Past events

A curated selection of past events in Film and Intermediality at the University of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Film Seminars

Each semester, the Edinburgh Film Seminars bring a broad range of film academics and experts to the University of Edinburgh. Here, they discuss their research and share their expertise on all things film and cinema.

Please note that speaker titles and institutions, as listed, date from the time of the event and may have changed.

a grainy, sepia-toned background with Edinburgh Film Seminars overlaid

DateVenueSpeaker(s)Title
10 March 202650 George SquareDr Jiří Anger (Queen Mary University of London)Speculating Matter: Theorising Film and Media Archives from Below
27 January 202650 George SquareDr Sheelalipi Sahana (University of Edinburgh)India on Film, 1899-1947: Empire, Visual Spectacle, and Children’s Dis/obedience
26 November 202550 George SquareProfessor Johnny Walker (Northumbria University)Beyond the Wasteland: In Search of the British Horror Film
14 May 202550 George SquareJudith Opoku-Boateng (University of Ghana)Restitution, Repatriation, and Reclaiming Ghana’s Audiovisual Heritage
20 March 202550 George SquareProfessor Emma Wilson (University of Cambridge)"I came into the room of paintings": Real interiors in 'Jane par Charlotte' (Charlotte Gainsbourg, 2021)
7 February 202550 George SquareDr David H. Fleming (University of Stirling)Film-philosophy in Action: Screening and Discussion of 'Film-Philos-Orama'
12 November 202450 George SquareDr Sarah Artt (Edinburgh Napier University)Visual Trouble and the Desiring Gaze: from Pandora’s Box (1929) to The Substance (2024)
22 May 202450 George SquareProfessor Charlie Keil (University of Toronto)Transition and the Historiographical Vagaries of Silent American Cinema
26 March 202440 George SquareDr Miranda Anderson (University of Edinburgh)Fission-Fusion in Contemporary Film: A Case Study of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe Series
13 February 202440 George SquareDr MaoHui Deng (University of Manchester)Dementia-Friendly Screenings: Caring, Useful, Colonial
18 October 202340 George SquareProfessor Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary University of London)Seberg, Stewart and Sobchack: The posthumous phenomenology of the star biopic
6 April 202340 George SquareDr Victor Fan (King's College London)The Insight-Image: Illuminating the Reality of Deleuze’s Time-Image
30 January 202340 George SquareDr Fraser Elliott (University of Edinburgh)‘It’s so so so so so so important’: China’s role in shaping the Fast & Furious franchise
7 November 2022Online (Zoom)Dr Susan Lord (Queen's University, Kingston)Appearances and Apparitions: The Black Subject in Sara Gómez’s documentaries

