Groningen, Netherlands
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
01 Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 18,700 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA students I Dutch students: 15.08.2025
** for Non-EU|for EU/EEA EUR 2,530
Key Summary
Introduction
Are you fascinated by the emotional and cognitive effects of films? Do you love studying documentaries and the contributions cinema can make to discussions of climate change?
Then the Master’s track ‘Film and Contemporary Audiovisual Media’ is the right one for you. Within a year you can acquire a Master’s degree from one of the Top 100 universities in the world—and you will do so in the city with the youngest population in the Netherlands. An internship in film, television or other media is part of the program as well.
In ‘Film and Contemporary Audiovisual Media’ you will work closely with our international faculty, who will initiate you into the latest theoretical debates in film and media studies. You will learn to work with state-of-the-art approaches such as phenomenology, film-cognitivism, ecocriticism, film philosophy, digital film forensics, and experimental media archaeology.
Our track is unique in its combination of research-driven seminars and the extensive networks on offer for the internship. With an internationally recognized faculty and well-established connections to film and media institutions, this program will be attractive to students who want to deepen their knowledge of film and pursue a career in the arts and media sector.
Why study this programme in Groningen?
- stimulating international student environment with a lively cinema-going culture;
- theoretically strong department working on the latest developments in audiovisual culture;
- wide range of courses on cognitive film theory, film-phenomenology, media-archaeology, narratology and documentary theory;
- team of motivated international staff members collaborating across national and disciplinary boundaries;
- Film Archive & Media Archaeology Lab (embedded in the University) with links to international networks of film archives, museums and media labs.
Admissions
Curriculum
Year 1
In the first semester, the students follow courses of 30 EC. Here 20 EC come from the Film and Audiovisual Media track. The remaining 10 EC can be chosen from the other tracks within the Arts and Culture MA programme (Arts, Cognition and Criticism; Music, Theatre and Performance Studies; Arts, Policy and Cultural Entrepreneurship). In the second semester, students write their MA thesis (20 EC) and do an internship/traineeship (10 EC). The internship can also be replaced by a course or a tutorial.
Optional courses from the other tracks:
- Semester 1a: Media, Materials, Makers, Classical Music in the Digital Age I, Dramaturgy, Gender and Sexuality in Popular Music Performance Mediality & Materiality.
- Semester 1b: Adaption Theory and Practice, Arts and Brain in Culture, Capita Selecta in Arts Education Classical Music in the Digital Age II, Music, Politics and Resistance, Music, Theatre and Sound.
Courses
- Digital Film Forensics (5 EC)
- Non Fiction and the Aesthetics of Truth (5 EC)
- Transnational Cinema (5 EC)
- Optional course 1 (5 EC, optional)
- Optional course 2 (5 EC, optional)
- Contemporary Film Aesthetics (5 EC)
- New Film History (5 EC)
- TBA (5 EC)
- Ma Internship (10 EC)
- Master's Thesis (20 EC)
Programme options
- Master's placement (specialization)
Study abroad
- Study abroad is optional
- Maximum of 30 EC
This track invites students to go on exchange during their second semester, with partner universities such as Freie Universität Berlin (GER), Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne (FRA), the Universities of Gothenburg, Lund, and Stockholm (SWE), University of Aarhus (DK) the Universities of Bradford, Durham, and Leicester (UK), ELTE University Budapest (H), the Universities of Milan, and Udine (I), the University of Pretoria and University of the Free State South Africa, UNAM Mexico, and other universities.
Gallery
Career Opportunities
Alumni of this track have found jobs in a wide array of fields.
Job prospects
Some job examples:
- Event and collection management in film and television museums (Eye Film Institute, Sound and Vision)
- Film curating, (freelance) film and art reviews, newspaper and magazine journalism (Filmkrant)
- Film festival organizing and programming (Movies That Matter, IDFA, NFF, IVA, Flicks, Kino Klandestino, Zienemaan, etc.)
- Practical film-making
There are other employment possibilities such as a position at a media company or in the advertisement and commercial field. Prior students have also begun their own successful arts organisations, advice bureaus, or research institutions in the field of arts, culture, and event organisations.
Beyond these, we are particularly proud of our success rate in acquiring PhD grants.
Job examples
- Film critic
- Cultural Journalist
- Media Curator
- Film Archivist
- Researcher
- Art Event Organizer