I graduated a Film and TV BA in 2009 and in the first class. Right up until the end of my degree, I was sure that I wanted to take the academic career path, do a masters, a PhD and then lecture and write for the academy for the foreseeable future. I was really good at it and I enjoyed it.
Then right before I graduated I got offered an internship at 20th Century Fox for the Summer, I jumped at the chance, it would be a fun 2 months and it would be in LA. I went to LA and had an amazing time, got loads of contacts in the film industry in the UK and secured a job in London as an assistant editor making movie trailers.
I didn't really think too much about leaving academia behind, I decided to throw myself into the industry and told myself that I would come back to the academy after 10/15 years...I had an amazing opportunity here.

Now, it's been nearly a year and a half in my job and my boss tells me all the time that I'm a "superstar" and "the future of the company", but I'm really getting an itch to come back to seek out a career in academia already. I miss writing and thinking and reading (I spend about 13hours per day working at a computer screen on final cut pro) and whilst my work should be exciting...we make trailers for all the high profile movies...I just can't help feeling stilted.

Am I a thinker not a doer? Am I ungrateful for my great industry opportunity? Am I just nostalgic for those sacred undergrad years?

It maybe that you are experiencing nostaligia for an undergrad life which rarely repeats itself at post grad level - there is much less camaraderie (students generally have lives away from the uni) and much more focus on the academic aspects of uni life. Is there a way of doing a masters part time? You have managed to get a great opportunity getting into the movies and you may find that if you left it would be difficult to get back in.

I am a PhD student who is just a few weeks away from getting the "Dr" title, to be honest, in my area (which is something to do with applied mathematics and computing), unless you are really enjoying the research, you should take a job in industry, its much less demanding and much better paid, and you can get more respect as well, since most guys in industry are less educated than you do so you will automatically get some respect from others there,  but in academic community, a PhD title means nothing, and you are the easy push-overs until maybe 10+ year later when you yourself become another "bully".

The choice for me is obviously.

Not sure about film/arts through.