Film Society

The Johns Hopkins Film Society is an extracurricular group dedicated to providing a fun and enriching experience for all students interested in film. With weekly meetings and DVD screenings, as well as monthly larger film screenings, a film-themed annual journal, and a film festival that receives submissions from across the country and around the world, students are provided with numerous opportunities to get involved. Each semester, the Film Society puts on a student-run film series programmed by its members. Film series programmed in past years include “Dante’s In-film-o,” a series designed to trace out the circles of Dante’s Hell with screenings from Eastern Promises to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; “The Freudian Slips,” a series of films selected to embody a different facet of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, with films ranging from Psycho to Mulholland Drive; and series that highlighted various directors, producers, and actors.

Film Society members hone skills in programming, advertising, budgeting, and projecting to put together the annual Johns Hopkins Film Festival, a festival run entirely by students. The Johns Hopkins Film Festival is nationally known, and draws both feature-length and short films from all across the country and world. The festival usually receives close to 300 submissions, from which students select the films to show, and create a schedule of three full days of cinema.

The Johns Hopkins Film Society provides exciting opportunities for students to expand upon their knowledge and love of film. All are welcome. For more information, contact [email protected]

Studio North

Studio North is a fully functioning, student-run film production company that trains students how to produce high-quality short films and limited series for the film festival market, thereby preparing its participants for careers in the film and media industries.

Studio North is made up of five committees: Production, Screenwriting, Marketing, Programming, and Finance – each of which oversee the production of two grant-winning films each academic year. Each fall, Studio North welcomes new students to join these committees and become involved with Studio North projects. Executive Board Chairs lead weekly meetings for their respective committees, aiming to help members develop their skills while strengthening the Studio North community.

Studio North has funded 26 film and limited series projects, supporting 27 filmmakers, their crews, and the group’s 43 Executive Board members to be ready for careers in the industry.

Alumni include media industry executives; MFA graduates from USC, UCLA, and elsewhere with degrees in film producing, directing, and cinematography; staff writers for television shows on multiple networks; talent agency representatives in New York and Los Angeles; screen credits on one of Marvel’s Avengers films; and content creators for Marvel, Disney, and Paramount Pictures. 

If you are a JHU undergraduate interested in crewing on a Studio North shoot, or learning more about the organization, click here.

The Writers Room

Founded in 2017, the FMS Writers Room has developed into a deeply immersive forum for experiential learning at JHU, teaching students how to write as a team by modeling the setting and dynamics encountered by professional television staff writers.

The Room accepts eight staff writers per academic year, and admission is competitive. Priority is given to FMS majors and minors (or those intending to declare) as well as students from any discipline who have completed Introduction to Screenwriting. Students work collaboratively with writer-director/FMS Senior Lecturer Adam Rodgers to write and revise two short-form web series— one each during the fall and spring semesters.

For more information and submittal dates, interested students should write to Adam Rodgers at [email protected]:

Application materials should include:

• a current resume or c.v.
• a short cover letter (no more than one-page) expressing why the student is interested in the Writers Room and how they are a good fit for it
• PDF screenwriting or television sample of 5-7 pages (fiction and poetry will not be accepted for this requirement); sample must be standalone, not an excerpt of a longer script

HopkinsCinemAddicts

The HopkinsCinemAddicts blog is by and for the JHU Film & Media Studies Program.