University of the Arts London (London College of Communication)

Overview

The University of the Arts London (UAL) is a specialist arts university comprising six colleges across the city. Film and screen programs are housed at the London College of Communication (LCC), located at Elephant and Castle in south London. LCC offers 3 undergraduate film degrees and 3 postgraduate film degrees, covering production, documentary, screenwriting, and scholarly study.

For 2025/26 entry, home (UK) undergraduate fees are £9,535 per year. International undergraduate fees are £29,990 per year. For 2026/27 entry, home fees increase to £9,790 and international fees to £30,890 per year. Postgraduate MA fees for 2026/27 are £14,420 (home) and £30,890 (international) for a 1-year-3-month full-time program.

LCC is moving to a new building. For 2026-27, students will study at the existing Elephant and Castle building. From 2027 onwards, students will transfer to a new LCC facility at the same location.

Students who want a hands-on, industry-oriented film education within a broader arts university context, with access to London's film industry and the Stanley Kubrick Archive on campus, should consider LCC. Students seeking conservatory-level production intensity should look at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) or the London Film School instead.

Programs Offered

Undergraduate (3 years, full-time):

• BA (Hons) Film Practice (UCAS W603) - a hands-on, industry-oriented production degree with a strong practical emphasis on single-camera digital production. The course promotes a producer-led model with semi-autonomous heads of department working with directors, rather than an auteur/director-led model. Students complete a minimum of 6 productions over 3 years, including a dedicated screenwriting/documentary development unit in Year 2. Year 1 covers introductory technical workshops across all production disciplines. Year 2 focuses on specialist training with Head of Department roles (AD, cinematographer, production designer, sound designer, editor/VFX, director, producer). Year 3 centers on graduation productions with individual and group tutorial support. A work-based learning unit in Year 2 helps students secure professional work experience.
• BA (Hons) Film and Television (UCAS W601) - a production degree covering both film and television craft. Starts September 2026.
• BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies (UCAS P303) - a scholarly degree combining film theory with practical elements. 360 credits over 3 years (120 per year). Not a production degree.

Postgraduate (1 year 3 months, full-time, 45 weeks across 4 terms):

• MA Film - a vocational, hands-on course developing understanding of creative, commercial, and practical aspects of digital film production.
• MA Documentary Film - covers the entire documentary filmmaking process, integrating theory with practical short film production.
• MA Screenwriting - an industry-focused course developing writers and script editors for film, television, and radio. Visiting lecturers from the industry share knowledge and experience regularly.

Facilities and Equipment

LCC's film and television facilities are managed by the Broadcast Technology department across 4 dedicated areas:

• TV Studio - upgraded to a fully 4K production space with Blackmagic 4K Broadcast cameras and Fujinon 4K lenses. Features a NewTek Tricaster 8000 Vision Mixing system, multi-channel audio mixing, fully controllable lighting rig, live blue screen compositing, and digital graphics/titles. The studio can live stream to the internet.
• Black Box Studio - a large multipurpose space for video productions with full black-out curtain and a green screen wall for special effects.
• Post-production suites - Mac workstations running Adobe Creative Cloud, DaVinci Resolve Studio, Avid Pro Tools, Logic, Mocha, and Red Giant PluralEyes. A dedicated grading suite with a Sony broadcast grading monitor and grading console, designed for industry-standard working practices.
• Sound facilities - 3 audio post-production suites for multi-track sound recording, editing, and mixing, with 5.1, 7.1, and 2.0 surround monitoring. Software includes Pro Tools, Logic, Audition, iZotope RX, and a range of processing and mastering plugins.
• Digital Production Studio - a space for filming, photography, recording, and experimentation with capture technologies.
• Digital Fabrication - CNC machine and Mimaki color 3D printer.

Stanley Kubrick Archive

LCC houses the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the Archives and Special Collections Centre. The archive spans Kubrick's entire career from his time as a photographer for Look Magazine to his final film Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The Kubrick Estate donated the collection to UAL in March 2007.

The archive includes:

• Draft and completed scripts
• Research materials (books, magazines, location photographs)
• Set plans and production documents (call sheets, shooting schedules, continuity reports, continuity Polaroids)
• Props, costumes, poster designs
• Sound tapes and records
• Publicity materials, press cuttings
• Material relating to unfinished projects (Aryan Papers, Napoleon, AI: Artificial Intelligence)
• Items from 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut

The archive is available Monday to Friday by appointment only. Films are screened for seminars and guest lectures from the collection.

Tuition and Financial Aid

The £9,790 home fee for 2026/27 is subject to UK government legislation approving the fee increase. If legislation is not passed, the fee will remain at £9,535.

International tuition fees may increase by up to 5% in each future year of study. UAL offers postgraduate scholarships and funding through its fees and funding pages.

For 2025/26 entry, BA (Hons) Film Practice has places available for international applicants only. UK student applications are closed. For 2026/27, the UCAS application deadline is January 14, 2026 at 6pm UK time.

