Workshop: “Global Hollywood: Histories, Markets, and Audiences”

From June 20-21, 2024, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group will host an in-person workshop on “Global Hollywood: Histories, Markets, and Audiences.” It will take place at Leibniz University Hannover (Schlosswender Str. 1, Room 307, 3rd floor). The workshop will be organized around different thematic sessions, each followed by a roundtable discussion with the respective speakers. It will end with a video essay screening.

“Global Hollywood” is a productive term to enter debates about the cultural, political, and economic dominance of Hollywood cinema around the world. This workshop brings together international scholars and practitioners to examine global audiences and markets from distinct national, historical, and industrial perspectives.

The line-up of speakers includes Joseph Garncarz (University of Cologne), Maya Nedyalkova (Oxford Brookes University), Meg Thomson (Globalgate Entertainment), Christopher Meir (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), José Carlos Lozano (Texas A&M International University), Ana Rosas Mantecón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana), Yongchun Fu (Zhejiang University), Yafei Lyu (Capital University of Economics and Business), Wendy Su (UC Riverside), Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich & University of Göttingen), Peter Krämer (De Montfort University) as well as the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research team members, Kathleen Loock, along with the PhD students, Stefan Dierkes, Alejandra Bulla, Yining Zhang.

The workshop is open to the public. You can sign up for it at: hollywood@uni-hannover.de.

Workshop Program

Thursday, 20 June 2024

14:00–14:15        Introduction

Kathleen Loock, “Global Hollywood: Histories, Markets, Audiences”

14:15–15:30        Session 1: Hollywood Memories in a Global Context

Stefan Dierkes (Leibniz University Hannover), “Multigenerational Childhood Memories of Hollywood in Germany”

Yining Zhang (Leibniz University Hannover), “Remaking Hollywood, Remaking Movie Generations: Memories of Chinese Audiences from the Post-1970 and Post-1990 Generations”

Alejandra Bulla (Leibniz University Hannover), “All Roads Lead to Hollywood: Negotiations of Belonging among Mexican Audiences”

15:30–15:45        Coffee Break

15:45–16:30        Roundtable Discussion 1

Moderator: Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich & University of Göttingen)

Kathleen Loock, Stefan Dierkes, Yining Zhang, and Alejandra Bulla

16:30–16:45        Coffee Break

16:45–18:00        Session 2: Global Hollywood in Germany and Europe

Joseph Garncarz (University of Cologne), “Hollywood Goes Global: Changing Audience Preferences in Europe on Both Sides of the Iron Curtain, 1950-1990”

Peter Krämer (De Monfort University), “Hollywood and (the End of) the World: Hit Patterns at the Global Box Office Since the 1970s”

Maya Nedyalkova (Oxford Brookes University), “By Comparison or Negation? Identity Articulations and Aspirations in Bulgarian Post-Communist Audiences’ Reactions to National and Hollywood Film Productions”

18:00–18:15        Break

18:15–19:00        Roundtable Discussion 2

Moderator: Stefan Dierkes

Joseph Garncarz, Peter Krämer, Maya Nedyalkova

19:30                  Reception

 

Friday, 21 June 2024

9:15–10:15          Session 3: Global Film Industries

Christopher Meir (Charles III University of Madrid), “Hollywood Memories in the Streaming Era: Nostalgia, IP and Amazon’s Acquisition of MGM”

Meg Thomson (Globalgate Entertainment), “Perfect Strangers, the Rise of Local-Language Cinema, and New Remakes for an International Audience”

10:15–10:30        Coffee Break

10:30–11:15         Roundtable Discussion 3

Moderator: Kathleen Loock

Meg Thomson, Christopher Meir

11:15–11:30          Coffee Break

11:30–12:30         Session 4: Mexico and Global Hollywood

José Carlos Lozano (Texas A&M International University), “Naïve and Sophisticated Long-Term Readings of Foreign and National Films Viewed in a Texas Border Town During the 1940-60s”

Ana Rosas Mantecón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana), “Hitchcock’s Audiences in Mexico: From Theaters to Literature”

