Report: BAFTSS ’23 – Lincoln

Steven Roberts (University of Bristol)

Scholars gathered at the 11th annual BAFTSS conference which was hosted by the University of Lincoln, nestled beneath the gleaming cathedral towers captured on my phone upon arrival in the city, above. Other than the good British weather, I was impressed by the sheer range of papers on British cinema and television in response to the theme: ‘sustainable futures’.

Proceedings began on Monday 3 April, which included our SIG’s panel. Instead of the usual format of three to four papers, we were treated to one detailed case study from educators Simon Harvey and Kingsley Marshall on ‘developing working principles for crewing feature film production with higher education students’. Simon and Kingsley demonstrated they’re in the business of storytelling through an engaging account of Falmouth University’s productive Sound/Image Cinema Lab (Enys Men, Long Way Back) and the conversation that ensued. Far from the ephemeral proclamations of bygone film manifestoes, the focus was on creative principles that are sustainable and support students into their future employment. Chairing duties were undertaken by Chris Nunn.

There were panels with concentrated research in the BC&TV camp, such as ‘British TV’ and ‘Histories’ (both Tuesday). Some other personal highlights across the three days include: Richard Farmer on the public hiring of bridal outfits seen onscreen, Rosemary Alexander-Jones on the wear and care of British heritage properties on film, Sarah Street’s VR applications for Denham studio’s history, and MaoHui Deng’s evaluation of dementia-friendly screenings in the UK. Pedagogy in UK film and television departments was also well represented, from a lively panel on ECR pathways into academia (where I presented some thoughts on getting my first post) to video essay approaches.

In the awards section, the Best Monograph category always feels like a big moment and James Chapman’s The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985 was the runner-up. Toby Huelin’s (2022) journal article on sound in the British series Travel Man won the best essay by a doctoral student award. Meanwhile, the 2023 practice awards saw the introduction of an extra ‘mention’, so as well as honourable inclusion of Jimmy Hay’s film Nothing Echoes Here, there was a ‘special mention’ for Martin Hall’s Cost of Living (in the UK).

Finally, a special mention of my own to Wednesday’s roundtable on ‘Cultures of Care: Changing Media Practice’ with Susan Berridge, Shweta Ghosh, Mette Hjort, Tanya Horeck and Leshu Torchin. While necessarily covering more than the British context, critical discussion led the Q&A to overspill with useful insights – it summarised the urgency of the conference theme.

Let’s see what next year holds.