DateVenueSpeaker(s)Title
28 April 2022Online (Zoom)Dr Aida Vallejo (University of Edinburgh/University of the Basque Country)The Documentary Festival Ecosystem
9 March 2022Online (Zoom)Dr Alison Peirse (University of Leeds)Toward a Feminist Historiography of Horror Cinema
26 March 2021Online (Zoom)Dr Michelle Devereaux (University of Warwick)Stanley Cavell, Scepticism, and Gender in Contemporary Film and Television
24 February 2021Online (Zoom)Professor Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University)Reenactment, Memory, and Witnessing: Cinematic Ethics in The Look of Silence and S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
30 October 2020Online (Zoom)Professor J.E. Smyth (University of Warwick)Film History's Vanishing Lady Act: The Case of Mary McCall
6 February 2020Old CollegeDr Catherine Wheatley (King's College London)Isabelle Huppert’s Shoes: Thoughts on Cinematic Shoes, inspired by Stanley Cavell
19 November 201950 George SquareDr Lucy Fife Donaldson (University of St Andrews)Layers of style: Design and embodiment in The Americans
29 October 2019Old CollegeDr E. Anna Claydon (University of Leicester)And a Nice Chianti: The Culinary Treats of Hannibal Lecter
14 October 201950 George SquareDr Matthew Asprey GearBook Launch and Screening of Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)
18 March 201950 George SquareProfessor Laura Rascaroli (University of Cork)Between Affect and Scepticism: Nonverbal Lyricism and the Essay Film
25 February 201950 George SquareClaudia Di Gianfrancesco (PG student at Birkbeck, University of London)Desire in the Era of Neoliberalism: [SAFE] (Todd Haynes, 1995)
12 February 201950 George SquareDr Luz Horne (University of San Andrés)Cinema of/as Garbage: Eduardo Coutinho’s Politics of Image from 'Jogo de Cena' (2007) to 'Boca de Lixo' (1992)
5 December 201850 George SquareAssociate Professor Calum Neill (Edinburgh Napier University) and Dr David Sorfa (Film Studies)Crisis? What Crisis? Fantasies of Masculine Identity in Contemporary Cinema
27 November 201850 George SquareProfessor D. N. Rodowick (University of Chicago)Powers of the Virtual in Contemporary Art
15 November 2018Lister Learning and Teaching CentreDr Jeffrey Ruoff (Dartmouth College)Location, Location, Location: The Landscape of Lussas, France in les États-généraux du documentaire
13 November 201840 George SquareDr Miriam Ross (Victoria University of Wellington)Virtual Reality’s Disappearing Screen: The Ultimate Total Cinema?
6 November 201840 George SquareDr James MacDowell (University of Warwick)On the Nature of Irony in Films
9 March 201850 George SquareJim StubblefieldBeyond the Director: Assistant Property Master Jim Stubblefield in Conversation
16 February 2018 Dr Angelos Koutsourakis (University of Leeds)Modernist Belatedness in Contemporary Slow Cinema
30 January 201850 George SquareDr David Deamer (Manchester Metropolitan University)Twilight of an Idol, or How to Film-Philosophize Bowie’s ★ with Deleuze after Nietzsche
21 November 2017 Dr Mario Slugan (Ghent University, Belgium)Holier than Thou: Noël Carroll and Ideology Critique
22 November 2016 Mattias Frey (University of Kent)The Crises of Film Criticism and the Promises of Film Studies
26 October 2016 Dr William Brown (University of Roehampton)Schrödinger’s Cinema: The Matter of Life and Death
23 February 2016 Professor Duncan Petrie (University of York)The Influence of Film Schools on European Film Culture
5 November 2015 Dr Richard Baxstrom (University of Edinburgh)Realizing the Witch: Science, Cinema, and the Mastery of the Invisible
8 October 2015 Professor Lisa Downing (University of Birmingham)Selfish Cinema: Questions of Gender and Control in Adaptations of Ayn Rand for the Screen
24 September 2015 Professor Richard I. Suchenski (Bard College, New York)Also like Life: the Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
13 March 201414 Buccleuch PlaceDr David Sorfa (University of Edinburgh)The Force of Metaphor: Ritual Sacrifice and Fluid in the Films of Michael Haneke
4 March 201440 George SquareDr Charlotte Gleghorn (University of Edinburgh)Time, Pre-Cinema and Indigenous Aesthetics in La raíz de la resistencia
5 February 201440 George SquareDr Libby Saxton (Queen Mary University London)Iconic Photography as Proto-Cinema

Other series

Edinburgh Screen Conversations

Edinburgh Screen Conversations are a series of in-depth discussions with figures from the screen industries. Launched in 2020 and hosted by Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the series features a fantastic range of writers, directors and other figures from the screen industries talking to us about their work.

DateVenueSpeaker(s)Title
7 November 202340 George SquarePamela HutchinsonIn-conversation on 'The Red Shoes' (2023)
23 November 2022Online (Zoom)Chris McCalebIn-conversation event
6 December 2021Online (Zoom)Gerard JohnsonIn-conversation event
29 January 2021Online (Zoom)Carol MorleyIn-conversation event
25 November 2020Online (Zoom)Jonathan MelvilleIt’s A Kind of Magic: Making The Original Highlander

A series of workshops, seminars and talks born out of the Research Partnership in Intermedia Studies between the University of Edinburgh and Meiji University, Tokyo. This partnership brought together academics, research students and practitioners to foster exchange and initiate new collaborative projects.

