Postgraduate Research Poster Showcase
2018 Awards: Best Monograph
Winner (Best Monograph 2018)
Kate Ince (University of Birmingham)
Female Subjectivities in Contemporary Women’s Cinema (Bloomsbury)
Comments by the panel: This is an excellent and readable book from beginning to end. Well grounded in a variety of theories, primarily feminist, but broader cultural ones as well, it offers significant new readings of key recent and (mainly) contemporary female directors from the UK and France. Ince draws on a multiplicity of theoretical insights to develop her own methodology, which allows for broad overview as well as detailed scenic analysis. The book offers genuinely original readings of many films, and makes a significant contribution to several areas. It is an important addition to many fields and will be invaluable for both students and scholars
Runner-up (Best Monograph 2018)
​Gabor Gergely (University of Lincoln)
National Identity, Anti-Semitism and Popular Cinema (Amsterdam UP)
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Comments by the panel: The subtitle of the book strikes at the heart of Gergely’s concerns both as a critique of the cinema and as an appraisal of the gap in much of the extant academic literature. What is a real pleasure within the book, though, is the extent to which the author is keenly aware of the general ignorance around Hungarian culture for his mainly English-speaking readership, and as a history book more generally, the texts sits well alongside the style of cultural historians like Arthur Marwick. As such, this book speaks across disciplines and is truly enlightening.
Honourable Mention (Best Monograph 2018)
​Neil Archer (University of Keele)
Beyond a Joke: Parody in English Film and Television Comedy (IB Tauris)
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Comments by the panel: This offers a grounded approach to British screen comedy, that offers fresh readings of the texts under analysis, as well as offering us an overview of the contemporary cultural history of which they are part of.
2018 Awards: Best Edited Collection
Winner (Best Edited Collection 2018)
Stefanie Van de Peer (University of Glasgow)
Practice and Aesthetics From Baghdad to Casablanca (IB Tauris)
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Comments by the panel: This book is particularly notable for opening up virtually uncharted territory. Its wide geographic scope, negotiation of politically sensitive issues, mix of contributors, and its emphasis on both practice and aesthetics are hugely impressive. Also worthy of note is its emphasising of local histories before (but not at the expense of) global or transnational ones, and its well-thought-out structure, which combines chronological, geographic and aesthetic approaches to tease out an ‘imagined chronology’. The editor’s stated aim of rewriting the canon is amply met.
Runner-Up (Best Edited Collection 2018)
​Johan Andersson (Kings College London) &
Lawrence Webb (University of Sussex)
Global Cinematic Cities: New Landscapes of Film and Media (Wallflower)
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Comments by the panel: This collection effectively expands on a growing area of scholarship to propose new ideas and suggest new avenues for study. The decision to have two editors from different fields (film studies and urban studies) allows for an effectively interdisciplinary approach. Its impressive global range (with a stated aim of challenging the Eurocentricity of existing work on the subject) and focus on both film and other moving image media, is creditable.
Honourable Mention (Best Edited Collection 2018)
​Anette Kuhn (Queen Mary),
Daniel Biltereyst (Ghent University) &
Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp)
Cinemagoing, Film Experience and Memory (Memory Studies 10:11)
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Comments by the panel: This special issue provides a very compelling and intellectually rigorous set of case studies that undoubtedly contributes to the growing scholarship on film audiences and exhibition. There is a suitably wide geographic focus, and a number of the interventions use effective methodologies and demonstrate exemplary scholarship.
2018 Awards: Best Practice Research Portfolio
Moving Image Winner (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
Stephen Connolly (University of Kent)
Found Landscape, two cameras, Machine Space
Comments by the panel: Stephen Connolly’s Found Landscape/two cameras/machine space is a beautifully constructed, nuanced, multi-layered view of a contested city, Detroit, mediating space as a social construct, and eschewing the “ruin porn” aesthetic approach of so many other contemporary film-makers. This is an original and moving film, well deserving of critical attention and further successes.
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Moving Image Runner-Up (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
Piotr Cieplak (University of Sussex)
Faces We Lost
Comments by the panel: Piotr Cieplak refocalizes witness and testimony in this poignant documentary about the lack of visual documentation in Rwandan genocide. By emphasising the special value of the testimonies of the survivors and putting the spectator in a position of relatives discussing the memories of their deceased loved ones, Cieplak interrogates the medium of documentary in relation to history and trauma.