London's cost of living is among the highest in the world. A student room in a shared flat in zones 1-2 costs approximately £700-£1,100 per month. LCC's Elephant and Castle location in zone 1 provides access to central London but at premium rental rates. Students should budget £12,000-£15,000 per year for living expenses beyond tuition.

Notable Alumni

UAL alumni across its 6 colleges include prominent figures in art, design, fashion, and media. LCC film graduates work in documentary, independent cinema, broadcast, and media production across the UK and internationally. The university does not publish a dedicated list of film-specific alumni, but LCC graduates have screened work at BFI London Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest, and international festivals.

LCC's location provides proximity to the British Film Institute (BFI) at Southbank, Tate Modern, and The Cinema Museum, all within short distance of the Elephant and Castle campus.

What Students Should Know

BA (Hons) Film Practice is the primary production degree at LCC. The course uses a producer-led production model rather than the auteur/director-led model common at other film schools. Students take on Head of Department roles (AD, cinematographer, production designer, sound designer, editor/VFX, director, producer) across multiple productions. This collaborative structure mirrors professional industry practice.

The course includes a minimum of 6 productions over 3 years, a work-based learning unit in Year 2, and a dedicated screenwriting/documentary development unit. The practical bias is heavy, but a compact theoretical program exploring historical and contemporary cinematic syntax, genre, and form runs alongside the practical work.

LCC's film programs are less industry-focused than NFTS (the UK's national film school) or the London Film School. UAL suits students who want film education within a wider arts university context and value interdisciplinary creative exchange across design, media, and visual arts. Students seeking pure conservatory training should consider NFTS or LFS.

The Stanley Kubrick Archive is a unique resource. Students can access original scripts, production documents, set plans, and props from Kubrick's films by appointment. This primary source material is unavailable at any other film school in the world.

LCC is located at Elephant and Castle, a transport hub with Northern and Bakerloo line Underground connections. The area is undergoing major redevelopment, with the new LCC building scheduled to open for the 2027-28 academic year. Students starting in 2026-27 will spend their first year at the existing building before transferring.

Standout Faculty

UAL's London College of Communication (LCC) film faculty are working filmmakers, cinematographers, and documentary directors based in London, with the school's cross-disciplinary culture drawing faculty from documentary, experimental film, and television backgrounds.

• David Knight - Course Leader, BA (Hons) Film and Television. Director of Photography and Director with credits spanning sponsorship idents, promos, drama, documentary, television commercials, and feature films. Shot sequences for BBC's 2012 Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. Teaches history of cinema, screen technology, production, cinematography, and directing.
• Jeremy Williams - Course Leader, MA Documentary Film. Award-winning documentary filmmaker (One World Media Award, TriBeCa Documentary Fund Grantee, BAFTA Production Team winner) with 25 years in broadcast television. Credits include On a Knife Edge, Restless Flights: The Literature of JMG Le Clezio, and Our Father Who Art in Heaven. Teaches documentary filmmaking.
• David Alamouti - Course Leader, BA (Hons) Film Practice. Teaches film production and independent cinema practice.
• Klaus Fried - Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Practice. Has taught film production at Middlesex University and LCC since 1994; designed and ran BA (Hons) Film Practice until 2021. Teaches screenwriting, directing, and editing.
• Frankie Gouliardon - Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Practice. Award-winning producer with over 25 years' experience in feature film and commercial industry; founded Beaucoup Films in 2010. Produced feature film Picnic In Gaza shot in 8 countries. Voting BAFTA member. Teaches production.
• Greg Hall - Associate Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Practice. Award-winning independent director of six low-budget feature films including The Plague (2004) which won the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award from Mike Leigh; Villain (2020) was #1 on Netflix UK. Teaches directing and screenwriting.
• Tal Amiran - Associate Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Practice. Multiple award-winning director and editor; films screened at over 100 festivals including BFI London Film Festival and AFI DOCS. Credits include Seven Days a Week (2016), Sand Men (2017), and Dafa Metti (2020). Teaches directing and editing.

Notable Alumni

UAL/LCC film graduates work across documentary, independent cinema, television, and commercial production. Notable alumni include:

• Remi Weekes - Director of His House (2020), which won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. The film premiered at Sundance.

Student Film Examples

LCC student films screen at the annual NAHEMI Student Film Awards, where LCC students have won in multiple categories. The BA (Hons) Film Practice program produces graduation films that regularly screen at BFI London Film Festival and other UK festivals. Notable recent student work includes Whisperers (2023) by Alexandra Golus and Edvin Cetyrkovski, winner of the Factual Award at the NAHEMI Student Film Awards 2023, a documentary about women healers at the borders of Poland and Belarus.

Watch: Student Work & Program Info

See Also

For comparing UK film schools with US programs, see Choosing a Film School. To understand documentary production workflows, see Documentary Filmmaking Guide. For planning your production budget, use the Production Budget Calculator.