Our Film BA has an international reputation for its academic and practical teaching. Students are taught in our purpose-built studio facility at our Harrow campus and their films have been shown at festivals globally and won a host of honours and awards including Royal Television Society Awards, a Student Academy Award and Grierson Best Student Documentary Award.
We are proud of our strong links with the film and screen industries, which provide our students with countless opportunities. In addition to regularly inviting industry professionals as guest lecturers, our academics bring extensive experience to their teaching. We spoke with Laura Stephenson, the new course leader for the Film BA, about her impressive industry and academic experience and her new role as course leader.
Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
I was born and raised in New Zealand and attended film school as an undergraduate. I specialised in post-production editing. However, my professional career has been in pre-production, development and sometimes performance! I’ve been on-and-off living in the UK since 2004 including Wales, England and the Republic of Ireland. I adore California but have yet to find a path to living there!
As a professional working within the film industries, what have been some of your career highlights?
To be honest my career highlight has been connected more to academia than industry – getting nominated for the Times Higher Education Award for Most Innovative Lecturer in 2022 was very humbling. This nomination was based on the work I did for a Gender and Media Production module which brought human rights policy into the discussion of screen industry inclusion and equality, with an emphasis on keeping individuals safe from abuses of power (in response to the #metoo movement).
While these academic achievements are significant, there have been numerous professional moments that have been personally meaningful and motivating. Notably, meeting senior crew members who contributed to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and earned Oscars for their work in visual effects and production design. This was a surreal experience, especially given that The Lord of the Rings was the catalyst for my passion for film.
During one trip to California I met Arthur Schmidt who won two Oscars for his editing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forest Gump. Arthur’s father (also of the same name) was also a film editor and had edited the legendary Some Like it Hot, which I had recently been teaching editing of to my undergrad students in Auckland, and there I was lunching with the editor’s son a few weeks later!
Middle: Laura and documentary filmmaker and founder of the LezDiff Festival Rachel Dax (left) and Sarah Gregory (middle) from the female filmmaking charity Birds Eye View. They are a registered charity seeking to support women in film and television production around the UK.
Right: Laura Stephenson and Arthur Schmidt, double Oscar-winning editor for Forest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Los Angeles).
You’ve worked in a variety of roles; can you tell us a bit more about these experiences?
I loved the variation and the potential within the film industry. My roles over the last 15 years have been typically a combination of academia and practice – I bridge the gap between theory and practice in my work because I wholeheartedly believe that critically literate practitioners make better films.
Left: Cover of The Mechanisms of Self by Laura Stephenson, a psychoanalytic investigation of mental suffering in modern cinema. Published by Bloomsbury New York, available from January 2024.
Right: Laura with two of her former students from a previous institution at the Royal Television Society Cymru Awards who won ‘Best Student Short.’
Why did you choose Westminster?
I choose Westminster due to its renowned reputation for delivering quality filmmaking education and producing graduates who move into the industry and have sustained careers. Westminster’s location in London means it sits within the heart of British film and television production and provides both staff and students with opportunities to pull down those boundaries between education and industry.
What do you think makes the Film BA at Westminster unique?
Westminster gets the balance between theory and practice right – something which often goes awry in undergraduate film degrees. The University really does understand that producing good filmmakers requires an education which covers both the creative and technical aspect of the art form and the philosophical as well.
What are you most excited about in your new role as Course Leader and what do you think you can bring to the role?
I am excited about working with the students – I’ve looked at some of the content that’s been made and I’m really impressed by what’s been generated. I’m also looking forward to creating partnerships with external organisations.
What would your advice be to aspiring professionals within the screen industries?
Don’t be afraid – the industry can feel very intimidating with a lot of ‘seasoned’ people in it, but if you’re a hard worker, you’ll find a place in the industry and you’ll find the people who you feel comfortable working with.
About Westminster
As one of the most diverse universities in the UK, we are a global university with London energy, with more than 19,000 students from 169 countries. Visit our website to find out more about our Film BA .
