To nurture its active research culture and to fulfil its public engagement ethos, the Department of Film and Screen Media regularly organises events including major international conferences, scholarly symposia and workshops which are hosted in its state-of-the-art digital cinema. Its master classes with artists and professionals and its research seminar series with invited speakers run throughout the academic year and are open to staff, students and the general public.

These activities expose our researchers and students to a rich and stimulating environment, giving them access to a wealth of scholarly expertise and to diverse creative competences as well as a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary opportunities to share ideas and engage in debate. They also reach out to the broader public, seeking to create fruitful exchanges with communities beyond the academic world.

Our regular activity of organisation of high-profile public talks at UCC over the past twenty years has included guests such as: Oscar-winning cinematographer, Jack Cardiff; Oscar-nominated actress, Betsy Blair; Oscar-winning producer and Ireland’s Digital Champion, Lord David Puttnam; acclaimed directors such as Lenny Abrahamson, John Crowley, Catherine Owens, Gerard Stembridge, Carmel Winters, Margo Harkin, Joseph Morder, Marc Isaacs; Oscar-nominated composer Carl Davies; Oscar-nominated composer Maurice Seezer; award-winning composer Stephen Rennicks; award-winning cinematographer Ian Fox; and a host of industry professionals, from casting directors, to composers, to actors, film designers, cinematographers and editors.

Recent and forthcoming conferences and symposia:

Otherness, Identity, Individuality

A FOCUS and Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Symposium
Friday 10 November 2023 – Online
Organiser: FOCUS; Sandra Costello
Speakers: Tommaso Verga (University College Cork), Dr Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz (University College Dublin) and Dr Maria Rovisco (University of Leeds).
Website: https://www.ucc.ie/en/fmt/film/research/otherness/

Uncertainty: Ecological and Epistemological Challenges on Screen

A FOCUS and Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Symposium
Friday 21 October 2022 – Online
Organisers: FOCUS; Michael Holly; Sandra Costello
Speakers: Prof. Alenda Y. Chang, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Dr Paolo Saporito, Government of Ireland-IRC Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Film and Screen Media, University College Cork; Rachel Gough, Film and Screen Media PhD candidate at University College Cork.
Website: https://www.ucc.ie/en/fmt/film/research/focussymposium/

Exploring Cinema-going: Past and Present

Symposium of papers and screenings on the topic of cinema-going
University College Cork, 5 April 2019
Organisers: Gwenda Young and Daniel O'Connell
Keynotes by: Prof. Daniel Treveri Gennari (Oxford Brookes; PI on AHRC-funded project "Mapping European Cinema", and Coordinator of the HoMER Research Network (History of Moviegoing, Exhibition and Reception); : Dr Pierluigi Ercole (de Montfort U): "European Cinema Audiences"; and Jamie Terrill (Aberystwyth U) on "Cinema-going in rural Wales"

Mining Memories: New explorations in cinema, memory and the past

Syposium on New Explorations in Cinema, Memory and the Past
University College Cork, 22 November 2019
Organisers: Gwenda Young and Daniel O'Connell
Keynote by: Professor Annette Kuhn (Queen Mary College, London)

Multivoicedness in European Cinema: Representation, Industry, Politics

ECREA Film Studies Conference
University College Cork, 10–11 November 2017
Organisers: Laura Rascaroli (University College Cork), Sergio Villanueva Baselga (Universitat de Barcelona), Anders Marklund (Lund), Gertjan Willems (University of Antwerp)
Website: https://ecreafilmstudies2017.wordpress.com

#CinemaIsDead: New Ways of Showing, Watching and Telling 

3^rd International Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Conference
University College Cork, 18–19 May 2017

 Deviate! 

2^nd International Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Conference
University College Cork, 4–6 September 2014
Website: https://alphavilleconference.wordpress.com

 Animation at the Cutting Edge: An Alphaville Symposium

University College Cork, 15 February 2014
Organisers: Prof. Laura Rascaroli (University College Cork) and Dr Yuanyuan Chen (Ulster)
Website: https://animationcuttingedge.wordpress.com

 New Cinemas, Changing Audiences 

Funded by: IRCHSS ‘New Ideas’
Organisers: Prof. Laura Rascaroli (University College Cork) and Dr Pierluigi Ercole (De Montfort)
University College Cork, 10 March 2012
Website: https://newcinemaschangingaudiences.wordpress.com

 Michelangelo Antonioni Centenary Workshop. 

Funded by: IRCHSS ‘New Ideas’
Organiser: Prof. Laura Rascaroli (University College Cork)
University College Cork, 24 January 2012

 Cinema in the Interstices

The Alphaville Inaugural Conference
University College Cork, 7–9 September 2012
Website: https://alphavilleconference.wordpress.com/conference-2012

 Reframing Cinema Histories

A one-day symposium
Organisers: Dr Gwenda Young (University College Cork) and Dr Pierluigi Ercole (De Montfort)
University College Cork, 22nd March 2013
Website: https://reframingcinemahistories.wordpress.com

 Space and Time in Film

Irish Postgraduate Film Research Seminar 2011
University College Cork, 29–30 March 2011

 Saving Private Reels: An International Conference on the Presentation, Appropriation and Re-contextualisation of the Amateur Moving Image

Funded by: IRCHSS
Organisers: Dr Barry Monahan, Prof. Laura Rascaroli, Dr Gwenda Young (University College Cork)
University College Cork, 17–19 September 2010

 Transnational, Transcultural, Transmedial: European Cinema Today

An International Graduate Film Studies Conference
University College Cork, 14–15 May 2010

 Image, Identity and Culture in Narrative and Documentary Cinema

A Postgraduate Film Studies Symposium
University College Cork, 30–31 March 2007

 Greta Garbo Centenary Conference, 

Irish Film Institute, Dublin, 16–17 September 2005
Organiser: Dr Gwenda Young (University College Cork), in association with UCC and Huston School of Film & Digital Media, NUIG

 Film Musicals: From the Classical Era to Postmodern Cinema, 

Organisers: Dr Christopher Morris, Prof. Laura Rascaroli and Dr Gwenda Young (University College Cork)
University College Cork, 19–20 September 2003