Dissemination
IV International Colloquium “Cinemas of the Mediterranean” will take place on April 17
The IV International Colloquium “Cinemas of the Mediterranean” will take place on April 17, bringing together researchers and specialists to debate new perspectives on the study of cinema in Mediterranean Europe. Organized by the Film Studies Working Group of CIAC – Centro de Investigação em Artes e Comunicação, the meeting will highlight the renewal of approaches to film studies, articulating historical, methodological, and interdisciplinary perspectives.
The program will address topics such as film exhibition and reception, censorship, audiovisual heritage, and intermedial practices, reflecting the conceptual diversity of the field. The presentations will converge on the analysis of the materialities of cinema, sociocultural contexts, and aesthetic and technological transformations, reaffirming cinema as a central object for understanding cultural processes in constant change.
Among the highlights will be keynote lectures by Daniel Biltereyst, professor at Ghent University and one of the central figures of New Cinema History, and by the lawyer Ágatha Bulha. Biltereyst will reflect on new directions in film history, advocating multiscalar and polycentric approaches that integrate diverse methods and sources to better understand the social embeddedness of cinema. Ágatha Bulha will address the challenges that artificial intelligence poses to creativity and copyright in the film sector, discussing the legal implications of the use of generative technologies in audiovisual production.
The event will also feature presentations by invited researchers exploring a range of topics, from early twentieth-century cinema posters to the presence and censorship of Alain Delon in Portugal between 1968 and 1974, as well as the representation of identity in Mediterranean cinema and the aesthetics of the films of Dario Argento. Other contributions will analyze transnational issues in film editing, as well as the role of music in representing cultural conflicts in contemporary comedies.
In the panel dedicated to Film History: Images, Materialities and Heritage, discussions will focus on the preservation and study of cinematic heritage, including the rehabilitation of modern cinema theaters in Porto, the use of audiovisual digital objects as research sources, and the challenges involved in preserving materials related to Iberian silent cinema.
The program will also include a film screening featuring Mediterraneo (1991) by Gabriele Salvatores, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The event is organized by the CIAC – Centro de Investigação em Artes e Comunicação, coordinated by Bruno Mendes da Silva and Mirian Tavares, and involves a broad scientific, organizational, and communications team bringing together researchers from several institutions. The colloquium aims to strengthen its role as a space for reflection and exchange on Mediterranean cinema and on new methodologies for analyzing moving images.
For more information, visit:
https://ciac.pt/evento/iv-coloquio-cinemas-do-mediterraneo-o-cinema-da-europa-mediterranea-novas-perspectivas-para-o-seculo-xxi/
This conference is financed by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the framework of projects «UID/04019/2025 – CIAC» DOI: 10.54499/UID/04019/2025 and «UID/PRR/04019/2025» DOI: 10.54499/UID/PRR/04019/2025
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)