Career paths

As a film programmer at the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), I decided to take a temporary leave from my position to pursue an MA in Film Studies at King's College London, seeking to broaden my horizons and find new sources of inspiration. I feel incredibly fortunate to have found both during my time there. What I appreciated most about my experience at King’s was the faculty and the wide range of topics they taught. I learned so much from Chris Berry, Erica Carter, Sarah Cooper, Elena Gorfinkel, Iain Robert Smith, and my dissertation supervisor Mark Betz. From "The Politics of Aesthetics: Perspectives from Weimar Germany" to "Exploitation Cinema", I was able to explore both unfamiliar subjects and areas I was already deeply interested in. The flexibility of the programme, particularly the freedom to shape essay topics, allowed me to engage with cinema in a more personal and intellectually rewarding way. My experience studying at King’s and engaging with London’s vibrant repertory cinema culture has had a lasting impact on my approach to film programming at KOFA, sometimes in very direct ways. For example, the insights I gained from Professor Sarah Cooper’s 'Ecology and the Moving Image' module inspired 'Visions Within Nature', a film programme I later curated for the Cinematheque KOFA that aims to explore cinema’s potential to evoke a sensorial connection with the natural world. More broadly, my studies reshaped my understanding of cinema as an art form and opened up new perspectives on curation, and this continues to inform my work in meaningful ways.

Young Jin Eric Choi, Korean Film Archive, Film Programmer | MA Film Studies (Film & Philosophy pathway), 2022

I studied Film and American Studies at undergraduate level, followed immediately by a Master's in Film Studies. Those years of watching, thinking, arguing and writing about cinema were hugely formative for me. I am indebted to the fully rounded academic experience I had at King’s — as well as the wonderful tutors — for equipping me with the rhetorical tools, the taste and the patience that has made entering the worlds of cinema programming, acquisitions and now film festivals such a blast since. My studies at King’s refined my understanding of film form, history and how to really try and understand everything around a movie that can make it such an important and powerful cultural expression. I have been lucky enough to turn my love of film into a career. But it was studying film at King’s in a serious and engaged way that, in many ways, made that possible.

Paul Ridd, CEO & Festival Director, Edinburgh International Film Festival | MA Film Studies, 2010

The Film Studies course at King’s was a rigorous and fulfilling learning environment that furthered my deep appreciation for cinema on a formal and theoretical level. I was taught by leading practitioners in the field with great care for the work they do—their expansive approach to teaching allowed me to discover ways of engaging with cinema that I hadn’t previously explored. I most enjoyed the variation of modules and types of cinema that could be studied, an element of the course that broadened my taste, curiosity and knowledge base. As part of the programme, I was able to attend my first international film festival and gain crucial exposure to a world of film criticism and festivals that would go on to become an active part of my work. This experience enabled me to continue my burgeoning career as a critic and writer and over this years, further opportunities like this set me on a path towards my current role in film and art book publishing. Finding a film community in London and internationally, thanks to many of the connections I made at King’s, was an integral part of expanding my thinking and developing my onward career journey. King’s enabled me to gain a strong intellectual framework for the study of cinema and a foundational network of peers, both of which were critical for my future steps into the industry.

Caitlin Quinlan, Editorial and Publishing Manager, MUBI | MA Film Studies, 2018

I wholeheartedly loved my Film Studies degree because it completely reshaped my way of thinking by pushing me to critically question and examine the world we live in, its constructs and systems via the medium of film. In the process, I learned not just about this unique and powerful art form, but also about philosophy, literature, politics, history, sociology, anthropology, technology and many other disciplines and their intersection on a global scale. I followed up my degree with an MFA in Producing from UCLA and have since been making my own content (THE WIND PHONE – short film) and working at entertainment companies in Los Angeles that have a devotion to advancing the art form while fostering diversity and inclusion. These include Fox Searchlight, Participant, and my current employer, Color Force. Having the comprehensive knowledge of film history that King's taught me has been an invaluable asset working for these prestigious companies, at which a large part of my job consists of identifying promising new material for adaptation and original production.

Linda C. Riedmann, Film Executive & Producer at Color Force | BA Film Studies, 2015

When I graduated with a BA in Film Studies in 2015, I jumped straight into an internship in television commercial production. Studying films from different corners of the world helped me communicate with international directors, and taught me how to overcome budgetary problems by reshaping visual language. Finding good stories and learning how to tell them is the tricky part. And the great thing about Film Studies at King’s is that you spend three years studying, watching and absorbing some of the best films in cinema history. You see different ways of constructing narrative through story, editing, framing, performance - all enormously important elements needed to write a script and then go out and direct it!

Bianca Di Marco, director, writer, producer | BA Film Studies, 2015

Studying Film at King’s for my MA exposed me to a diversity of film culture I had never experienced and made me think seriously about choosing film as a potential career path for the first time. I chose King’s because of the extremely high calibre of lecturers. My time at King’s was always intellectually demanding but also hugely inclusive. Rather than drearily trudging through the canon, independent thought was placed front and centre of our course. As well as the academic rigour, the social aspect of the course was equally beneficial; many people I met during my studies have gone on to become friends and colleagues in my professional life, working in various areas of the industry around the country.

Joe Ursell, BFI Player Programme Coordinator | MA Contemporary Cinema Studies, 2009