We’re leading a €1m project to uncover this mystery, as well as examining many more secrets behind successful European drama and film.
Three-year project
Professor Andrew Higson, an expert in national and transnational cinema at our School of Arts and Creative Technologies, will lead the three-year Mediating Cultural Encounters through European Screens (MeCETES) project.
The study aims to discover which European films and television dramas travel well within Europe, how they represent other European nations, cultures and identities, and how audiences engage with such screen fictions.
It will combine a broad analysis of contemporary trends in European film and television production, distribution, reception and policy, together with in-depth case studies of particular dramas produced between 2005 and 2015, including films such as The King’s Speech and In Bruges.
The popularity of dramas such as Denmark's Forbrydelsen (The Killing) will also be explored as part of the study.
As well as overseeing the project as a whole, Professor Andrew Higson will lead a team at our University in researching contemporary European cinema. Other members of the York team include: Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr Huw D Jones, academic advisors Professor Duncan Petrie and Dr Hannah Andrews, Project Administrator Denise Mitchell and PhD research student Roderik Smits, whose work focuses on the distribution of crossover films in Europe.
European team
The project will also involve Professor Ib Bondebjerg (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Professor Caroline Pauwels (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium), and is funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA).
The team at the University of Copenhagen will investigate contemporary European television drama, while a the team at Vrije Universiteit Brussels will focus on European audio-visual policy and issues to do with digital distribution.
Professor Higson said: “The project comes at a time when the creative industries in Europe have gained significant cultural and economic importance. It will draw on the expertise of an Advisory Board involving academics from across Europe and partners from industry, funding bodies and policy institutions at both a national and European level.”
The three teams, who will meet regularly over the next three years, are planning to produce a series of research outputs, including three jointly-authored books, a set of policy briefings and several journal and conference papers, with the aim of influencing debates about the media in Europe.
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