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University of Rochester

Film and Media Studies

Intern at a prestigious art, media, or cultural institution in New York City

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Check out the Selznick Graduate Program in Film and Media Preservation

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Get involved in the Gollin Film Festival

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Major & Minor

Pursue a degree or take courses in film and media studies.

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Gollin Film Festival

UR's premier student film festival gives undergrads the chance to see their films on the big screen and win cash prizes.

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Art New York

Immerse yourself in big city life while completing an internship at a prestigious art, media, or cultural institution.

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Events & FYI

Headlines

October 24, 2018

Horror Films: A Psychological Thrill Ride

Jason Middleton, Film and Media Studies Program Director and a student of horror films, talks about the paradox of horror—why people seek to be scared as entertainment.

May 17, 2017

Time: A Vocabulary of the Present | New Faculty Book

Joel Burges, Director of Visual and Cultural Studies Program, and Assistant Professor of English and Film and Media Studies, presents essays from an assortment of scholars in the new field of time studies. The volume focuses on the decades since World War II—a period “animated by certain kinds of time consciousness”—and considers time as history, as calculation, and as culture. 

September 11, 2018

Cinema classics new again at the Dryden Theater | Ben Schmitz, Campus Times

Jared Case, the curator of film exhibitions at the George Eastman Museum, believes that preserving the experience of viewing films in their original format is just as important as preserving the films themselves.

“The Dryden theater isn’t just about exhibition,” he says.  “It’s about preservation. It’s the last step in the preservation process.”

September 7, 2018

Bernardi, Selznick Alumni Collaborate on DCP with The Digital Scholarship Lab

Joanne Bernardi (Professor of Japanese and Film and Media Studies), and Selznick School alumni Josh Romphf and Clara Auclair recently collaborated with The Digital Scholarship Lab, The George Eastman Museum and the Toy Film Museum in Kyoto, Japan to create a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) of a partially-lost 1929 film by Japanese legend Yasujiro Ozu. The DCP will be screened at the Dryden Theater on December 4th as part of Philip Carli’s Silent Cinema class!

March 1, 2018

Thinking about ‘visual privilege’ and the 2018 Oscars

Sharon Willis, professor of Film and Media Studies, Art and Art History, and Visual and Cultural Studies, discusses #OscarsSoWhite and this year's nominations.

April 25, 2016

UR Webseries "Patched" Wins 5 Awards in LA Webfest

"Patched", the web series produced, directed, and edited by FMS alumna Brynn Wilkins ('15) and executive produced by Kedar Shashidhar ('15) and Kathryn Loveless ('15), has won all 5 awards it was nominated for at the 2016 Los Angeles Web Series Festival at Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, CA. 

January 11, 2016

FMS grad chosen for inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars

Jintian “Jay” Li, a 2012 University of Rochester graduate, is part of the inaugural class of China-based Schwarzman Scholars, established “to prepare the next generation of global leaders.”  Just 111 of 3,054 candidates from 135 countries were chosen. “I’m honored to be selected,” Li said. 

April 6, 2015

The Poitier Effect: Sharon Willis' book examines ‘change without change’

Sir Sidney Poitier became a cultural icon in the 1950s as the first black actor to break racial barriers in film. But as University of Rochester professor Sharon Willis argues in her new book The Poitier Effect (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), his image on screen creates a false sense of equality that continues to appear in the popular media and remains damaging to race relations today.

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Master of Arts in Film and Media Preservation

Combining practical, hands-on training in motion picture preservation with a formal graduate degree program, the Selznick School of Film Preservation and the Department of English offer a Masters of Arts degree program in film and media preservation. Students in the Selznick Graduate Program in Film and Media Preservation work with Film and Media Studies faculty through the Department of English at the University of Rochester.

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Did you know?

FMS students can participate in Art in New York program. Students in this program spend a semester interning at prestigious art, media and cultural institutions in NYC while taking two classes.

The University maintains a reciprocity agreement with several area colleges. Students can take courses taught at allied schools for no extra cost if they are not offered here.

FMS jointly runs the Selznick Graduate Program in Film and Media Preservation with the George Eastman Museum. This award winning program allows students to earn a certificate in Film and Media Preservation in just one year.

The Digital Scholarship Lab at River Campus Libraries used a program called DaVinci Resolve to help process surviving 9.5 mm footage of Tokkan Kozo, a 1929 Japanese silent film.

Feature Article

Digital scholars rescue lost Japanese film

A 1929 Japanese silent film inspired by a classic O. Henry short story was long thought lost until Rochester researchers collaborated to bring it back to the big screen.

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40students

The Film and Media Studies Program has an enrollment of approximately 40 students in the major and minor.

UR Parents and Families

Why FMS?

There are many opportunities open to students of film and media arts. Many students go on to film or television school, pursuing graduate work in producing, directing, editing, cinematography, screen writing, acting, and other creative aspects of media.

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From Aches, by first place winner Brynn Wilkins, ’15, a film and media studies major from Fairport, NYFilm inRochester
Image of a man on a steam train taken by FMS student Jin LiStudyAbroad
Film CanisterFilm and MediaPreservation

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