Panel Members

Dr Karina Aveyard

Karina Aveyard is an Associate Professor in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia. She is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema (2018), The Lure of the Big Screen: Cinema in Rural Australia and the United Kingdom (2015) and co-editor of Watching Films: New Perspectives on Movie-Going, Exhibition and Reception (2013) and New Patterns in Global Television Formats (2016).

Dr Anna Blagrove

I am a recent PhD Graduate and Associate Tutor in the School of Art, Media, and American Studies at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich. My thesis is an audience study of teenagers, specifically researching the places, values and roles of their film consumption and cinema-going. I am also a Director of Reel Connections, a company that uses film to engage with community groups of young people, older people, and those with mental health issues. One of our current projects is the facilitation of young film programmers groups across the South East of England for the BFI via the ICO.

Ian Cade

Ian is a Research Manager in the BFI Research and Statistics Unit, where he produces official statistics on the UK screen sector, as well has co-writing the BFI statistical yearbook and trawling data for additional stories and research relating to the screen industries. Previously Ian worked as a data analyst in the heritage sector, researching projects with a particular interest in their geographic distribution and the importance of cultural identity in generating a “sense of place”.

Francesca Cantore

Francesca Cantore is a Ph.D. student in Film Studies at Sapienza University of Rome, where she’s currently working on a thesis on the public image of Alberto Sordi. Among her research interests, the concept of Italianness in popular Italian cinema from a cultural studies approach.

Dr Hadija Chalupe da Silva

Brazilian Ph.D. (Fluminense Federal University - UFF). Lecturer of film production and distribution at UFF and Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing do Rio de Janeiro - ESPM-RJ. Her main research themes are audiovisual production, feature film distribution, and international co-production. Between September and December of 2018, Hadija worked as a visiting researcher at Oxford Brookes University, mapping out Brazilian film distribution in the UK. She also works as a feature film producer and is a founding partner of Caraduá Productions, mainly acting as executive producer and assistant director.

Silvia Cibien

Silvia has been working in the film industry in Italy and France since 2005, as follows: in the exhibition sector (film programmer at Boldù Cultural Center in Venice), production (360 Degrees Film), distribution (Officine UBU, Cosmopolis Distribution) and coordinating professional training programmes (10 editions of Art Cinema = Action + Manage- ment, organized by CICAE, the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas). She has been a consultant for European audiovisual project management and European affairs since 2013. She joined the VoD sector in 2017 as European business & affairs for at LaCinetek.com and UniversCine.com, and has been managing the EUROVOD association since then.

Richard Cooper

Richard is a Research Director at research firm Ampere Analysis and has more than 18 years’ experience covering the film and TV content markets and advising firms on the development of their media businesses. Ampere’s clients include Hollywood studios, broadcasters, pay TV operators, regulators, video-on-demand services, and investment firms. Richard regularly represents Ampere in TV and radio interviews as well as at UK and international content-related conferences. He is also often quoted in national, international and trade press.

Dr Silvia Dibeltulo

Silvia Dibeltulo is Senior Lecturer in Communication, Media and Culture at Oxford Brookes University, where she previously worked on the AHRC-funded Italian Cinema Audiences project and the BA/Leverhulme-funded European Cinema Audiences project. Her research mainly focuses on the representation of identity on screen, specifically in terms of ethnicity, nationality, gender and culture. Her work also centers on film genre theory and history, audience and reception studies, cinema heritage, and digital humanities. Her recent publications include the book chapter ‘‘Analysing Memories through Video-Interviews: A Case Study of Post-War Italian Cinema-going” (in Biltereyst, D., R. Maltby and P. Meers [eds] The Routledge Companion to New Cinema History, London and New York: Routledge, 2019 [with Treveri Gennari, D., D. Hipkins & C. O’Rawe]), and the edited volume Rethinking Genre in Contemporary Global Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 [with Ciara Barrett]).

