What is a “21st-century film”? How can we recognize the identity of cinema after 2000? How much has the image on the big screen changed in the new millennium?
These are questions that have been widely debated in recent years, marked by a crisis in movie theaters and by an overabundance of media stimuli that seem to besiege and confuse the imagination of the Seventh Art. This volume, however, seeks to challenge the commonplaces surrounding the supposed decline of the cinematic experience, offering instead an extensive map of titles and auteurs who have reshaped cinematic storytelling and forms over the past 25 years. What emerges is a broad and multifaceted universe that responds to the social and geopolitical issues of the present by creating new cultural configurations—more fragmented than in the past, yet no less compelling for today’s audiences.
Roy Menarini teaches Cinema and Cultural Industries at the University of Bologna. He has published numerous essays on contemporary cinema and on topics such as film criticism, cinephilia, and the Hollywood imaginary. He is a senior editor of the journal Cinergie and directs the website Cinefilia Ritrovata. He contributes to several national and international research groups, including INC – International Research Network on Celebrity Culture and CFC (Culture, Fashion, Communication). He collaborates with Film Tv and is a consultant for the Cineteca di Bologna as well as for other institutions and associations. He directs film and audiovisual education programs for schools. He is also a film critic, essayist, and lecturer.
Beatrice Fiorentino
Since 2020, Beatrice Fiorentino has been the Artistic Director and General Delegate of the International Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival, of which she has been a member since 2015 as part of the selection committee.
She is a freelance journalist and film critic and teaches
Theories and Techniques of Audiovisual Media as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Trieste. In 2014, she received the Akai International Film Fest Awardfor Best Film Critic during the 71st Venice International Film Festival. She collaborates with other festivals and has served on numerous international juries. She is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA), the International Cinéphile Society (ICS), and the Italian Film Academy – David di Donatello Awards.. In 2023, her book New History of Cinema: From the Origins to the Future was published. .
