SCA Film Program – Curriculum Updates
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Updated June 16, 2025
Where can I see the new degree requirements for the Film Major?
SFU will publish updated degree requirements on or after June 20, 2025.
Why was the film curriculum updated and how will this impact my progression towards my degree?
The film program updates were created to address a several hurdles facing students in the Film program, including lack of opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary coursework throughout the program, and high upper-division credit requirements which created enrollment bottlenecks and routine substitution requests. The updated curriculum will:
- Create greater interdisciplinary exploration at both the lower and upper division level
- Allow students to enroll in 鈥淔ilm Forms鈥� electives that emphasize artistic approaches to creative production and contemporary trends in cinema
- Create more consistency and transparency in course numbering and unit counts across courses
What is Film Forms?
Film Forms courses will be offered every semester by different faculty and will offer rotating topics in filmmaking to both Film majors and non-Film majors. Topics may include Analogue Filmmaking, Counter-Archive, Hybrid Cinema, Documentary, and other topics. These courses are intended to offer students another opportunity to make films outside of the year-long core production courses, and will give students greater flexibility to choose courses during their journey at the SCA that align with their expanding curiosities and interests.
I鈥檓 an incoming 2nd year student. What should I do?
We recommend moving to the new curriculum. It will allow you the most flexibility, and no waivers or substitutions will be needed. You can simply pick up the new curriculum with CA230 in the Fall. If you have already taken CA238W 鈥� and a good number of you have 鈥� we will allow it to count for the 3 credits of CA338W in the new curriculum. We will do this by waiving the CA338W course and credits, and then you will only need to do 29 upper division CA units for the Film major (but you would still need to do 44 upper division units overall for your degree).
As an incoming 2nd year student, what if I want to stay under the old curriculum?
If you choose this route (which we don鈥檛 advise), you will need to take two additional lower division CA course to get to 44 lower division CA units total (because the units on CA 230 and 231 are changing from 5 to 4, and because CA232 and CA238W are no longer offered). One of these courses can be made up with any lower division CA course. You may need to take an additional one or two Film production courses to reach 17 Film Production units overall.
I鈥檓 an incoming 3rd or 4th year student. What should I do?
We recommend staying with the previous curriculum. You may need to take an additional film production course to reach 17 Film Production units overall since CA430/CA431 were reduced from 6 credits to 5 credits each. You can apply some of the new courses, such as Film Forms (CA332, CA333, CA334, CA339) or Creative Producing (CA438) to reach the necessary number of units if you are short. With new course numbering in place, your core production course planning might look as follows:
- Fall 2025: CA 330 (substitute for 390)
- Spring 2026: CA 331 (substitute for 393)
- Fall 2026: CA 430 (optional)
- Spring 2027: 431 (optional, substitute for 432)
How can I learn more about the new curriculum before I register for my Fall courses?
Join SFU Film faculty and staff on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, from 11:00 AM 鈥� 12:00 PM for a brief informational Zoom meeting. .