Founded in 1964 and named in honour of the late Harold Innis, Innis College is home to over 1200 undergraduate students studying in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Innis students pursuing undergraduate degrees have access to a vast array of courses and programs throughout the university and the college contributes three interdisciplinary programs to the complement of courses in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Cinema studies, environmental studies and urban studies are open to students not just at Innis but throughout the university. Also housed in the college are credit courses in academic writing which, like the offerings in the programs, reinforce Innis College's multidisciplinary approach to learning. The cinema studies program treats film primarily as a unique and powerful twentieth century art form with its own traditions, history, conventions and techniques.
Cinema studies embraces, in broadest terms, the study of film analysis, history, and theory.
Students learn how to understand, analyze, discuss and explain film in a way that is analogous to the skills acquired in reading literature in a university English course or discussing painting in a fine arts history course. The program does not, then, prepare students in practical, hands-on terms to become filmmakers. Course in practical filmmaking are available elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area. Since its beginning in 1975, the cinema studies program has expanded to include more than 30 courses taught by instructors from various departments and colleges in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Student interest in the program has grown steadily, but not beyond accommodating qualified applicants.