Course Description

Beginning in 1929 and ending in 2025, this course will chart the evolution of film history through the perspective of the Academy Awards. Using the Best Picture nominees of ten different ceremonies throughout the awards’ history, the course will examine how shifts in politics, storytelling, popular culture and innovation of the cinematic form can be evidenced through the films celebrated by the Academy in a given year. We will discuss how a ceremony initially formed to quell labour disputes in Hollywood eventually grew into a multi-million-dollar organization that shaped the way films are made and seen.   

Course Director

Ethan Vestby
Ethan Vestby is a film journalist, critic, teacher and programmer based in Toronto. He has been published in Cinema Scope, The Village Voice, MUBI Notebook, The Metrograph Journal and has taught three film studies courses at The Life Institute at TMU  (Toronto Metropolitan University). He is also the co-founder of the successful Toronto-based screening series, Bleeding Edge, which was profiled in The Toronto Star during the summer of 2024. He holds a degree in film studies and theatre from Concordia University.

Ethan Vestby

Term and Time

Fall 2025 – starting September
12:50 pm on Friday afternoon
Room TBA in York Hall

Course Outline

Two weeks before the course starts, you can download a printable PDF giving the 10-week detailed course outline.

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Lecture Notes

Links to resources such as additional reading or play lists are provided here as the Course Director makes them available during term. Like the course outline, lecture notes open in a new browser tab so that you can download and print them.

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