What is ‘Art’ Cinema?

Dear Colleagues,

In 1979, David Bordwell famously defined art cinema as a mode of practice, arguing that it was not only a distinct mode of film practice, whose lineage could be traced back to early film d’art, but that it consists of a distinct set of conventions and viewing imperatives. Further art cinema is inseparable to the cinema of the auteur, as espoused by Cahiers du Cinéma in the late 1950s onwards, motivated by, as Bordwell contends, realism and authorial expressivity (1979, p. 57). In the contemporary era of streaming, marked by accessibility to global cinema, is it still possible to maintain such distinct boundaries between art and mainstream cinema, given that in recent years foreign language films are often situated as art cinema even when they are exhibited and consumed as mainstream cinema in their country of origin? It seems that subtitles are enough to categorise a film as ‘art’, as can also be seen in the regulatory body of the BBFC in the UK, where censorship is practiced in relation to the so-called intrinsic worth of a film. Indeed, it could be argued that the categorisation of art cinema is closely connected to the space in which it is exhibited, rather than an innate quality of the film, closely aligned to marketing practices. This Special Issue invites scholars to submit papers that engage with, interrogate, or reinterpret the relationship between art as a signifier of value and cinema, particularly in relation to global cinemas. We particularly encourage papers from scholars of the Global South as underrepresented voices in this ongoing debate.

Dr. Colette Balmain
Dr. Katarzyna Ancuta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• film studies
• art cinema and the auteur
• independent and experimental cinema
• the blockbuster versus the contemplative
• economies of value
• aesthetics and the image
• global cinema
• slow cinema