Programs / Undergraduate Program

**Requirements for students declaring prior to Fall 2020**

Film & Media Major

To declare a major in Film & Media, students must have completed a minimum of 30 units and have satisfactorily completed Film 25A or 25B (with a grade of C or higher).

Student must receive C- or higher in all the classes for the major in order for them to count.  Please note that courses for the major in which a student earns below a C- will not be counted, and the student will need to retake that class to have it count. 

Student must have at least a 2.0 GPA in the major in order to graduate. 

We do not offer a minor in Film & Media Studies, although we do offer a Summer Certificate.

Double Majors

Many Film & Media majors elect to complete a second major in addition to Film & Media. Students must be able to complete both majors within a maximum of 140 units, and can have no more than two courses which are counted towards both majors’ requirements. Students considering a double major should consult with their Undergraduate Major Advisor.

Lower Division Requirements

12 lower-division units are required for the major.

  • Film 20 (Film & Media Cultures), 4 units, generally offered each Fall and Summer. This course is an introduction to the study of a range of media, including photography, film, television, video, and print and digital media.
  • Film 25A (History of Film I), 4 units, generally offered in Fall and Summer.  This course covers film from its beginnings, including the silent period and the conversion to sound, up until the World War II era.
  • Film 25B (History of Film II), 4 units, generally offered each Spring and Summer. This course covers film from the World War II era through the New Wave and into the emergence of the new ethnic and national cinema.

Upper Division Requirements

A minimum of 28 upper-division units are required for the major.

Required courses (12 units):

  • Film 128 (Documentary Film), 4 units, generally offered in Spring: An analysis of the development of the documentary film, including examples by Flaherty, Riefenstahl, and Wiseman.
  • Film 129 (Avant-Garde Film), 4 units, generally offered in Fall: A survey of experimental film including examples by Vigo, Duchamp, Leger, Bunuel, Clair, Brakhage, Kubelka, Snow and Rainer.

Plus one of the following:

  • Film 108 (Genre), 4 units: Focuses on a particular genre, e.g., western, horror film, film noir, animation, melodrama. May be repeated for credit.
  • Film 151 (Auteur), 4 units: Focuses on the work of a single director, e.g., Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Fellini. May be repeated for credit.
  • Film 160 (National Cinema), 4 units: Focuses on the cinema of a particular nation or region. May be repeated for credit.

Film & Media Electives

A minimum of 16 units are required to complete the total of 28 upper-division units in the major.

Students may choose to take additional courses from the upper division Film & Media offerings, including extra courses in Film 108 (Genre), Film 151 (Auteur), or Film 160 (National Cinema), or other electives such as Film 140 (Special Topics), Film 177 (Entertainment Law), Film 179 (Sound), Film 180/181 (Screenwriting), Film 185/186 (Narrative Production), and Film 187 (Special Topics in Media Production), all of which will count toward the upper-division unit requirement.

In addition, a list of pre-approved film elective courses and course descriptions drawn from course offerings by affiliated faculty across the campus is available each semester. The Undergraduate Major Advisor (UMA) will distribute and post the approved list to Film & Media majors each term. Students should consult with the UMA regarding course selections.

Up to two (2) pre-approved extra-departmental elective courses can be counted for credit towards the major, all other courses must be within the Film & Media Department.

*Of the four required required elective courses for the major, one may be taken P/NP, all other courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Language Requirement

Language Requirement for student admitted Fall 2017 or after:

Students may complete the second semester or higher of a college-level language course in one language, which has to be taken at the UC Berkeley Campus (French 2, German 2, etc.) or a more advanced language class taught in the target language (French 102, German 102, Spanish 25, etc.).  Students should take a course at the appropriate level.  Those students with no foreign language background will need to take the first and second semester sequence in one language.

There will be no waivers or credit given for courses completed in high school or at community college. Film majors have to take at least one language course at UC Berkeley, second-semester level or a higher, in order to pass the requirement.

The requirement cannot be completed at an outside institution (with the exception of UC-approved study abroad programs). This rule also applies for transfer students who took a four- semester sequence at community college; students must stil enroll in one further language course at Berkeley, preferably an upper division language course.

Native/Heritage speakers are NOT exempt from the requirement to take a UC course, but they can take the heritage-speaker version of their native language (e.g., Spanish 21). International students will be required to provide a copy of a high-school transcript from home to verify coursework in their native language at the high-school level.

Foreign language classes need to be completed with a C- or better to count for the major requirement (or a “Pass” if using the P/NP grading option).

Internships

Students may choose to participate in structured internship opportunities through the Pacific Film Archive (Film 197A and Film 197C). Students who have identified an external internship for which they wish to receive credit should consult with Nico Pereda, the Undergraduate Faculty Advisor, regarding enrollment in Film 197B. Only 4-units of internship units may be counted towards the 32 upper-division unit requirement for the Film & Media major. Film 197A: Film Study at the Pacific Film Archive (2 units), Film 197B: Film Study for Majors (3 units), Film 197C: Film Curating at the Pacific Film Archive (2 units).