Dr Alexander Donev

Alexander Donev, PhD, is a Specialist at the Screen Arts Department, Institute of Art Studies, BAS, Sofia. He teaches new Bulgarian cinema, audience studies, film marketing, film sociology and semiotics at NATFA (Sofia). Author of Ask the Audience (Sofia, 2018), Film Independents. From Edison to Netflix (Sofia, 2019). He has worked also as a Head of Bulgarian National Film Center and Head of Programing of Bulgarian National Television. He is documentary filmmaker and producer. Member of the European Film Academy.

Ivan Doykov

A highly experienced and commercially-minded producer with a background in finance structuring, packaging, line production and marketing & distribution of feature films and TV series for domestic and international markets. Extensive production experience covering all production stages – from early development and story right acquisition, through script-writing and key talent hire, through to production financing and co-production structuring, planning and budgeting, production and post production supervision, to marketing and distribution. The producer behind Bulgaria's two most successful feature films (MISSION LONDON and HEIGHTS) and TV series (UNDERCOVER) in the last 30 years - content with impressive production value, despite having operated in an environment with limited budgets and resources. Content manager at Neterra TV.

Dr Pierluigi Ercole

Pierluigi Ercole is an Associate Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK). Much of his research is grounded in audience and reception studies. He is a co-investigator for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project European CInema Audiences: Entangled Histories and Shared Memories.

Professor Mattias Frey

Mattias Frey is Professor and Head of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kent. General Editor of the journal Film Studies, he is the author or editor of six books, including: The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism: The Anxiety of Authority (Amsterdam UP, 2015); Film Criticism in the Digital Age (Rutgers UP, 2015; co-edited with Cecilia Sayad); Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture (Rutgers UP, 2016).

Daniel Gadher

Daniel joined Ampere Analysis in January 2015, and has been instrumental in the creation and development of Ampere’s Consumer service. He has over five years of experience in consumer questionnaire design and data management and has developed detailed consumer segmentations across entertainment sectors. Daniel is also responsible for development of Ampere’s new Content Markets product, a break-down of annual film and TV content spend. He has extensive experience of the evolving media industry, working on Ampere’s Markets service to produce core data sets and detailed reports for publication, as well as working on many high-profile consulting projects. Daniel regularly represents Ampere Analysis in TV and radio interviews discussing media related topics.

Dr Damiano Garofalo

Damiano Garofalo is an Assistant Professor in Film & Media studies at Sapienza University of Rome, where he teaches Cinema History and Television History. His recent research interests are focused on the social and cultural history of Italian television and the historical circulation and distribution of Italian cinema.

Dr Matthew S. Hanchard

Dr. Matthew S. Hanchard focuses on digital sociology, data science, cartography/maps, and social practice. He works on the AHRC-funded ‘Beyond the Multiplex’ project and a University of Glasgow/Sydney collaboration to generate smart city policy recommendations (SmartPublics).

Dr Stuart Hanson

Stuart Hanson is Associate Professor – Research/Reader at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is author of the recently published Screening the World: Global Development of the Multiplex Cinema (2019), From silent screen to multi-screen: A history of cinema exhibition in Britain since 1896 (2007) and a series of chapters and articles on the history of the multiplex cinema.

Dr Petra Hirzer

Petra Hirzer is a media anthropologist, editor of the SWS journal (Society for Social. Research Studies Austria) and trainer in further education for adults and youth. Her research focuses on transcultural media practices, globalisation and popular culture. For her PhD project at the University of Vienna she conducted an ethnography of Bollywood fandom in South America. She has taught at the University of Vienna and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.

Philip Jablon

Philip Jablon is an American-born researcher, photographer and author who splits his time between Chiang Mai, Thailand and Philadelphia, USA. In 2010 he earned an M.A. in Sustainable Development from Chiang Mai University. Since 2009 he has built one of the world’s largest photographic archival records of stand-alone movie theaters across Southeast Asia for his Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project. He also promotes the preservation of select stand-alone movie theaters throughout ASEAN. Mr. Jablon’s interest in stand-alone movie theaters intersects with his vision of architecturally diverse, culturally rich, sustainable cities, as well as the historical function that stand-alone theaters played in the development of modern societies. His work has been supported by the Jim Thompson Foundation and the Thai Film Archive.

