Film Making MA

Kingston University

United Kingdom, London Borough of Sutton

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604

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Kingston University

United Kingdom , London Borough of Sutton

Key Facts

Program Level

Master by Course Work

Study Type

Full Time

Delivery

On Campus

Campuses

Penrhyn Road

Program Language

English

Start & Deadlines

Next Intake DeadlinesSeptember-2026

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Go to the official application for the university

Duration 1 year(s)

Tuition Fee

GBP 22,600 / year(s)

Next Intake September-2026

Film Making MA

About

This course examines the principles of short form film-making, the potential of visual storytelling and the importance of sound, editing, lighting, cinematography and screenplay.

You will produce a portfolio to show your technical ability in cinematography, sound recording, editing, writing and direction across several short films. You will develop skills such as critical thinking, character and narrative development, and post-production.

The course focuses on the collaborative nature of film-making and the sharing of non-mainstream stories. It is inspired by productions that have challenged conformity.

Portfolio and application advice

Apply for this course

Requirements

Entry Requirements

Typical offer

We usually expect applicants to have:

A 2:2 honours degree in an art and design or humanities subject (film, media studies, languages, history, English, etc) or in any other subject relating to the art and craft of film making.
Applicants with academic qualifications in other subjects, or relevant work experience, will be considered on an individual basis.
A portfolio of work reflecting your experience and skills will be requested of you after the application has been submitted.

Portfolio guidance

We would like to understand more about you and your practice, as well as your aptitude and motivations for studying on this course. We will be reviewing your portfolio with four key values in mind: questioning, curiosity, technical ability, and enthusiasm. Your portfolio should demonstrate these values through your strengths, abilities and experiences in film making or related disciplines. We are looking for your potential to succeed on the course and welcome applications from those with diverse experiences or educational backgrounds.

Your portfolio should include:

A selection of your practical work, such as links to short films, or clips of longer works you have made (no longer than 10 minutes of a longer work).
If you don't have a filmmaking portfolio, we are happy to look at photography work – please see requirements below.
A written personal statement (up to 300 words) or a link to a video of yourself, which answers the following questions:
1. Which films and film makers are you inspired by and why?
2. What kind of films do you want to make / stories do you want to tell, and why?
3. What film making experience do you have? What are your strengths, and in which areas would you like to improve at Kingston?
4. Which role in film making do you most want to develop and why?

Digital portfolio format requirements:

Moving image works should be uploaded to Vimeo, YouTube or other video-sharing platforms – please supply these links in your portfolio and make sure they are active and work on all platforms.
We need to know what role you played on these films, so please include the film titles and your production role at the bottom of your personal statement.
Photography portfolios should be 15-20 pages, landscape orientation and saved/uploaded as a print-based or interactive PDF file. Include project titles and a brief description of each project explaining your intentions and your individual involvement if presenting a group project. Ensure that images are of a high quality and at least 72 dpi.

Prior learning - AP(E)L

Applicants with prior qualifications and learning may be exempt from appropriate parts of a course in accordance with the University's policy for the assessment of prior learning and prior experiential learning. Contact the faculty office for further information.

International

All non-UK applicants must meet our English language requirement, which is Academic IELTS of 6.5 overall, with no element below 5.5. Make sure you read our full guidance about English language requirements, which includes details of other qualifications we consider.

Applicants who do not meet the English language requirements could be eligible to join our pre-sessional English language course.

Applicants from recognised majority-English-speaking countries (MESCs) do not need to meet these requirements.

Country-specific information

You will find more information on country specific entry requirements in the International section of our website.

Career

After you graduate

This film making MA will equip you for lifelong film making and learning. It prepares you with techniques to sustain a film making practice beyond university for:

employment within the film industry or as an independent film maker
further study.

The core skills will enable you to produce films in an independent, pragmatic and accountable manner. This will enhance your employability and begin the process of making you a genuinely independent filmmaker in command of your own material.

MA film making graduates have gone on to work in the film industry in roles such as:

independent filmmaker (Thomas Line, Ananth Subramaniam, Mariam Majid, Johnny Dahle, Shreeya Tiwari)
independent film producer (Annisa Adjam)
assistant editor, production design (Poldark, Prometheus and Doctor Strange – Anna Haigh);
key grip (BBC films and Netflix's The Crown – Vis Sopjani);
sound recordist on independent features;
director (web series Mandem on the Wall and Law Cats – Freddie Osborne);
documentary director
feature films in development (Ananth Subramaniam, Annisa Adjam, Mariam Majid)
editor (Cristina Barillari)
script reader and script editor
1st assistant camera
in-house filmmaker for charity organisations
film festival programmer (Deputy Director of Kingston International Film Festival Jelena Lützel, Barnes Film Festival, Alexa Bailey)

One of our graduates, Pablo Romero-Fresco, has published a book on Accessible Filmmaking, about filmmaking and translation for deaf, blind and in terms of language. He mentions the course in the acknowledgements. The Routledge publication has strong reviews from Ken Loach and Mike Dibb (director, Ways of Seeing). Pablo made his graduation film in Kibera, Kenya about a girls' football school with classmates from the course.

Mariam Majid's 2019 MA graduation film, A Night with Noor Jehan, was selected for the Sheffield Film Festival and Barnes Film Festival, and went on to win the LGBTQ category of the Leeds International Film Festival. Mariam's film Look but with Love screened at the 2024 Kingston International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Eadweard Muybridge Award. She has been shortlisted as a director to work with Centre Frame Club and her new short film, Inebriated Mrs Qureshi, is in production. She is also Head of Fiction for the BIFA qualifying London Breeze Film Festival.

Graduates have also established themselves as independent filmmakers, exhibiting their films at the East End Film Festival and Tate Britain, and have had projects commissioned by the Home Office, Tate, E4 and Film London.

MA graduates have also progressed on to do PhDs in film making in the department with projects including:

The Endz Game: The impact of the London 2012 Olympics on the communities of the host boroughs (Dr. Mitchell Panayis)
The Black Market: An application of the Sound System model to Independent Filmmaking (Dr. Freddie Osborne)
Floating Home: A Journey of Taiwanese Identity in the UK. (Dr. Roter Su)

We have an international cohort of alumni, with graduates coming from: America, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and Venezuela.