BFI Film Classics: A New Era

Hosted by journalist and film critic Pamela Hutchinson, and featuring contributions from the authors of the three new titles in the series, this event will celebrate the relaunch of the BFI Film Classics earlier this year, alongside a new wave of titles publishing this Autumn.

Stacey Abbott, author of Near Dark, Manishita Dass, author of The Cloud-Capped Star – Meghe Dhaka Tara and Rebecca Harrison, author of The Empire Strikes Back will give short readings from their books and debate the idea of a ‘film classic’ and the knotty question of the canon.

Symbolic of a moment in cinema history, innovation in style or form, or a blockbuster at the box office? What defines a classic film and who ultimately decides? Join us as we discuss this and more.

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Tuesday, November 17th from 6:00pm – 7:00pm (London time)

45 mins conversation, followed by 15mins of live Q&A.

Send any questions to mollie.broad@bloomsbury.com

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Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer and film critic who blogs about silent cinema at SilentLondon.co.uk as well as contributing regularly to Sight & Sound and the Guardian. She is the author of the BFI Film Classic Pandora’s Box.

Stacey Abbott is Reader in Film and Television Studies at University of Roehampton London, UK. Her most recent publications include: Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century (2016), TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen (I.B. Tauris, 2013), co-written with Lorna Jowett, and Supernatural: TV Goes to Hell (2011), co-edited with David Lavery from Middle Tennessee State University.

Manishita Dass is Reader (Film & Global Media) in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. She is the author of Outside the Lettered City: Cinema, Modernity, and the Public Sphere in Late Colonial India (2016) and has contributed articles on Ghatak’s films to Screenjournal and to Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories, ed. Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover (2010).

Rebecca Harrison is an academic, film critic and broadcaster based in Scotland.

Order any of the October BFI Film Classics on Bloomsbury.com today and save 20% off with the code BFIFC20.

“An indispensable part of every cineaste’s bookcase” – Total Film

“Possibly the most bountiful book series in the history of film criticism.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Film Comment

“Magnificently concentrated examples of flowing freeform critical poetry.” – Uncut

“The series is a landmark in film criticism.” – Quarterly Review of Film and Video

“A formidable body of work collectively generating some fascinating insights into the evolution of cinema.” – Times Higher Education

The BFI Film Classics series introduces, interprets and celebrates landmarks of world cinema. Each volume offers an argument for the film’s ‘classic’ status, together with discussion of its production and reception history, its place within a genre or national cinema, an account of its technical and aesthetic importance, and in many cases, the author’s personal response to the film.

BFI Film Classics titles are also available as a BFI Film Classics Collection on the Bloomsbury digital platform, Screen Studies. The collection is available to purchase as an individual collection via yearly subscription, or perpetual access.