Insdorf is Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University, where she holds the title of Professor as well as Chairman of the Doctoral Program in Film and Theater. Born in Paris, she graduated from Queens College, CUNY, and received her Ph.D. degree from Yale University, where she was a Danforth Fellow. She taught film at Yale from 1975 to 1988. She was named Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et des lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.