About The Program 

FILM TECH
FILM TECH: An Evening with Academy Award Winner Eugene Mamut and the Animagic Museum. Valleywood™ event connects "Hidden Hollywood" studios and digital artists to businesses and students. Monday, Nov. 9 in Pittsfield, Ma. See event details.

New Asia Cinema 2009: Language of Music, Soundtrack of Life
This fall, New Asia Cinema, curated by Professor Anne Ciecko, focuses on East, South, Southeast, and Central Asia, and the Middle East. (See details.)

Position at Amherst College Department of Women's and Gender Studies
Applications Requested for New Position: Images and Textualities in the Global South Open Rank, Tenured or Tenure Track Position to begin Fall, 2010. See details (pdf).

ITVS International Call 2010
Announcing the ITVS International Call 2010. Deadline is February 5, 2010. See details.

Blazing Reel Short Film Competition 2009
Wilson Wheaton Productions announces its newest competition. Call for entries into the Blazing Reel Short Film Competition is now open. Deadline is November 9, 2009.

CFP Voices from the In-Between
Confernece: Voices from the In-Between: Aporias, Reverberations, and Audiences, April 16-18, 2010, hosted by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures University of Massachusetts Amherst. See the call for papers for more info. Proposal deadline: Monday, February 1, 2010.

Ninth Annual Michael S. Roif Awards

Trophies for Michael S. Roif Award in Film Studies for Exceptional Creativity and Accomplishment.
Welcome to the website of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Since its inception in 1991, Film Studies has become a dynamic center of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary activity. With active participation from a solid core of more than twenty faculty members, representing fifteen departments from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and the School of Education, the Program offers an undergraduate Certificate Program in Film Studies which enrolls approximately 200 students from twenty-eight different majors; 800 additional students have successfully completed the program since the fall of 1991. The Program has received national recognition from independent sources such as the Eastman-Kodak Corporation (1993, 1995, and 1999) for "academic excellence in support of the future generation of filmmakers."

Our graduates go on to distinguish themselves as scholars, artists, and professionals in the demanding and competitive areas of film and video. Recently, members of our faculty have received grants from foundations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the Getty Foundation and AMC Cinemas, as well as numerous Faculty Research Grants, Distinguished Teaching Awards, and other distinctions.

The Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies engages in a variety of film and video-related activities that benefit students and the larger academic community, including:

  • Coordination and description of film courses on campus and the five colleges, offering approximately 80 courses at UMass and 70-80 at the other 4 colleges per year
  • Regular film and video screenings
  • Speaker's series' colloqia and retrospectives on the work of international filmmakers and videographers
  • Availability of filmmaking equipment and facilites for teaching and research on campus
  • The Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival held in the spring semester
  • The Michael S. Roif Award in Film Studies: a competitive annual prize awarded to students enrolled in the Program whose film, video, or moving-image-media work demonstrates exceptional creativity and accomplishment
  • A current resource archive of videocassettes and journals, reference materials on film and video programs, institutes, and other educational opportunities in the U.S. and Canada, internships, practica, film festivals and student screenwriting, film and video competitions.

Graduate Certificate in Film Studies: See the Program Description and Requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Film Studies and read the fall 2009 Newsletter.

We welcome comments, suggestions and questions about the Program and our website. Please e-mail us at film@hfa.umass.edu