[Filmfestivalresearch] Sharing a relevant CfP on Circulation (special interest in Italian film festivals/cultures)

[Rachel Johnson]

Dear film festival colleagues,

With apologies for cross-posting, and the digression into Italian film studies, I would like to share a CfP for The Italianist Film Issue which may be of interest to anyone working on Italian+transnational film festivals, circulation and film cultures.

The next edition of The Italianist Film Issue (2025) will be on 'Circulation of Italian Film and Media'. As you will see below, we will cover a broad range of topics, such as festivals, circuits, streaming, piracy, and the circulation of both economic and symbolic capital. Scholarly articles and more innovative formats (e.g. interviews with festival practitioners) are welcome. The deadline for articles is 1 June 2024, but you are welcome to discuss proposals with myself and the editors at any time (email: italianistfilm at gmail.com).

I include full details below:


Circulation of Italian Film and Media

This special section builds on the recent move “from distribution to circulation studies” in Italian film and media studies (Scaglioni et al, 2018), while expanding the modes and definitions of circulation through which we might apprehend the production and dissemination of Italian screen media.

Circulation, distribution and exhibition of films to audiences are key aspects of the film industry yet they have been traditionally disregarded in film studies. Particularly within the post-COVID landscape, as the cinematic landscape evolves, with technological advancements and changing audience behaviors, understanding the dynamics of how films are disseminated has become increasingly vital. With this special section of The Italianist we look to investigate flows of screen media, and of researching screen media, both as practice and in theory.

As noted by Iordanova and Cunningham (2012), the movement from “distribution” to the study of “circulation” is in response to the rise of digital media platforms and the resulting “disintermediation” of media, including VOD streaming to “informal distribution” (AKA piracy), to the growing role of film festivals in not only exhibition but production and distribution. Circulation gestures towards the increased diversity and complexity of screen media supply chains. Digital platforms and media technologies have transformed not only distribution and exhibition, but also instantiated new modes of production, shifting between the commercial and independent media, national and transnational, the local and regional, as well as material and immaterial. These new modes of media circulation have also transformed the reception of Italian film and television, through the production of Italian media developed for global audiences determined through algorithmic selection. To build upon the metaphor, “circulation” indicates the transformed media “flows” among legacy and digital media platforms, among the circuits of the international film festival and SVODs such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, that now produce and distribute prestige film and television. This issue seeks to map the historical evolution of Italian film and media circulation, its relation to technological shifts, and its transformative effects on industry and reception.

We would therefore welcome contributions on topics including:

  *   Case studies of specific forms of film circulation including:

     *   festivals

     *   streaming platforms

     *   independent distribution

     *   informal distribution (i.e. ‘piracy’)

     *   remediation (e.g. via social media)

  *   Transnational relationships and screen production, including:

     *   the circulation of people, such as actors, filmmakers and curators

     *   the circulation of capital (e.g. funding)

     *   the circulation of prestige (e.g. awards)

  *   Transnational distribution, including:

     *   the relationship between symbolic capital and transnational distribution

     *   the circulation of different genres/ forms of screen media (e.g. art films)

     *   cross-cultural factors in transnational distribution

     *   translation and subtitling

     *   paratexts and marketing

     *   audience reception

  *   ‘Circuits’ as sites of potentially restricted circulation, and the rules that govern them

  *   Circulation and the digital including:

     *   trends in digital circulation before/after COVID

     *   modes of spectatorship fostered by the digital

     *   the promise of the digital as enabling universal access and participation

     *   impacts of digital circulation (e.g. streaming) on screen production

  *   Offline circulation, including

     *   cinemas in Italy

     *   the role of cinemas in exhibiting Italian screen media abroad

     *   alternative spaces of offline exhibition, e.g. DIY screenings, site-specific interventions and installations, museums and galleries

     *   modes of spectatorship fostered by offline circulation

  *   Hybrid modes of distribution and exhibition

Contributions might be full-length scholarly articles in Italian or in English, but we would also welcome shorter accounts by film festival organizers, interviews with practitioners, roundtable-style pieces capturing multiple perspectives on circulation, or other innovative formats.

Articles should be submitted by June 1, and prospective authors are welcome to write to the editors (italianistfilm at gmail.com) at any time with proposals or inquiries. Submissions may be made directly to the Italianist Film Issue via the journal’s digital platform: https://www.editorialmanager.com/ita/default.aspx

The Italianist Film Issue also welcomes contributions on any area of Italian screen studies for an open section of the journal  or proposals for a special issue.

All best wishes,

Simone Brioni, Shelleen Greene, Rachel Johnson

Editors, The Italianist Film Issue

Open access articles<https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showOpenAccess?journalCode=yita20>


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R Johnson
Lecturer in Film Studies
Room 2.22, Michael Sadler Building
Languages, Cultures and Societies
University of Leeds | LS2 9JT

New book! Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema<https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463720366/film-festivals-ideology-and-italian-art-cinema>.


Recent publications

Johnson, 2022: Film Festivals and Ideology Critique: A Method<https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/15276>

Johnson, 2022: Producing <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614340.2022.2090063> Maka<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614340.2022.2090063>: Hybridisation and Dialogue in Academic Filmmaking<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614340.2022.2090063>

Johnson & O'Leary, 2022, 'Flow' in Transnational Modern Languages: A Handbook<https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781800348493/>

Johnson, 2021: Policy Review: Social Security for Cultural Practitioners<https://www.culturehive.co.uk/CVIresources/policy-review-social-security-for-cultural-practitioners/>

Johnson, 2020: A Brutal Humanism for the New Millennium? The Legacy of Neorealism in Contemporary Cinema of Migration<https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jicms/2020/00000008/00000001/art00005>