It is the largest and oldest university-based centre for the study of film, television and media in Canada.

Founding members included Professor Andre Herman, a graduate of the National Film School in Łódź and La Fémis, who remained with the school until his retirement in 2002, and Alfred Pinsky, the founding dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, among others.

[6][7] Built in 1927, the Faubourg Building is home to the MHSoC and is located at the corner of Guy and Sainte-Catherine Street in Downtown Montreal.

The building is also shared with the Classics, Modern Languages & Linguistics Department, the Continuing Education school, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, and the District 3 Innovation Hub.

Consequently, a central aim of these programs is to prepare students to become filmmakers, film animators, historians, critics, or theorists who have a two-fold awareness: on the one hand, of the artistic and cultural potential of their medium and, on the other, of its history and traditions.