Rentschler also noted the interdisciplinary nature of film studies.

“Anyone who’s just studying film doesn’t know what they’re doing, because film involves so many other things,” Rentschler said.

At the heart of the film studies proposal is a trio of introductory courses that all concentrators must complete.

Rentschler said that Assistant Professor J.D. Connor ’92 will teach “Histories of Cinema I,” and Assistant Professor Despina Kakoudaki will teach “Histories of Cinema II.”

The teacher of the third introductory course, “Introduction to Visual Representation and Film Analysis,” has yet to be announced.

Concentrators also must complete at least six advanced courses “directly related to film and visual studies”—or up to nine advanced courses if they choose not to write a senior thesis.

Rentschler said that Harvard’s ensemble of cinema scholars would gain a boost from two potential additions next year: a full professor of film studies and a junior faculty member with a joint senior appointment in VES and anthropology.

And New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell will join VES in a one-semester cameo as a visiting lecturer this spring.

Rentschler forecasted that “many dozens” of undergraduates would seek to enter the concentration.

Film studies’ interdisciplinary focus is a major source of its attraction for prospective concentrators.

“I’d probably want to be a philosophy concentrator at another school,” said Daniel E. Luxemburg ’07, who is considering concentrating in the newly-formed track. “But the philosophy department here seems interested in old and dated stuff. A lot of contemporary French philosophy has to do with film and art theory.”

The proposal approved by the EPC Wednesday puts Harvard on the cutting edge of the field, according to Bruno.

“Cinema studies, truly conceived in relation to visual studies and architecture, is the way of the future,” she said.

The concentration’s access to the HFA’s resources will allow students “to see cinema the way it’s supposed to be seen: in a public forum, with people from all venues, on a big screen in a cinematically-special building,” she said.

According to Bruno, the film studies concentration will be housed alongside VES in the Carpenter Center, whose designer, Le Corbusier, earned acclaim for integrating cinematic elements into his architecture.