DateVenueThemeSpeaker(s)
10 March 2023Lister Learning and Teaching CentreIntercultural Transfers and Translations Across Media

Meiji University, Tokyo: Rumiko Oyama; Alex Warson; Masahiro Kobayashi

University of Edinburgh: Xingtong Zhou; Katie Pleming; Alexandra Smith; Inma Sanchez-Garcia

3 March 202340 George SquareInterdisciplinary Perspectives on Roland Barthes and ArtsProfessor Barnaby Ralph (Seikei University, Tokyo); Professor Fuhito Endo (Seikei University, Tokyo)
31 January 202340 George SquareIntermedial Journey in Search of the Bounty MutineersSébastien Laurier
28 March 2022Online (Zoom)The Haunted Stalls: Liveness and the Absent Audience in Pandemic ShakespeareProfessor Pascale Aebischer (University of Exeter)
16 March 2022Medical SchoolIntermedial Encounters Between Image, Music and Text – With and Beyond Roland BarthesFive speakers, including two PhD students in Comparative Literature, Matthis Hervieux and Xingtong Zhou (both University of Edinburgh)

The DELC Research Seminar Series (DRSS) encourages collaboration and coproduction between staff and students across European Languages and Cultures and beyond. Below you will find a curated list of DELC Seminars that featured staff or collaborators with Intermediality Studies.

DateVenueThemeSpeaker(s)
9 November 202250 George SquareArchitects of Modernism: The Case of ProustProfessor Patrick O'Donovan (University College Cork)
29 March 2022Online (Zoom)Book Talk with Ben Bollig: Moving Verses and The Poetry-Film NexusProfessor Ben Bollig (University of Oxford)
10 February 2022Online (Teams)IntermedialityVarious throughout DELC and Intermediality; guest speakers were Dr Emanuela Patti and Dr Inma Sánchez-García (University of Edinburgh)

Lectures, talks, workshops and panels

Date: 15 October 2025

Venue: 40 George Square

Speakers: Sam Fern (MSc Intermediality alumni) and Julia Larsen (PhD Intermediality candidate)

In brief: An in-person discussion event between MSc Intermediality alumni and author Sam Fern, and current 3rd year PhD Intermediality candidate, Julia Larsen. Together, they discussed Sam's new illustrated book, 'Where the Dead Live', and how the course has changed and stayed the same since Sam graduated in 2022 as part of the first ever cohort of the MSc programme.


Date: 11 February 2026

Venue: 40 George Square

Speaker: Aurélien Froment (Edinburgh College of Art)

In brief: An event from Aurélien Froment (Edinburgh College of Art) where he presented his current film project in development on the subject of Louis Wolfson and language.


Dates: 12 and 13 March 2026

Venue: 50 George Square

In brief: A two-day workshop featuring 11 panels with academics from around the world, all gathered to discuss the intersections between media, theory, and the wide-reaching concept of care. 


Date: 22 November 2024

Venue: 50 George Square

Speakers: Barnaby Ralph (University of Tokyo), Ayako Otomo (Tokyo Woman’s Christian University), Andy Stafford (University of Leeds), and Fariha Asghar (Bahauddin Zakariya University/University of Leeds)

In brief: Four academics from the UK and Japan gave the following presentations:

  • Barnaby Ralph, “Dancing with the Absent Centre: Ken Russell’s Salome’s Last Dance and Mythologised Indifference”
  • Ayako Otomo, “Le Roi danse: Historical Realisation and Musical-Political Theatre”
  • Andy Stafford, “Intermediality in Guadeloupe’s Cane-fields: Raphaël Confiant and David Damoison Cutting a Photo-text”
  • Fariha Asghar, “Text/image in Pakistani Political Discourse: Photographic Legitimation Analysis in Memoirs by Ayub khan and Pervez Musharraf”

Date: 27 February 2024

Venue: 40 George Square

Speaker: Dr Tamara Trodd (Edinburgh College of Art)

In brief: A talk by Dr Trodd which examined Alain Resnais's 'Guernica' (1950) in reference to reworking the way in which art affects reality.


Screenings and book launches

Date: 30 October 2025

Venue: 50 George Square

Organisers: Expanding Cinema research group; Goethe Institute

In brief: A screening of eight short-form works on 8mm, 16mm and 35mm film and made by members of collective, artist-run filmlab, LaborBerlin. The screening was followed by a Q&A from Jules Leaño and Sophie Watzlawick from LaborBerlin.


