Film and Hispanic Studies

Film and Hispanic studies is a combination that rewards anyone with a genuine interest in cinema as an art form and in the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, which have produced some of the most significant filmmaking of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Spanish-language cinema, from the surrealism of Buñuel through the New Latin American Cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the contemporary work of directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, has been central to the development of world cinema. Studying it alongside film theory and Hispanic literature and culture gives you a richer and more layered understanding of both the medium and the region.

At Queen Mary University of London, this four-year programme develops Spanish language proficiency alongside film studies, with language study progressing in parallel with the analytical and critical content of both disciplines. You will study film history and theory, the conventions and forms of different cinematic traditions, and the specific ways in which Spanish and Latin American cinema has engaged with politics, identity, gender, and memory. The Hispanic studies element introduces you to literary and cultural texts from Spain and Latin America, situating the cinema you study in its broader cultural and historical context.

Queen Mary has strengths in both film studies and modern languages, and the London location gives you access to a city with exceptional resources for film culture.

Graduates of film and Hispanic studies programmes work in film and television production, arts journalism and criticism, cultural institutions, academic research, education, publishing, and international organisations with connections to the Spanish-speaking world. The combination of language fluency and critical media literacy is valued in a wide range of creative and cultural careers, and postgraduate study in film studies, Hispanic studies, or cultural history is a natural further step.