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Experimental Winner (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
Onyeka Igwe (University of the Arts London)
Her Name in My Mouth
Comments by the panel: Onyeke Igwe’s Her Name in My mouth is a deceptively simple and elegant short which is part of a larger body of work attempting a revision of the Aba Women’s War of 1929, the first major anti-colonial uprisings in Nigeria. The film experiments with the notions of embodiment, archive and dress as well as more traditional documentary elements in order to create a disturbing but inspirational piece re-claiming a part of African history.
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Experimental Runner-Up (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
Esther Johnson (Sheffield Hallam University)
Asunder
Comments by the panel: Esther Johnson’s Asunder is a lyrical feature-length documentary which interweaves archive film, contemporary footage, newspaper articles and oral history. In doing so, it takes an original, polyvocal approach to history, emphasising lived experience and everyday life, particularly the role of women and untold stories of the Home Front of the First World War.
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​Research Applications and Installations Winner (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
Shreepali Patel (Anglia Ruskin University)
The Crossing
Comments by the panel: Shreepali Patel’s The Crossing is an outstanding example of impactful practice research which explores the issue of sex trafficking through the use of immersive cross-platform storytelling, that pushes the boundaries of documentary. Its multiscreen format creates an immersive landscape which reveals this global black market industry through its affect on the individual.
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Research Applications and Installations Runner-Up (Best Practice Research Portfolio 2018)
John Twycross (Oxford Brookes University)
Tim Joyce (Oxford Brookes University)
Virtual Reality – Television Set Design
Comments by the panel: John Twycross’s and Tim Joyce’s project is a case study application of an emerging virtual reality media platform (Constructive Labs). It advances the notions of what practice research in the area of film and moving image can achieve re-defining the niche area that stands outside of the mainstream of VR development and stresses the relevance of new tools to the audiovisual sector. This is significant in academic research and commercial development.
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2018 Awards: Best Journal Article
Winner (Best Journal Article 2018)
Natalie Wreyford (University of Southampton) &
Shelley Cobb (University of Southampton)
Feminist Media History, 3:3
Comments by the panel: The judging panel was unanimous in its admiration of this article. Natalie Wrayford and Shelley Cobb offer a model of reflective writing, always focussed on the pragmatics of their project but with an acute understanding of its political ramifications. This article sets out guiding principles for a feminist methodology of assessing quantitative data, a template for measuring women’s creative labour that is borne from their own experience. For casting critical eyes over this terrain, their work is as fascinating as it is vital.
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Runner-Up (Best Journal Article 2018)
Nathan Townsend (University of York)
‘PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films’
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2017
Comments by the panel: Nathan Townsend’s article on Polygram and Working Title is exactly what we need for this type of archival work: a meticulous and data-rich analysis of working practices. It is a highly rigorous, almost forensic examination of the production practices which have gone on to inform the contemporary Hollywood studio system.
Honourable Mention (Best Journal Article 2018)
Jonathan Murray (University of Edinburgh)
Visual Culture in Britain, 18:2
Comments by the panel: Jonathan Murray’s piece on the Bond films manages that difficult thing: to be hugely erudite and funny at the same time. This work on Bond’s body and the idea of national pessimism is excellent and thought-provoking. It offers insightful textual analysis which remains alert both to the way in which the Daniel Craig era has transformed the franchise, and the upsurge in Bond criticism which this has engendered.
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2018 Awards: Best Doctoral Student Article or Chapter
Winner (Best Doctoral Student Article or Chapter 2018)
Agata Frymus (University of York)
‘Ah, Love! It’s Not for Me!’ Off-screen Romance and Pola Negri’s Star Persona
Celebrity Studies, 8:2
Comments by the panel: A very well written essay, which combines a rigorous academic approach with elements of personal subjective analysis. Its fresh approach and a confident writing is impressive.
Runner-Up (Best Doctoral Student Article or Chapter 2018)
Cat Lester (University of Warwick)
‘The Children’s Horror Film: Characterizing an "Impossible" subgenre’
Velvet Light Trap, 78
Comments by the panel: This is an original and well structured essay that maps out different genre descriptions and their applications to the children’s horror movie. It successfully challenges some of the accepted assumptions.
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Honourable Mention (Best Doctoral Student Article or Chapter 2018)
Jonathan Mack (Northumbria University)
‘Finding Borderland: Intermediality in the Films of Marc Forster’
Cinema Journal, 56:3
Comments by the panel: This article offers insightful intermedial analysis of the films of Marc Foster, and makes an interesting contribution to an understanding of the concept.
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2018 Awards: Postgraduate Poster Competition
Winner (Best Postgraduate Poster 2019)
Abigail Wittall (University of Winchester)