12:30–14:00         Lunch

14:00–14:45         Roundtable Discussion 4

Moderator: Alejandra Bulla

José Carlos Lozano, Ana Rosas Mantecón

14:45–15:00         Coffee Break

15:00–16:15          Session 5: China and Global Hollywood

Yongchun Fu (NingboTech University), “The Dream Factory at Dusk: An Empirical Study on United Artists’ Business in China, 1935-37”

Yafei Lyu (Capital University of Economics and Business), “New Phenomenon in the Chinese Film Market: Hollywood Blockbusters’ Waning Appeal for Chinese Audiences”

Wendy Su (University of California, Riverside), “Chinese Audiences’ Changing Attitudes toward Hollywood Films in a Post-Pandemic Era”

16:15–16:30         Coffee Break

16:30–17:15         Roundtable Discussion 5

Moderator: Yining Zhang

Yongchun Fu, Yafei Lyu, Wendy Su

17:15–17:30         Concluding Discussion

17:30–17:45         Break

17:45–19:00        Video Essay Screening: Remakes & Memory

19:30                  Dinner

Workshop Participants

Alejandra Bulla is currently pursuing her PhD at the English Department of Leibniz Universität Hannover. She is a member of the Emmy Noether research group “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations,” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), where she focuses on Mexican audiences. She has a Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Erlangen, Germany, and a bachelor’s degree as English teacher from the Universidad Francisco José de Caldas in Bogota, Colombia.

Stefan Dierkes is an American Studies PhD student at Leibniz University Hannover. He is part of the Emmy Noether research group “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations,” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). His dissertation looks at Hollywood’s remaking culture and its impact on German audiences, combining empirical methods, historical research, and film analysis.

Yongchun Fu is associate professor at NingboTech University, China. Dr. Fu graduated from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests include early Chinese cinema, the relationship between Hollywood and China, and film industry. His monography The Early Transnational Chinese Cinema Industry (Routledge, 2019) is the winner of the inaugural 2021 New Zealand Asia Society Book Award, second prize.

Joseph Garncarz is a professor at the Institute for Media Culture and Theatre at the University of Cologne. In addition to books such as Maßlose Unterhaltung: Zur Etablierung des Films in Deutschland 1896-1914 [Excessive entertainment: The establishment of film in Germany 1896-1914] (2010; Willy Haas Prize 2011), Hollywood in Deutschland: Zur Internationalisierung der Kinokultur, 1925-1990 [Hollywood in Germany: The Internationalisation of Cinema Culture, 1925-1990] (2013), Wechselnde Vorlieben: Über die Filmpräferenzen der Europäer, 1896-1939 [Changing preferences: On the film preferences of Europeans, 1896-1939] (2015) and Begeisterte Zuschauer: Die Macht des Kinopublikums in der NS-Diktatur [Enthusiastic Spectators: The Power of the Cinema Audience in the Nazi Dictatorship] (2021), he has published numerous articles, particularly on German and European film and cinema history.

Christine Hämmerling is an Associate Research Fellow in Popular Culture Studies at the University of Zurich and currently teaches at the University of Göttingen in preparation for her position at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology at the University of Göttingen (starting September 2024). She is currently working on performances of trust and authenticity in times of professionalisation and digitalisation (regarding professionalised protest, NGO fundraising, social media influencers and re‐professionalisation after a period of unhousing). She has also published on knowledge media (2020), ego documents (2018), the reception of popular media (Tatort, 2016) and leisure in advertising (2012).

Peter Krämer is a Senior Research Fellow in Cinema & TV in the Leicester Media School at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK). He also is a Senior Fellow in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) and a regular guest lecturer at several other universities in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. He is the author or editor of twelve academic books and has published over ninety essays in academic journals and edited collections. Most of his work focuses on the history of Hollywood cinema from the beginnings to the present, especially on Hollywood’s global dimensions.

Kathleen Loock is Professor of American Studies and Media Studies at Leibniz University Hannover and director of the Emmy Noether research group “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations,” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). She has published on remakes, sequels, reboots, and the nostalgia franchise as well as on TV series revivals, and written, edited, or co-edited six books and special issues on these topics, most recently Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture (University of California Press, 2024).

José Carlos Lozano is a professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Psychology and Communication at Texas A&M International University (Laredo, Texas). He got his M.A. in Communication Research from Leicester University, England and his Ph.D. in International Communication and Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He studies media and communication in the U.S.-Mexico border as well as Mexican and Latin American media. He is Co-Principal investigator and coordinator of an international research project comparing the historical exhibition and reception of films and cinema going in seven Mexican cities and cities in three other Latin American countries. His research lines are: a) Social history of cinema in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican border; b) Media and culture along the U.S.-Mexico border; and c) Audiovisual Latin American media flows.

Yafei Lyu is a lecturer at the School of Foreign Studies of the Capital University of Economics and Business in China. She received her PhD degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Canterbury, and her master degree in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics of Foreign Languages from Beijing Language and Culture University. Her research interests include Chinese film system and industry, relations between Chinese film market and Hollywood, translation and communication, and cross-cultural communication.

Christopher Meir is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has published widely on industrial issues in film and television history, including two monographs (Scottish Cinema: Texts and Contexts and Mass Producing European Cinema: Studiocanal and Its Works), and two co-edited collections (Beyond the Bottom Line: The Producer in Film and Television Studies and European Cinema in the Streaming Era: Policy, Platforms, and Production) as well as numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on similar themes. He has also acted as consultant on industrial issues for European policy bodies such as the European Commission and Eurimages.

Maya Nedyalkova is a Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, interested in popular culture and film/media audiences. She explored aspects of the transnational Bulgarian film industry during her AHRC-funded PhD and contemporary Bulgarian film consumption for her British Academy fellowship. She co-edited two themed sections, titled “International Film Audiences,” for Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies and has published in journals (Open Screens and Studies in Eastern European Cinema) and published in edited volumes (The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative New Cinema Histories, Routledge Companion to European Cinema, Popular Music and the Moving Image in Eastern Europe, and Transformation Processes in Post-socialist Screen Media).

Ana Rosas Mantecón holds a PhD in Anthropology and is a professor and researcher in the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana’s Department of Anthropology, Mexico. She specializes in cinema, museum and heritage audiences, as well as cultural access policy. She has promoted the dialogue between theory and practice in cultural management through the participation in different international, national and regional programs dedicated to the professionalization of cultural mediators, applied research and audience development.

Wendy Su is an Associate Professor of the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California Riverside. Her research falls along the intersections of global communication, Chinese media studies, and cultural studies. She is the author of China’s Encounter with Global Hollywood: Cultural Policy and the Film Industry, 1994-2013 (University Press of Kentucky, 2016), and co-editor of Asia-Pacific Film Co-productions: Theory, Industry and Aesthetics (Routledge, 2019). She has published in a number of high-ranking academic journals, and was a winner of the 2014 William L. Holland Prize for the best article granted by Pacific Affairs. She sits on the editorial board of Global Media and China, and serves as a manuscript reviewer for many academic journals and two publishers, Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan.

Meg Thomson is currently EVP of Worldwide Content for Globalgate Entertainment, a consortium of companies including Lionsgate, Rai Cinema, Nordisk, TF1/Newen, Lotte, Tobis, Rakuten, Televisa, and other international companies, who collaborate to create commercial local-language films – many of them remakes. Prior to joining Globalgate, Meg was Managing Director of Eccho Remakes. As a producer, Meg recently completed Freud’s Last Session (2023) starring Anthony Hopkins.

Yining Zhang is an American Studies PhD student at Leibniz University Hannover. She is a member of the Emmy Noether research group “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations,” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). She has a bachelor’s degree in English and Master’s degree in English language and literature from Nanjing University, China.

Register now to participate in the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project!

You want to be part of the project and share your memories of Hollywood movies with us? Then register here to participate. We will let you know when the questionnaire is launched on our digital research platform.

Leave this field blank