Dr Chris Nunn

• PhD, University of Greenwich (2019). Thesis: Towards a New Film Pedagogy: Recrafting Filmmaking Undergraduate Study for an Expanded Field.
• PGCert in Higher Education with Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, University of Greenwich (2018).
• MA in Digital Film and Video, London South Bank University (2013).
• BA (Hons) in Digital Film + Video, First Class, London South Bank University (2009).

Chris Nunn grew up in Brighton and studied at London South Bank University, graduating with a first-class BA (Hons) in Digital Film Production before completing an MA and then a PhD at the University of Greenwich (2019), where his thesis examined how undergraduate filmmaking education could be reimagined for a more expanded and inclusive field of practice. He joined Greenwich as a lecturer in 2014, becoming Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Film and Television Production in 2016 — a role in which he led a curriculum overhaul that lifted National Student Survey overall satisfaction from 54% to 84% between 2020 and 2022. He joined the University of Birmingham as Assistant Professor of Film in May 2022, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2026.

The defining strand of his work since joining Birmingham has been establishing the university as an active producer of independent cinema. He has produced two international feature film co-productions with director Justin Hardy: Children of the Wicker Man (2024), a feature documentary co-produced with UCL, Université du Québec à Montréal and the University of Malta, and Wrath of the Gods (2026), a folk-horror fiction feature co-produced with UCL and shot on location in the Shetland Islands, premiering at FrightFest in August 2026. The productions were supported by a diversified mix of AHRC grants, BFI tax credits, Quality Research funding, private investment and crowdfunding. Children of the Wicker Man has screened at numerous international film festivals and won multiple competitive awards, including Best Practice Research Feature Film at BAFTSS 2025. Wrath of the Gods involved over twenty locally street-cast community participants and is the first feature film to be performed partly in Shetland dialect.

At Birmingham, Chris teaches across BA and MA programmes and supervises a cohort of PhD students. He organised the Scottish International Film Education Conference (2024) and has presented his practice-based research at a range of national and international events.

He is active in national education policy and quality assurance, having served on the QAA Advisory Board for the Subject Benchmark Statement in Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies (2024) and contributed to the ScreenSkills WRYSE Working Group (2023). He holds a range of external examining appointments across UK and international institutions, and has served as an external panel member for degree validations at a number of institutions in the UK and internationally.

Chris supervises a cohort of PhD students with research interests spanning film pedagogy, practice-as-research, independent and community cinema, and the political economies of screen industries. He also supervises MA and MRes students through the creative project pathway on the MA Film and Television, and contributes as an internal examiner and panel chair for research degree examinations across the Department.

Supervision interests include:

• Film and media pedagogy; inclusive approaches to filmmaking education
• Practice-as-research methodologies in film and screen contexts
• Independent cinema and alternative distribution models
• Community filmmaking and participatory screen cultures
• Cultural policy and the screen industries; widening access and representation
• Universities as producers: co-production models and institutional filmmaking

Find out more - our PhD Film Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Chris's research sits across three interconnected areas: film pedagogy and education policy; practice-as-research through feature film production; and the cultural, social and economic dimensions of independent filmmaking.

His most significant current research contribution is the development and evidencing of a replicable model for universities as independent film producers. His two feature film co-productions, Children of the Wicker Man (2024) and Wrath of the Gods (2026) function simultaneously as creative practice outputs, impact case studies and pedagogical resources, demonstrating how higher education institutions can generate cultural impact, student career outcomes and external funding through sustained industry partnership. This work has been recognised nationally through the BAFTSS Best Practice Research Feature Film award (2025).

In film pedagogy, Chris's published research explores manifesto writing as collective practice with diverse filmmaking classes, postcapitalist approaches to film education, and the class-based barriers structuring entry into the UK screen industries. He was Guest Editor of a special issue of the Film Education Journal on 'Educating Independent Filmmakers' (2024) and is currently Associate Editor of the journal. A chapter on universities as independent film producers is forthcoming in the Routledge Companion to World Cinema (2nd edition).