EUFA and Film Studies at Liverpool John Moores University

2017

The “Teaching European Cinema” dossier has grown out of the European University Film Award (EUFA) project that was initiated in 2016 by Filmfest Hamburg in collaboration with the European Film Academy (EFA) and the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). In its second edition in 2017, the EUFA connected twenty European universities in a common teaching project in which five nominated films were analysed and discussed in courses of the respective universities. Subsequently, one student representative per country joined the three-day student jury deliberation in Hamburg and voted for the final EUFA winner. In 2016, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake (2016) won the inaugural EUFA; in 2017, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Heartstone (Hjartasteinn, 2016) was awarded the prize. The dossier works on different levels: first, it aims to present the EUFA project to a wider public; second, it promotes an exchange among the participating colleagues; and third, it operates as a teaching dos...

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media , 2017

The “Teaching European Cinema” dossier has grown out of the European University Film Award (EUFA) project that was initiated in 2016 by Filmfest Hamburg in collaboration with the European Film Academy (EFA) and the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). In its second edition in 2017, the EUFA connected twenty European universities in a common teaching project in which five nominated films were analysed and discussed in courses of the respective universities. Subsequently, one student representative per country joined the three-day student jury deliberation in Hamburg and voted for the final EUFA winner. In 2016, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake (2016) won the inaugural EUFA; in 2017, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Heartstone (Hjartasteinn, 2016) was awarded the prize. The dossier works on different levels: first, it aims to present the EUFA project to a wider public; second, it promotes an exchange among the participating colleagues; and third, it operates as a teaching dossier for scholars within the wider field of European film and media studies to discuss questions of how best to teach contemporary European cinema.

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media , 2017

The "Teaching European Cinema" dossier has grown out of the European University Film Award (EUFA) project that was initiated in 2016 by Filmfest Hamburg in collaboration with the European Film Academy (EFA) and the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). In its second edition in 2017, the EUFA connected twenty European universities in a common teaching project in which five nominated films were analysed and discussed in courses of the respective universities. Subsequently, one student representative per country joined the three-day student jury deliberation in Hamburg and voted for the final EUFA winner. In 2016, Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake (2016, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson's Heartstone (Hjartasteinn, 2016 was awarded the prize. The dossier works on different levels: first, it aims to present the EUFA project to a wider public; second, it promotes an exchange among the participating colleagues; and third, it operates as a teaching dossier for scholars within the wider field of European film and media studies to discuss questions of how best to teach contemporary European cinema. Figure 1: Presentation of the EUFA 2016 prize at Studio Cinema in Hamburg. Photo: EUFA/K. Brunnhofer.

The " Teaching European Cinema " dossier has grown out of the European University Film Award (EUFA) project that was initiated in 2016 by Filmfest Hamburg in collaboration with the European Film Academy (EFA) and the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). In its second edition in 2017, the EUFA connected twenty European universities in a common teaching project in which five nominated films were analysed and discussed in courses of the respective universities. Subsequently, one student representative per country joined the three-day student jury deliberation in Hamburg and voted for the final EUFA winner. In 2016, Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake (2016) won the inaugural EUFA; in 2017, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson's Heartstone (Hjartasteinn, 2016) was awarded the prize. The dossier works on different levels: first, it aims to present the EUFA project to a wider public; second, it promotes an exchange among the participating colleagues; and third, it operates as a teaching dossier for scholars within the wider field of European film and media studies to discuss questions of how best to teach contemporary European cinema.

Studies in European Cinema, 2018

Class syllabus, 2025

This course presents the most exceptional and inventive films from Central European nations, set against the backdrop of European history from 1945 to the present. The class examines the following subjects: sports drama and political farce comedy as expressions of national unity; nostalgia towards times of cultural change and opportunity; the feminist themes in the European film; as well as the lure of surrealism and the influence of music on shaping the viewer's perception of the story. The approach to analyzing the selected films is grounded in modern viewpoints from the humanities, encompassing cinema theory, gender studies, postcolonial theory, and psychoanalytic cultural theory. Special emphasis is placed on Slovenian star philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who examines the significance of art in transforming an individual’s life; a US philosopher of Indian origin Gayatri Spivak, who advocates for voicing the perspectives of marginalized groups who cannot get access to media; and the dissident author Vaclav Havel, who fostered organized civic collaboration against an oppressive regime and became the inaugural President of Czechoslovakia in a postcolonial free state. The historical context encompasses the Soviet domination in Central Europe from 1945 to 1991, the Soviet incursion into Prague in 1968, the occupation and imposition of martial law in Poland from 1980 to 1982, the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Yugoslav conflict in the 1990s, and current political dynamics that played out in Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014.

Deadline for abstracts: December 30, 2016 Twenty-first century quality European feature film has added social and political weight to its aesthetic project and has increasingly framed its questions in a European context. This phenomenon is especially visible among young European filmmakers. Quality cinematic production has emphasized the demand for an active understanding of European identity and for the defense of Project Europe's quest for democracy and cosmopolitanism. European cinema theaters, film festivals and quality television programming have more and more turned into sites of civic concern and cultural resistance. The consumption of these films has stimulated sensitivity to a variety of challenges that face the continent— including the hegemony of economic neoliberalism and the disintegration the European Union as a structure of transnational governance. This Special Issue invites contributors to reflect on how recent quality cinema aims to address a variety of European challenges such as: 1. the responsibilities of European citizenship in the twenty-first century globalized world 2. the reassertion of Europe as a transformative political project that can react to new forms of human disenfranchisement and exploitation 3. particular issues that face the unity, security, well-being, and happiness of all Europeans, such as: ○ containing the rise of present nationalist populism ○ evening out economic discrepancies ○ democratic access to education and information ○ fighting the marketization of social life ○ inspiring cosmopolitan self-perception ○ presenting a comprehensive picture of global migration in the postcolonial context ○ high-level corruption ○ understanding the causes of terrorism ○ participating in offshore and proxy wars ○ raising awareness of ecological catastrophe ○ dismantling gender inequality

Academic and populist attempts at defining European cinema encounter such similar problems to political economists and politicians when delineating the extent and remit of the European Union that the application of social, economic and political theory to European film studies might be worth a go. Basing itself upon a suggestive correlation between the European Union as a community of sentiment and the region coding of its DVDs, this article assesses the impact of new screen technologies and the rebranding of the European Union on European film-makers and audiences. Building on links with recent events in Europe and the USA and the dislocation and disempowerment of protagonists in recent European and American cinema, this article develops an idea of the pan-European stratification of persons based on economic criteria and access to technology that has consequences for the future of European film.

a institute for Culture and Society, university of navarra, pamplona, Spain; b dipartimento di Studi umanistici e del patrimonio Culturale, university of udine, udine, italy This special issue provides a glimpse into the way recent European quality film originally participates in renegotiations of the social and political Project Europe, with its generous democratization process and transnationally shared cultural and economic goals. The stimulation of quality film-making has been on the political agenda of the EU for a while and followed more or less explicitly, two priorities: integration and competitiveness. Taking this stimulation into account, our goal is definitely not limited to showing how recent European cinema serviced EU priorities as soft-power controlled art. Animated by our own belief in the European project, we aim to reveal the way film-makers and their public art moved forward European concerns. We also try to trace the way films articulate deviation and excess of and within signification-sometimes divergent or critical of EU priorities-which not only raises awareness of various issues independent of the EU or national states agenda, but also performs the counter-ideological work of gesturing towards the misleading questions and challenges that animate the quest for political, ethical, economic and aesthetic value in current-day Europe (Žižek 2006).