Date: 6 February 2025

Venue: Lister Learning and Teaching Centre and online (Zoom)

Speakers: Clodagh Brook (Trinity College), Florian Mussgnug (University College London), and Giuliana Pieri (Royal Holloway, London)

Chair: Dr Emanuela Patti (University of Edinburgh)

In brief: A hybrid book launch to celebrate the publication of 'Intermedia in Italy: From Futurism to Digital Convergence', the new open access book by Clodagh Brook, Florian Mussgnug, and Giuliana Pieri. The three authors were present at this event, and discussed their new publication with Dr Patti.

Access the book online


Date: 21 October 2024

Venue: Screening Room G.04, 50 George Square

Film: 'Dear Mother' (dir. Sk Shuvo Shadique, 2023)

Featured guests: Sk Shuvo Shadique (director of 'Dear Mother'), Professor Lotte Hoek (School of Social and Political Science), Dr Upali Sraman (School of Divinity), and Emma Dussouchaud-Esclamadon (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures)

In brief: In honour of the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages, this screening of 'Dear Mother' was held in collaboration with Film Studies and CHITrA research network on South Asian Art and Visual Culture. It was followed by a discussion with all featured guests.


Festivals and showcases

 

Film Studies and Film, Exhibition and Curation at the summer festivals

During the summer festivals in Edinburgh, our Film Studies and FEC staff and alumni get involved in events and screenings throughout the city. Their events were open to the public, and they feature a multitude of themes relevant to the contemporary culture and society.

Please note that this is as close to a complete list as possible, and that speaker titles and institutions may have changed from time of the event.

DateFestivalVenueTitleFilm/FEC rep
21 August 2023Edinburgh International Film FestivalVue Cinema Omni CentreBlack Box Artists' Short FilmsLydia Beilby (Film, Exhibition and Curation)
19 August 2023Edinburgh International Film FestivalEveryman CinemaThe Lynda Myles Project: A ManifestoSusan Kemp (Film, Exhibition and Curation)
19 August 2023Edinburgh International Film FestivalEveryman CinemaThe Lynda Myles Project launch eventSusan Kemp (Film, Exhibition and Curation)
24 June 2018Edinburgh International Film FestivalCineworld Fountain ParkShorts: Where's Your Skirt?Film, Exhibition and Curation MSc students
29 June 2018Edinburgh International Film FestivalCentral Hall AuditoriumLooking for Lucey and Moving MusicFilm, Exhibition and Curation MSc students
24 June 2018Edinburgh International Film FestivalCineworld FountainparkShorts: Where's Your Skirt?Film, Exhibition and Curation MSc students
Various dates, June 2018Edinburgh International Film FestivalVarious

David will be introducing:

  • Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
  • Solaris (dir. Andre Tarkovsky, 1972)
Dr David Sorfa (Senior Lecturer in Film Studies)
15 March 2018Edinburgh International Film FestivalAssembly RoxyLooking for LuceyFilm, Exhibition and Curation MSc students

Date: 24 November 2025

Venue: 40 George Square

In brief: The third annual showcase of practice-based projects and creative work by MSc and PhD Intermediality students, including films, photos, poetry and video art.


Date: 26 November 2024

Venue: 50 George Square

In brief: A showcase of projects completed by MSc and PhD Intermediality students, ranging from films and video art to zine and animation. The event also featured creative activities such as live drawing.


Dates: 20 to 29 May 2022

Venues: Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Glasgow Film Theatre; DCA Dundee Contemporary Arts; Belmont Filmhouse, Aberdeen and Eden Court, Inverness

In brief: A programme of films set and/or produced across Italy, curated by Dr Pasquale Iannone (Film Studies). Most titles were UK or Scotland premieres. The opening film was Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco, and there were retrospective screenings, including a tribute to the late Italian film icon Monica Vitti, as well as and a centenary celebration of the great political filmmaker Francesco Rosi. The festival was supported by Creative Scotland and the Italian Institute of Culture.


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