The Screenwriting specialisation is designed for those who have the desire and talent to write audience-driven stories for the screen.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) is the premier screenwriting undergraduate degree in Australia. You will study the many facets of screenwriting through lectures, classes, screenings and practice-based exercises. The course covers:

• Cinematic and television writing
• Writing for the youth market
• Adaptation
• Writing for games
• Web content.

You will gain industry expertise while developing your original voice and learn to write audience-driven stories for the screen. Housed in the VCA's department of Film and Television, this degree lives alongside other degrees in directing and producing for live-action fiction, animation and documentary.

In your final year, you will also collaboratively develop and write an original web series to be directed by Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television) students. At the end of three years you’ll be equipped to write professionally for screen media, having acquired essential creative and technical skills such as generating and adapting stories for screen platforms, presenting work at a professional standard, giving and receiving constructive feedback and working in creative teams.

Breadth subjects at each year level enable you to explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

You will

• Develop your writing style for screen productions (film, television, gaming and online)
• Write an industry standard script for a short film or television pilot
• Acquire ability to critically and constructively critique your own and peers’ work in the context of the broader history of screen culture.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) provides an immersive and experiential studio-based education, focusing on the origination and development of stories for the screen. There is a strong emphasis on developing the your individual creative voice, while underlining the need to speak effectively and freshly to an audience. The course provides training in writing for different screen-based mediums and genres, as well as the creative adaptation of work originated in other mediums. Focus is placed upon writing to a high professional standard with a view to industry standards and markets, while developing you as a unique, resilient individual, both creatively and professionally.

Housed in the Film and Television department, this degree complements and collaborates with the department’s other undergraduate degrees, the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television) and the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation). This provides you with the unique opportunity to develop professional collaboration skills and creative partnerships.

You will complete a deeply personal, artistically transformational, and highly professional course of development, which culminates in a capstone experience in third year. The course design actively encourages personal courage and resilience by enabling you to gradually build collaboration and networking skills, at first with other students and later with industry practitioners. With the creative, collaborative and technical skills gained, you will be optimally placed to make a significant impact in the national and international creative industries.

Your breadth studies

As part of your course at each year level, you can select breadth subjects either from the Fine Arts and Music disciplines or explore cross-disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

The breadth subjects available to commencing BFA students include those in fine arts (acting, animation, dance, production, film and television, music theatre, screenwriting, theatre and visual art), as well as music education, Indigenous knowledges, law, languages, psychology, social sciences, humanities, science, marketing and many more.

Find out more about the University’s breadth subjects

Workload

You’ll be engaged in intensive, workshop based, on-campus training three to four days a week. This comprises teaching, studio practice, screenings and small group script development tutorials.

Sample course plan

View some sample course plans to help you select subjects that will meet the requirements for this bachelor.

300-point program

3 years full-time

As a graduate of this specialisation, you may find employment as a screen content developer, or screenwriter – in film, television, games and new medias - among others.

At the end of three years you will be equipped to write professionally for screen media, having acquired essential skills such as generating and adapting stories for screen platforms, presenting work at a professional standard, giving and receiving constructive feedback and working in creative teams.

Graduate pathways

Once you've completed your undergraduate degree, you can go on to gain employment or begin a graduate degree and work towards a professional qualification such as law, engineering or medicine. Or you could join our graduate research community and contribute to our world-changing research.

Your graduate degree will be internationally recognised, and set you apart from those who study a traditional Australian single or double degree.

Explore the graduate pathways available once you complete your undergraduate degree here.

Completed secondary education recently (within the past two years); Completed some or all of a higher education qualification; Completed some or all of a VET qualification; Applicants with wo

TOEFL Internet-based test: total score of at least 79 and scores of 21 for writing, 18 for speaking, 13 for reading and 13 for listening; IELTS: total score of at least 6.5 in the Academic International English Language Testing System (IELTS), with no bands less than 6.0; Pearson Test of English Academic : overall score of at least 58 and no PTE communicative skills score below 50; Cambridge English, Advanced/Certificate in Advanced English (CAE): Cambridge English Score of at least 176 with no skill below 169; C2 Proficiency (previously called Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) examination): Cambridge English Score of at least 180 with no skill below 180.