Dr Sibel Kaba

Sibel Kaba (PhD, İstanbul University, 2015) is a research assistant at Trabzon University Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio Television and Cinema. She completed her Doctorate degree at İstanbul University Institute of Social Sciences in 2015. Her thesis focused on how evil can be understood and narrated in cinema as interwoven with ethical, aesthetical and political questions. Her scientific interests include film and ethics, spectatorship and also transnational cinema.

Dr Alireza Khoshnevis

Dr Khoshnevis is Assistant Professor of Dramatic Arts at University of Damghan, Iran. He completed his PhD in Art Studies at Shahed University, Tehran, following an MA in Film Studies and a BSc in Civil Engineering. He has experience as a documentary director (The Story of an Ending, 2016) and producer for film and TV. He has published in Africultures and presented at numerous international conferences.

Dr Hanna Klien-Thomas

Hanna Klien-Thomas is a lecturer in Media and Culture. Her research focuses on transcultural media practices including film, digital visuality and activism. Her PhD project at the University of Vienna on the reception of Hindi films in the Anglophone Caribbean was funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She has taught at Oxford Brookes University, University of Vienna and Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt. Previous publications include monographs on the gaze in contemporary Bollywood and the Cuban Hip Hop movement.

Laëtitia Kulyk

Laëtitia Kulyk is a researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has been Attachée for audiovisual cooperation and Director of the French-speaking film festival at the French Embassy in Greece from 2015 until 2019. She has also worked as a coordinator for the MEDIA program at Europa Cinemas, at the CNC and as a lecturer at the University Paris 3 in economics, law and sociology of cinema. Her Licentiate dissertation (University of Jyväskylä, 2006) focused on the questions of national identities, cooperation and film policies in the Nordic countries in the context of globalisation. Her publications include: "Film Nationality – the Relevance of this Concept in the Contemporary European Film Sector" in Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society (2020); "Vers une internationalisation des coproductions dans les Pays nordiques? Impact de l’Europe et évolution du secteur depuis les années 1990" in L’internationalisation des coproductions cinématographiques et audiovisuelles (2017); "The Use of English in European Feature Films: Unity in Diversity?" in The Europeanness of European Cinema. Identity, Globalisation, Meaning (2014).

Dr Peter Merrington

Dr. Peter Merrington focuses on place, region, and mobility in film and visual art. He works on the AHRC-funded ‘Beyond the Multiplex’ project and a University of Glasgow/Sydney collaborative ‘SmartPublics’ project. Previously, he was the Assistant Director of AV Festival.

Dr Dalila Missero

Dalila Missero is a Research Fellow at the School of Arts, at Oxford Brookes University, where she is working on a project on women’s media memories. She has received her PhD in Visual, Performing and Media Arts at the University of Bologna and has published essays on gender, sexuality and cinema in the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, Feminist Media Histories and The Italianist. In parallel with her new project, she is also completing her first monograph Italian Women and Cinema: The Making of a Feminist Film Culture for Edinburgh University Press.

Dr Maya Nedyalkova

Maya earned her BA in Film and Philosophy and MA in Film and Cultural Management and she explored selected transnational aspects of the Bulgarian film industry during her AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Southampton. Currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, she is investigating the shifting patterns of contemporary Bulgarian film consumption, positioned within global culture and economy.

