Critics and creators: Crafting the next generation of filmmakers at Regis University

With awards season in full swing, the contenders for the greatest films of 2025 are under scrutiny from the Academy and the world. This semester, Professor Kate Partridge, Ph.D., and Scott Dimovitz, Ph.D., of the English department and the Film Studies minor, are building up the next directors, screenwriters and critics as the world of storytelling faces massive upheaval.

For Partridge’s course, CW479 Screenwriting, students are taking their creative writing skills to the screen as they brainstorm, pitch and write their nearly 100-page screenplaythroughout the course of the semester.

As a class, screenwriting is a unique facet to the Regis creative writing curriculum. Screenwriting departs from traditional prose or poetry writing that is typically taught.

“To be a good screenwriter, you have to really limit the amount of like extraneous language and be able to describe in really clear, short sentences.” Partridge continued, “our studentsget to work all of these different kinds of writing muscles and build writing skills in different ways, so they have the pieces to apply to whatever they want to do next.”

The opportunity to build unique writing skills not only starts on the page, but from the screen as well. In the course, students draw from real screenplays and film clips to build up their visual and literary memories.

“Movies are an art form that feels so intimate and familiar to all of us,” Partridge described. “Writing a popular movie is like experiencing an art form that's all around us from the inside out.”

This same intimacy carries not just from the film writers, but also to the film critics of Regis. While not vying for a seat at the Academy, Regis students are building their critical eyes while they theorize and discuss modern film, accompanied by literary classics.

This spring, Professor Scott Dimovitz, Ph.D., is teaching EN492K Contemporary British Film and Literature. As part of the Film Studies minor – which Dimovitz pioneered – the course engulfs students in a culturally focused look at contemporary cinema and literature.

The choices of film and literature for the course paint a broad stroke over the British existence. Starting the semester with the book and film adaptation of The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, provides insight into the vast experiences of British people in the contemporary.

"Something like Trainspotting, which is a much grittier film, has been to trying to illustrate a different kind of representation of the British individual than was traditionally offered,” said Dimovitz. “You're not going to see heroin addicts in a Shakespeare play or with that striking visual aspect as well.”

Taking a specific cultural lens to film is only one way to process the medium, as Dimovitz introduces many analytical lenses for his students to examine film, literature and their own lives.

“Putting a person into an active interpretive space to analyze the world around them is what I hope all my classes will help them to do.” Dimovitz continued, “Learning how to analyze film is not just analyzing film. It's analyzing art. It's analyzing television. It's analyzing media coverage. All of which are intentional media.”

Through looking at both cinema and literature, it's clearer that the future of storytelling is changing. With the rising prevalence and popularity of short-form media, both professorsagree that the ways these narratives are consumed are changing with it. Partridge described that “there's not the same monoculture; everybody having seen the same film.”

Apps like TikTok, Meta and X cultivate their experiences around short-form content, ensuring that their users receive constant stimulus; unlike the delayed gratification of storytelling in a film or novel. For better or for worse, many modern television shows and movies are written, staged and filmed with social media platforms in mind.

“You're supposed to be reading the visual cues from watching the image, not by having somebody just narrating the story right to you.” Dimovitz continued, “They also almost always do the framing where the main character who's talking is dead center, because they figure it's going to get cropped for TikTok. It's not all the things that you study in a good film studies class.”

Though the landscape of entertainment is changing, both professors know that their students will rise above and address the transformative power of media. With media literacy on the decline for young adults, Dimovitz emphasized that “media literacy is absolutely essential to not being led by the powers that be.”

From screenwriting to film analysis, Regis students gain valuable skills for their future careers. With the Academy Awards held this year on Sunday, March 15, there’s cause to hope that one day, Regis’ students will make it to the gilded stage.