Undergraduate Program Overview
(Fine Arts building, home to Cinema).
The Cinema Department provides its undergraduate majors with a broad liberal arts education focused on three core values: creative expression, critical thinking, and social engagement. Students interested in the major are welcome to visit the department and meet with faculty and students.
The University accepts applications to the major only for the fall semester. Applications are accepted from October 1st to November 30th for the fall semester of the following year. Change-of-major applications are accepted all year long.
Students are required to complete at least 45 upper division units for the major; up to 12 of these units may be in related disciplines outside of Cinema, subject to an advisor’s approval. A minor is not required.
The B.A. in Cinema program's learning objectives strive to enable students to:
- Acquire basic skills in the critical analysis of films, focused by the analysis of representative film texts from a range of periods and cultures.
- Relate cinema to the production, distribution and exhibition industries, the other arts, and to society.
- Identify contemporary technological, artistic, and industrial trends in the cinematic arts.
- Acquire the basic technical skills necessary for cinematic expression (animation, filmmaking and screenwriting).
- Locate personal voice in the creation of the cinematic arts.
- Produce competent and sustained research papers evidencing knowledge of major topics, theories and methods.
