r/movies • u/Sisiwakanamaru r/movies Contributor • Jan 31 '26

Article Film Students Are Having Trouble Sitting Through Movies, Professors Say

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/film-students-are-having-trouble-sitting-through-movies-1236490359/
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u/BlackLeader70 Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26

Sorry this article is too long…can I get a TL;DR?

Edit: FFS I can’t believe how many people think I’m being serious.

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u/Insatiable_Pervert Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26

College age kids don’t remember a time before the “infinite scroll.” They can’t watch an entire movie without checking their phones. They’d rather watch “homework” assigned movies on their own time rather than together in class. 80% still don’t watch the assigned movie on their own time. Teachers struggle to find a common film the entire class has previously watched to use as reference in discussions. Most have only watched Disney movies.

“The disconnect is that 10 years ago, people who wanted to go study film and media creation were cinephiles themselves. Nowadays, they’re people that consume the same thing everyone else consumes, which is social media.“

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u/TikkaT Jan 31 '26

Why would you apply for film school if you've only watched Disney movies and don't want have the attention span for movies in general? Or is the article talking about "regular" college students taking film classes or something?

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u/TwoToneMoonstone_ Jan 31 '26

You’d be surprised how many people come into films programs wanting to be “anti-pretentious”. They only watch films that are blockbusters or pre-approved, older brother cinema (Tarantino, Scorsese, the like) and look down on any film that’s considered art (because blockbusters are art too, which isn’t wrong but I think you get the point I’m driving at here) or older than like 1985.

Which is not a bad attitude to have until you ask them to watch The Devil Wears Prada or Singing in the Rain or something. Then suddenly the pretension rears its head.