About Us
Film English is a groundbreaking, award-winning website dedicated to providing high-quality teaching resources based on short videos and feature-length films. Designed for English language teachers seeking fresh, contemporary materials, the site offers a wide collection of Video Lesson Plans, Extensive Viewing Guides, and Film Worksheets—all created to harness the educational potential of authentic, multimodal content.
With over 500 Video Lesson Plans and 200 Extensive Viewing Guides—plus new resources added every month—Film English supports students in developing essential language skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary. More than that, our exclusive Multimodal Methodology, embedded throughout the lesson plans, enhances learners’ multimodal literacy, strengthening their ability to view, interpret, and visually express ideas—crucial skills for the 21st century.
Each lesson is built around a carefully selected video or film and explores global issues, social topics, personal development, emotional intelligence and values, encouraging students to engage critically and creatively with meaningful content.
Another distinctive feature of Film English is our exclusive Extensive Viewing Methodology, embedded throughout the Viewing Guides. Inspired by the principles of Extensive Reading and adapted specifically for feature-length films, this innovative approach helps learners develop their viewing and listening skills in a sustained, natural way—while also expanding vocabulary through structured exposure to authentic language in context.
Film English is also the home of The Image Conference, an annual international event dedicated to exploring how film, video, photography, and other visual and multimodal texts can enrich language education. The Image Conference brings together leading educators and experts to share innovative ways of using visual media to foster language development, empathy and critical thinking. The conference complements the pedagogical mission of Film English by placing visual literacy and multimodality at the heart of language teaching, and offers teachers practical strategies, inspiration and a global community passionate about teaching with images.
Kieran Donaghy is the founder and creative force behind Film English. A leading expert in the use of film and video in English language teaching, his work bridges the fields of visual literacy, multimodality and language pedagogy and has shaped the way educators use multimodal texts in the classroom. A prolific author, Kieran has written several influential books, including Film in Action (Delta Publishing), Multimodal Literacy in ELT (Oxford University Press), and Writing Activities for Film and Video (ELT Teacher2Writer). He is also the founder of The Image Conference . He trains teachers globally through The School for Training, both online and in person.
His pioneering work on Film English has earned international recognition, including accolades from the British Council ELTons, the English-Speaking Union, and the MEDEA Awards.