[Filmfestivalresearch] Book launch: Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema. Wednesday 26 March, 4:30pm

[Rachel Johnson]

Dear all

I'm delighted to invite you to the launch of my recent book, Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema, which was published with Amsterdam University Press last year.

The launch will be online and in person, featuring an introduction from Prof Alan O'Leary (Aarhus University), a book presentation from me (Rachel Johnson, University of Leeds), and a discussion with Profs Marijke de Valck (Utrecht University) and Catherine O'Rawe (University of Bristol). There will also be a Q&A and, for those joining us in person, a drinks reception.

This is the second of two events at Leeds the 26th of March, both broadly concerned with the material-discursive entanglements of cinema, encompassing its production and exhibition. The first is the research talk, Extra Time: The Performance and Labour of the Background Actor with Catherine O'Rawe. You are welcome to attend either one or both events; please contact me if you would like the details for Catherine's talk.

Launch: Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema
Dr Rachel Johnson (University of Leeds)

When: 4:30pm - 6pm (UK time), Wednesday 26 March 2025
Where: Online and in-person

Please register for the event to receive updates and instructions on how to join: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/rjohnson-film/e-gyqgzl (copy and paste this into your browser)

Attendees will also receive a 20% discount code to purchase the book from AUP: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463720366/film-festivals-ideology-and-italian-art-cinema (copy and paste this into your browser)

In the meantime, you can download a free copy of the introduction from Rachel's Academia.edu page: https://www.academia.edu/115210860/Film_Festivals_Ideology_and_Italian_Art_Cinema_Politics_Histories_and_Cultural_Value (copy and paste this into your browser)


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About the book:
Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema is the first systematic study of the role ideology plays in film festivals’ construction of dominant ideas about art cinema. Film festivals are considered the driving force of the film industry outside Hollywood, disseminating ideals of cinematic art and humanist politics. However, the question of what drives them remains highly contentious. In a rare consideration of the European competitive film festival circuit as a whole, this book analyses the shared economic, geopolitical and cultural histories that characterise so-called ‘European A festivals’. It offers, too, the first extensive analysis of such festivals’ role in the canonisation of select Italian films, from Rome, Open City to The Great Beauty and Gomorrah. The book proposes a new approach to ideology critique, one that enables detailed examination of how film festivals construct ideas about not only contemporary art cinema, but assumptions about gender, race, colonialism and capitalism.

This event is hosted by the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures at the University of Leeds. If you have any questions or accessibility requirements, please get in touch.

We hope to see you there.

Rachel

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Dr R Johnson FHEA

pronouns: she/her/hers; them/they/theirs | #MyNameIs<https://mynameis.raceequalitymatters.com/>: Rachel, pronounced Rey-ch-eh-l. (hear my name)<https://namedrop.io/racheljohnson>.

Lecturer in Film Studies | School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, Leeds,  LS2 9JT (UK)

Co-editor of The Italianist: Film Issue<https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/yita20>.

Co-convenor of the Film Festival Research Network<http://www.filmfestivalresearch.org/> research seminar series. Submit your<https://forms.gle/uXGz6VhyRVw2ugex7> proposal for a seminar.

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Read my and colleagues' work in these open access edited collections:

Moving beyond (De)Colonial Container: The Work of Film Festivals<https://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue28.html> (2025)

Shaping Film Festivals in a Changing World<https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048555734/shaping-film-festivals-in-a-changing-world> (2024)

Pandemic culture<https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526168351/> (2024)

Transnational Modern Languages: A Handbook<https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781800348493/> (2022)
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