On Friday 26 and Saturday 27 of April the Department of Film and TV's Dr. Vladimir Rosas-Salazar organised a conference called Rethinking Latin America: New Journeys Across Film and Literature at the Faculty of Arts and online. People based in Spain, France, Peru, US, and UK presented and it was funded by an IAS Award. Speakers included Professor Niamh Thornton (University of Liverpool) talking about A Digital Diva: Rethinking María Félix Through her Online Transformations.

We are pleased to announce that the following students, staff and alumni have been nominated in the BAFTSS 2024 publication awards, a prestigious award in film and television studies.

Yue Su (current PhD student) has been nominated for best published essay by a doctoral student, for 'Liquidity and Stillness: The Sea and Shore and the Furo in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Cinema', Somatechnics, 13:2.

Jamie Zhao (PhD alumnus) has been nominated for 'Best Edited Collection' for Queer TV China: Televisual and Fannish Imaginaries of Gender, Sexuality, and Chineseness (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2023).

Catherine Lester (PhD alumnus) has been nominated for Watership Down: Perspectives on and Beyond Animated Violence (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). The collection features articles writted by PhD and MA alumis Leanne Weston and Joshua Schulze, respectively.

We wish all nominees the best of luck.

Teaching Fellow Alice Pember has curates ‘Trailblazers: Women in New Hollywood’, a season that reconceptualises this renaissance in American filmmaking by celebrating unsung female directors whose creativity also began to flourish in this more open filmmaking landscape, but whose work has often been unfairly overshadowed by their male counterparts.  

Spotlighting the trailblazing filmmaking of directors Claudia Weill, Barbara Loden, Joan Micklin Silver, and Kathleen Collins, the season showcases a range of their rarely-screened films from the 1970s and 80s. From Claudia Weill’s masterly examination of female friendship Girlfriends (1978), to the point zero of the modern indie rom-com Crossing Delancey (Joan Micklin Silver, 1988), the season highlights the visionary filmmaking and lasting impact of these women on contemporary American cinema. Accompanied by Q&As, expert introductions, discussions, and special events, the season invites reconsideration of this important era of American filmmaking, shedding light on women’s hard-fought (and sometimes short lived) contributions.

Tickets are available to purchase on The Garden Cinema website.

Third year Film Studies student and investigative journalist Fran Hughes reports from the screening of Lyra (2022) at Coventry Cathedral, about the murdered Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee. The film was accompanied by a panel chaired by Professor Helen Wheatley (Director of Film and Television Studies) with Lyra's sister Nichola McKee-Corner and brother in law John Corner, the film's producer, Jackie Doyle, the Rev Dr Alex Wimberley (leader of the Corrymeela Community) and Professor Michele Aaron. Fran attended the screening as a recent recipient of the Centre for Investigative Journalism's Lyra McKee Bursary Scheme, and writes about the experience of watching the film and meeting Lyra's family