My friend and colleague Jim Hillier, who has died aged 73, was one of the pioneers in film education in Britain. The author and editor of several publications, including an influential two-volume anthology of translations from the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma, Jim played a fundamental role in establishing film as a serious field of study within schools and universities during the 1970s and 80s.

At the education department of the British Film Institute and at the University of Reading, he influenced a generation of film scholars and teachers by bringing a nurturing and rigorous approach to people’s critical engagement with the moving image.

As well as an abundant sense of kindness and decency, Jim also possessed a natural humility. The son of Robert Hillier, a printer, and Ethel (nee Barker), a civil servant, Jim went from humble beginnings in Sidcup, Kent, to undergraduate study at Oxford, a journey that meant he never lost sight of how education can open a door into a life-changing world. He seemed to be interested in everything. Students and colleagues soon learned never to second-guess him.

His tastes were as unpredictable as his unconventional appearance (white T-shirt, green and white polka-dot scarf and running shorts), but he had everything worked out. Whether the subject was Preston Sturges or Michelangelo Antonioni, Indian or Finnish cinema, he always wanted others to join him in the conversation.

Jim’s cinematic conversations began in Oxford where, along with others of the same generation, he responded vigorously to developments in global film culture. In 1970, he joined the editorial board of the influential journal, Movie, and produced several articles on important French and American films of the time.

Although books such as Studies in Documentary and The New Hollywood followed, the classroom remained central to Jim. He was a reader in film studies at the University of Reading, and he provided the main film input into the Humanities Curriculum Project in 1972, set up to examine the role film can play in humanities education. At Reading, he met Fiona Morey, whom he married in 1988. For several years, Jim also helped run an influential series of BFI summer schools at Stirling University.

Jim is survived by Fiona, their children, Martha and Aaron; by the children from his first marriage, Joachim and Amy; and four grandchildren.