Dr Margaret O’Brien

In 2018 I successfully completed a PhD supervised by Professor Ian Christie at Birkbeck, The rise of art cinema in postwar film culture: the exhibition, distribution and reception of foreign language films in Britain 1945-1968. I have published histories of audience and exhibition including a book published by the BFI in 1993, Enter the Dream-House: Memories of Cinemas in South London from the Twenties to the Sixties. I have published several articles on film exhibition including Fun to Run a Cinema, an interview with Peter Howden, Picturehouse 1994/5 and Bergmania: Art, Sex and London Cinema Picturehouse 2018/19. I taught Film History at the Open University until the course was discontinued in 2011. I continue to give occasional lectures on film exhibitions including at Birkbeck on the MA in Film Curating. I am currently working on a biography of the Everyman.

Dr Deniz Özalpman

Deniz Özalpman (PhD, University of Vienna, 2018) is member of Media Governance and Industries Research Lab, http://mediagovernance.univie.ac.at/team/oezalpman-deniz/. Her investigations explore the triangle formed by global media industries, television series and transnational audiences, with a particular interest on Turkish, European and Arabic local contexts.

Dr Melanie Selfe

Melanie Selfe is Lecturer in Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow and leader of the MSc in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy. She has published articles in Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television; Journal of British Cinema & Television; New Review of Film & Television Studies and Participations, and co-authored a book, Curating Cultural Enterprise: A Critical Analysis of a Creative Business Intermediary, with colleagues Philip Schlesinger and Ealasaid Munro. Her primary research interests include specialist film exhibition, film societies, cinephile audience cultures, film criticism and film marketing, which she explores in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Dr Roderik Smits

Dr. Roderik Smits is Research Fellow at Film University Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany), where he works on the research project ‘Diversifying Film Culture and Audience Consumption: Online Platforms in the Era of Content Abundance’. He is also a project member of the AHRC-funded research project Beyond the Multiplex. His research focuses on the changing nature of the screen industries and his monograph entitled Gatekeeping in the Evolving Business of Independent Film Distribution was published with Palgrave Macmillan in August 2019. His work has been published in journals such as Poetics, Studies in European Cinema, Cultural Trends, Arts and the Market and Journal of British Cinema and Television.

Dr Carmen Spanò

Carmen Spanò holds a PhD in Media, Film and Television from the University of Auckland (New Zealand). She graduated in Humanities at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (Italy). Her academic research interests lie in media representations, media convergence and de-convergence, audience research and media reception/consumption, trans-national and international production and distribution of media programs, cross- /trans-media storytelling. She has been appointed course coordinator for the English for Communication course at the Faculty of Humanities at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore for the semester February-July 2020. She also writes film and TV series reviews for the Italian sites Mediacritica, Leitmovie and Nocturno and she worked as content curator for the popular Italian movie magazine FilmTV.

Professor Daniela Treveri Gennari

Daniela Treveri Gennari is Professor of Cinema Studies at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She is author of several publications on film exhibition and audiences, and Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded European Cinema Audiences: Entangled Histories, Shared Memories project.

Dr Oswelled Ureke

Oswelled Ureke is a GES post-doctoral research fellow in the Communication Studies Department at University of Johannesburg. He holds a PhD in Cultural and Media Studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Centre for Communication Media and Society. Oswelled has published several articles in peer-reviewed, internationally accredited journals and has lectured in the Department of Media and Society Studies at Midlands State University, Zimbabwe in addition to previously working as a video producer and journalist. Oswelled’s research interests combine theoretical and practical aspects of screen media studies. He remains actively engaged in documentary video production in various technical capacities.

Dr Lies Van de Vijver

Lies Van de Vijver is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies/UGent. She has co-edited Mapping Movie Magazines and is working on a book on history of cinema culture in Ghent. She is project manager and Co-Investigator of the AHRC-funded European Cinema Audiences: Entangled Histories, Shared Memories project.

Professor Bridgette Wessels

Prof. Bridgette Wessels focuses on social change, media, and cultural participation. She is the Principal Investigator for the AHRC-funded ‘Beyond the Multiplex’ project, and has previously published on a broad range of topics, alongside serving on various advisory boards for the UK and EU governments - including the EU ICT–China programme.

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