The Future of Film Studies in the Age of Media Studies: Introduction

When we (with Noel King) put together our ARC-funded project Australian Film Theory and Criticism (1975–1985) to document the development of film studies in Australia, we were also thinking about how events of that period informed and shaped the current state of film studies in Australia (and elsewhere).

Now, with the discipline of media studies ascendant, and digital media formats proliferating across various platforms, it seems timely to bring together a select group of academics – Dana Polan, Therese Davis, Noel King, George Kouvaros and Angela Ndalianis – to ask if and how film studies can remain a distinct discipline, with its own unique history and methods, or whether film studies is nowadays simply one of several areas in a larger field of media studies.

Among the questions posed to the speaker and raised for discussion at this workshop:

1. What place does film studies have in contemporary media studies?
2. How can scholars bridge the cinematic emphasis of their research and training with the amorphous structure of both contemporary media and media studies?
3. Is there a regional specificity to film studies? Does Australia’s proximity to Asia influence film studies here? What of our relationship to the Northern hemisphere?
4. How have recent shifts in on-line publishing affected the discipline? Has writing about film – and the methods of film criticism – changed as a result?
5. How has globalisation, and the circulation of films and other materials affected the discipline? How have on-line delivery methods, web chatter, Facebook, etc. impacted viewers and audiences of world cinema?

About the Author

Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams

About the Authors


Constantine Verevis

Constantine Verevis is the author of Film Remakes (Edinburgh UP, 2006), co-author of Australian Film Theory and Criticism, Vol. I: Critical Positions (Intellect, 2013), and co-editor of Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (State U of New York P, 2010), After Taste: Cultural Value and the Moving Image (Routledge, 2012), Film Trilogies: New Critical Approaches (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Film Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions: Remake-Remodel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), B Is For Bad Cinema: Aesthetics, Politics and Cultural Value (State U of New York P, 2014), US Independent Film After 1989: Possible Films (Edinburgh UP, 2015), Transnational Television Remakes (Routledge, 2016), Transnational Film Remakes (Edinburgh UP, 2017) and Australian Film Theory and Criticism, Vol. 3: Documents (Intellect, forthcoming 2017)

Deane Williams

Deane Williams is associate professor of film and screen studies at Monash University. He is the editor of the journal Studies in Documentary Film, and his books include Australian Post-War Documentary Film: An Arc of Mirrors (2008), Michael Winterbottom (with Brian McFarlane, 2009) and the three-volume Australian Film Theory and Criticism (co-edited with Noel King and Constantine Verevis, 2013–2017). In 2016 his The Cinema of Sean Penn: In and Out of Place was published by Wallflower Press.View all posts by Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams →