarity and uberisation? Third, how the
arts and humanities are put to work. What values are
associated with these fields, to the labour involved? How
are the knowledges generated in the arts and humanities
put to use, appropriated, marginalised, dismissed?
The unit is team taught and accessible to students from
diverse backgrounds; assessment tailored to student’s
research interests.
13Film Studies at the University of Sydney Offers the following postgraduate research degrees:
Postgraduate Program
Research Degrees
Film Studies also offers the following Film Studies staff currently supervise students
postgraduate research degrees: across a wide range of projects, from digital
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) distribution to film philosophy, as well as projects
that include a creative component. Research
Doctor of Social Sciences (PhD) students are encouraged to participate in the
Master of Philosophy (MPhil) research culture of the discipline and School,
Master of Arts (Research) as well as wider scholarly communities through
forums such as national and international
Research Degrees | Postgraduate Program
Film Studies welcomes applications to our conferences.
research degree program. As part of your
application you will develop a research proposal Further information about research courses:
and identify a suitable supervisor or supervisor sydney.edu.au/study/study-options/
team in the discipline, School and/or Faculty postgraduate-research.html
of Arts and Social Sciences. A higher degree by
research involves independent research and
the preparation of a thesis under the guidance
of your supervisors. Your thesis can include an
artistic or creative component, such as a film or
documentary.
24 City (Jia Zhangke, China, 2008)
14Staff Dr Richard Smith
r.smith@sydney.edu.au
Associate Professor Bruce Isaacs Richard’s principle area of research interest is the
bruce.isaacs@sydney.edu.au temporality and form of the cinematic image, the
Bruce’s research and teaching focuses on film place of technology and thought in generic and
aesthetics: the legitimacy of ‘Film Style’; realism formal change and the range of theories useful for
and spectacle; American cinema: Classical considering these aspects of cinema.
Hollywood/Hollywood Renaissance (late 60s to
Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, 1979)/Hollywood high Dr Pao-chen Tang
concept cinema; auteur theory, independence, paochen.tang@sydney.edu.au
new aesthetic sensibilities; digital cinema and Pao-chen Tang is a scholar of transnational
aesthetics: ‘Future cinema’; and film production cinema, contemporary East Asian visual and
practice, with a focus on screenwriting as a material cultures, environmental humanities,
literary and cinematic form. and animal studies. His work focuses on the
intersection between film aesthetics and
Dr Matilda Mroz ecopolitics, particularly questions of the
matilda.mroz@sydney.edu.au nonhuman in reciprocity with ethics, and with
Matilda Mroz joined the Film Studies in October filmmaking (as well as other forms of audiovisual
2020. Before this she was a Senior Lecturer in representation). Current projects include a
Film Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, and monograph on the notion of personhood in
the Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Film contemporary cinema, and a co-edited volume
Studies at the University of Greenwich, London. on medical culture in East Asian media.
In 2019-2020, Dr Mroz held a British Academy
Mid-Career Fellowship, awarded for research into
how Polish film and visual culture has responded
to recent historical scholarship concerning Polish
Staff
acts of violence against their Jewish neighbours
during the Holocaust.
Dr Susan Potter
susan.potter@sydney.edu.au
Susan’s teaching and research focuses on early
cinema, and documentary theory and practice.
She is interested in the intertwined histories of
cinema and sexuality, including the relation of film
as modern mass medium to the intensification of
sexuality since the late nineteenth century, and
the aesthetics and ethics of sexual representation
in contemporary cinema.
15Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1958)
Academic Coordinators 2023
For the current list of academic coordinators, please refer
to the discipline webpage at bit.ly/usyd-film or email us at
SACE.enquiries@sydney.edu.au.
Prizes, Scholarships & Financial Assistance
Information on prizes and scholarships, and financial
assistance available through the University can be found
at: sydney.edu.au/scholarships/
Policies
For information on policies that apply to current students,
please visit: sydney.edu.au/students/
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, Germany, 2016)
Keys Dates 2023
For the key dates in 2023 including semester start dates
and breaks, please refer to the University webpage at
sydney.edu.au/students/study-dates.html.
1617 37
Film Studies
School of Art, Communication and English (SACE)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
sydney.edu.au/study
sydney.edu.au/postgraduate
sydney.edu.au/handbooks
sydney.edu.au/arts/SACE
sydney.edu.au/arts
bit.ly/usyd-film
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