Film at the University of Southampton

16/03/2026

🎬 Special Screening + Director Q&A 🎬

We’re delighted to invite you to a one-off special screening of Films to Die For, directed by Prof Lúcia Nagib (University of Reading), followed by an in‑conversation and Q&A with the director.

📅 Thursday 19 March 2026
🕕 6.00pm
📍 Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Southampton

Presented by the Film Studies Department, University of Southampton, this exclusive event will be chaired by Dr Ruby Cheung, who will also lead the post‑screening discussion with the director.

Synopsis:

The essayistic documentary Films to Die For investigates how films are born from other films, and are a matter of life and death for filmmakers. Wim Wenders’s The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge, 1982), an iconic cinephilic film, serves as the entry point into an international web of interconnected films. Ending with the death of a Hollywood producer and a German independent filmmaker, The State of Things allows for a meditation on the presumed ‘death of cinema’ after the postmodern ‘end of history’. At the same time, it resonates in fascinating ways with the real death of Cinema Novo leader Glauber Rocha after the critical failure of his last film, a tragedy predicted by Rocha himself as he meets Patrick Bauchau, the lead actor in The State of Things, on location in Sintra and declares: ‘Sintra is a beautiful place to die’

Tickets can now be booked here:

https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/017/HO00017752/films-to-die-for-director-q-a?filter=

This screening continues our collaboration with Picturehouse Cinemas, bringing outstanding films and conversations to audiences in Southampton and beyond. We’d love to see you there—please feel free to share and spread the word!

Presented by the Film Studies Department (University of Southampton) The Film Studies Department at the University of Southampton join forces with Picturehouse Cinemas to present an exclusive screening of Films to Die For, directed by Prof Lúcia Nagib FBA (University of Reading), at Harb

04/03/2026

We are thrilled that colleagues and former students from the Department of Film have received nominations for the 2026 BAFTSS Publication and Practice Awards.

Professor Michael Williams' co-edited collection “Call Me By Your Name: Perspectives on the Film” (Intellect, 2025) isnominated for this year’s “Best Edited Collection.”

Our recent MA graduate Thomas O’Brien's essay “How are animated representations of Zombies in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1997) and ParaNorman (2012) used to represent retribution against imperialist systems?” has been nominated for “Best Essay by an Undergraduate or Master’s Student.”

Our recent PhD graduate Dr Zoë Viney Burgess has been nominated in the practice award for "Best Videographic Criticism" for her “Ciné-Clubs and the Elision of Women's Labour.”

And Dr James Slaymaker, another recent PhD graduate, has been nominated for "Best First Monograph" for "Essay Cinema in the Digital Era" (Palgrave MacMillan).

Well done all!

10/09/2025

New publication, co-edited by our very own Ruby Cheung and including contributions by Shelley Cobb and Jara Fernández Meneses!

"Global Film Policies" challenges conventional analyses of film policy as a stand-alone public policy confined within national boundaries and usually focused on supports for film production. The book argues for a more multi-faceted approach, extending beyond national boundaries and broadening its scope to recognise how other forms of policy pertain to film, including tax, labour, language and education.

Essential reading for those working on policy, business, and creative industries!