Contemporary Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Abstract

The discipline of film studies has, since the late 1960s and early 1970s, been a burgeoning academic and intellectual field of inquiry. This article seeks to provide a map of the local and international flows of Australian film theory and criticism. By tracing some key critical positions, personnel and institutions, it provides an account of the state of contemporary Australian film studies. The article falls into three parts. The first reflects upon the establishment of academic film studies in Australia, beginning with the 1970s and 1980s importation of screen theory. The second attends to a late 1980s and early 1990s recognition of the historical and cultural specificity of film (and television), and the associated turn to historical film studies. The third part looks at the institutionalisation of the discipline, to attend to some of the intellectual and pragmatic considerations shaping Australian film studies through the 1990s and beyond.