The Cinema Studies Institute emphasizes the study of cinema by focusing on film history, film theory, and film analysis. The Institute offers a limited number of courses in production, though many of our students have found our program useful in preparing them for a career in the film industry. Our regularly offered production-based courses are CIN349H1Y - Screenwriting and CIN369H1 - Critical Writing on Film.
You can read about how our alumni have used their undergraduate and graduate degrees in Cinema Studies to find careers in the film industry and beyond in the following articles:
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2024 Careers after Cinema StudiesAlaine Hutton is part of a performing/writing/directing/designing duo with a decade of shared training in physical performance and making people uncomfortable. They create questionably comedic theatre, film, and “digital not otherwise specified”, often revolving around the internet ruining our brains, distorting our sexualities, and how we can’t stop looking at it. You can watch their speculative fiction/ cringe comedy series Content Farm streaming on CBC Gem. Alaine graduated with a Minor in Cinema Studies in 2011. Dylan Rykse is the Senior Media Specialist at Media Commons. In this role, he manages the film collections and screening rooms at Robarts Library. Prior to his current position, he was the Reference Specialist at the University of Toronto Music Library and a librarian at the Toronto Public Library. He graduated with a Major in Cinema Studies in 2016. Theresa Wang is a curator and writer based in Toronto where she is currently Director & Curator at Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art. Her practice considers ways in which narratives are destabilized and reconfigured, and is particularly interested in questions pertaining to concepts of truth, knowledge, meaning, and memory. She was recently Associate Curator & Registrar at Oakville Galleries, where she organized exhibitions with Diedrick Brackens, Timothy Yanick Hunter, Julia Brown, and Elif Saydam, and the group exhibition Two Truths and a Lie (2022). She has held curatorial and audience development positions at institutions including the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Gardiner Museum, and Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon. Her writing on contemporary art and cinema has been featured in publications and galleries, such as C Magazine, ArtAsiaPacific, BlackFlash, MUBI Notebook, Screen Slate, Franz Kaka, and Trinity Square Video. As an independent curator, she organized the projects Written in Water at Hearth Garage (2021), Everything Worthwhile at Vector Festival (2021), and co-curated Soft Refractions at Xpace Cultural Centre (2019). She is an alumna of the 2021 Professional Alliance for Curators of Color (Association of Art Museum Curators, New York) and the recipient of a 2022 Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries Exhibition Award. Theresa graduated with a Minor in Cinema Studies in 2018. Video will be shared here! |
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2023 Careers after Cinema StudiesBrandon Bastaldo is the Digital Production Manager for Loblaw Digital's Online Grocery. He graduated in 2012 with a Major in Cinema Studies. Lindsay Blair Goeldner is a film producer and the Vice President of Production at Fae Pictures, an award-winning media production company on a mission to decolonize Hollywood. Originally hailing from Toronto, she is currently based in New York City. In 2020, she teamed up with fellow CFC Producer Lab alumni Shant Joshi as the Director of Production at Fae Pictures and since then she has produced and overseen production on notable and groundbreaking projects. Some of those projects include short films Diaspora (dir. Tyler Mckenzie Evans), Scaring Women at Night (dir. Karimah Zakia Issa), Death Valley (dir. Grace Sloan); feature films such as Learn to Swim (dir. Thyrone Tommy), I Like Movies (dir. Chandler Levack) which was selected as one of Canada's Top Ten films of 2022; and soon-to-be-released series Streams Flow from a River (dir. Christopher Yip), to name a few. As the producer of three projects that had their world premieres at TIFF 2022, Playback Online proclaimed her as "taking TIFF by storm" and she has not slowed down since. Through her work, Lindsay aims to elevate and empower emerging talent which continues to be a defining and driving force in her career. When she's not on set or at a karaoke night, you can find her recommending movies on TikTok. Lindsay graduated with distinction from UofT in 2013 with a Hons. Bachelor of Arts specializing in Cinema Studies with a minor in English. Peter Kuplowsky is a film curator, producer, and writer based in Toronto. Since 2005, he has established a career championing genre cinema and outsider art at various international film festivals. He is currently the lead programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section. Over the past few years, Kuplowsky has helped develop and produce a number of critically acclaimed short and feature films with emerging filmmakers that he supported on the festival circuit as a programmer. His producer credits include The ABCs of Death: Part 2 (2014), The Interior (2015), The Void (2016), Climate of the Hunter (2019), PG: Psycho Goreman (2020), Anges (2021), Country Gold (2022), and The Artifice Girl (2022). Peter completed a Cinema Studies Specialist in 2009 followed by an MA from the Cinema Studies Institute in 2010. 2023 Careers after Cinema Studies event is available on YouTube |
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2022 Careers after Cinema StudiesTom Cardoso is an investigative journalist with The Globe and Mail. Last year, his reporting on systemic racism in prisons was recognized with awards from the National Newspaper Awards and Canadian Association of Journalists. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 2012 with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Cinema Studies from Innis College. Stacey Feero is a product management professional. She is currently a Product Lead at Loblaw Digital working on Loblaw's only digital-first business, Loblaw Marketplace. Stacey graduated with a BA Specialist in Cinema Studies (2009) and MA in Cinema Studies (2010). Solla Park is currently the Scripted Programming Executive Assistant at the premium TV network, Showtime. She works in both development and production, and most recently worked on shows like Dexter: New Blood, Yellowjackets, and Your Honor. Solla has an MA in Cinema Studies and a BA in Sociology and Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto. |
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Many of our students pursue film related extracurricular activities at the University of Toronto: