Professor Tim Bergfelder is Professor of Film at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on historical developments in European cinema, and on transnational connections in world cinema.
After studying English Literature, Journalism, and History in Berlin, and working as a film critic in Germany, I came to the UK in the 1980s to do a Masters degree and subsequently a PhD in Film at the University of East Anglia, before taking up a post at Southampton. My research is recognized internationally, evidenced by regular invitations as a keynote speaker at conferences, and through talks and events in Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Europe. I have appeared in and advised on television and film documentaries, radio, exhibitions, and film retrospectives.
My publications focus on various aspects of European and international cinema. Since 2005 I have been an editor for the book series ‘Film Europa' for Berghahn Publishers. Since 2010 I am on the editorial board of Screen, one of the most prestigious journals in the field. I am an editorial advisor on Transnational Cinemas and Cinema&Cie.
I have been a founding member of NECS (Network of European Film and Media Studies) and BAFTSS (British Association of Film and Television Studies), and am a member of MeCCSA (Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Association), and the German GfM (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften). I have been a peer reviewer for a variety of institutions, and a subpanel member on REF2014 and REF2021.
Between 2004 and 2007 I coordinated a research project on German-speaking émigrés and British Cinema, funded by the AHRC. In 2007, the British Academy funded two workshops on stardom and intertextuality in Brazilian cinema. in 2012 I hosted a delegation of scholars from eleven countries for a workshop on transnational film histories, funded by the ESF. Since 2019 I have been participating in a collaborative five-year ERC project (led by the University of Bristol), called Film Studios: Infrastructure, Culture, Innovation in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-60.
