As a BA (Hons) Film and Television Production student at ARU, you'll be supported by award-winning, lecturers whose work has been screened on all the major UK television networks, as well as at multiple international film festivals. They have won Emmys, HUGOs and BAFTAs and continue to make films and programmes.
With their encouragement, you'll produce a range of programmes and films that may be as prize and film festival-worthy as our other recent student work. In 2022 the graduation film Roots was selected for official competition at the Watersprite International Student Festival and Cambridge Film Festival, winning the Watersprite Cinematography award and the GTC Bill Vinten Universities Award for Camera. You can see cinematographer Agata Kazmiercczak's story below.
Our students’ films have been very successful in the regional Royal Television Society Student Awards. In 2024, the film Eternity’s Grace won both the Drama and Camerawork categories, while Therapy won first place in the Entertainment and Comedy Drama category in 2023. In 2021, Lidia Bieniarz won the Best Short Form Film category as well as the top prize – The Sir Lenny Henry Award – for A Film About My Dad, while Agata Kazmierczak won best editing for Colourblind.
You’ll also have the chance to join our organised trips to Sheffield Documentary Festival, Camerimage in Poland and Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, and take part in live briefs with partner organisations. Some of our students recently worked with communications and PR agency Creative Warehouse, submitting pitches for a 90-second film and accompanying social media campaign.
You’ll have access to a series of guest lectures and workshops led by industry professionals where you’ll learn more about industry practices, receive invaluable advice and have an opportunity to network with visiting film and programme makers.
Past speakers have included directors Ben Wheatley (High Rise, Free Fire), Chloe Thomas (Victoria, Harlots), Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Enduring Love), producers Laura Hasting-Smith (Macbeth, Hunger, Howards End), Oliver Kassman (Saint Maude and a BAFTA Breakthrough winner), cinematographers Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave, Hunger) and Robbie Ryan (Red Road, I, Daniel Blake, American Honey) , sound designers Larry Sider and Adele Fletcher, Emmy Award-winning documentary director Geoffrey Smith (The English Surgeon, Presumed Guilty) and BBC Commissioning Editor for Storyville, Mandy Chang.
Make the most of being in Cambridge: you can gain crucial work experience at Cambridge’s two annual film festivals. You’ll have the chance to get involved with Cambridge Film Festival, one of the longest-running film festivals in the UK.
You can also get involved with the Watersprite International Film Festival, the biggest student film festival in the UK, run in conjunction with the University of Cambridge. Every year, our students are part of the central organising committee and lead subcommittees like marketing, filming, events, and judging. This festival presents a huge opportunity for you to build your networks and make connections with industry guests, mentors and student filmmakers from around the world.
Other opportunities to collaborate with University of Cambridge students through extracurricular events include the student-run radio station Cam FM and the ADC Theatre (home of Cambridge Footlights).
There are plenty of other opportunities to get your work seen. Our final year graduation films premiere on the big screen at The Cambridge Arts Picturehouse. We also host a selection of student work on our YouTube channel.
Extra-curricular funded film projects have included shorts for C4’s Random Acts, the Kodak 16mm Commercials Competition and most recently, a collaboration with The Globe's Sixty Second Shakespeare project, creating shorts to coincide with the theatre's productions. The project is open to all students in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, with the films released on The Globe’s website and also promoted on their social media and YouTube channels.
The impact of our Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film & Screen Studies research achieved ‘world-leading’ in the Research Excellence Framework 2021.
Course Leader: Sophie Jackson
