Cine-Excess 15 CFP – Bodies as Bodies as Battlegrounds: Disruptive Sexualities in Cult Cinema 19th-24th October 2021

Participating Filmmakers: 

Pollyanna McIntosh (The Woman, The Walking Dead)

Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor, Antiviral)

Prano Bailey-Bond (Censor)

Keynote Speakers:

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Deakin University
(Author of 1000 Women in Horror)

Dr Alison Peirse
University of Leeds
(Editor of Women Make Horror)

Cine-Excess 15 runs from Tuesday ​19th-Sunday 24th October 2021​ as an online/streamed festival. The focus of this event is: ‘Bodies as Battlegrounds: Disruptive Sexualities in Cult Cinema’ and considers the extent to which the struggle for inclusive representation by various marginalised groups is enacted through cult film genres and their forms and technologies. Cine-Excess 15 features participating international filmmakers, a themed day academic conference and 16 film premieres and exclusive screenings.

For its 15th annual edition, Cine Excess enters a new decade of the twenty-first century and considers the diverse history and growing hybridity of cult cinema and its representations. The focus of this year’s conference theme: Bodies as Battlegrounds: Disruptive Sexualities in Cult Cinema, considers the extent to which the struggle for inclusive representation by various marginalised groups is enacted through a variety of classic and contemporary cult film genres and their forms and technologies.

Keynote Alexandra Heller-Nicholas has written eight books on cult, horror, and exploitation cinema with a focus on gender politics. Her seminal publications include 1000 women in horror (BearManor Media, 2020) which maps women’s contributions to horror from 1895-2018. She has also published Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study (McFarland, 2011), which will celebrate its 10-year anniversary at Cine-Excess. In her keynote address, Alexandra will explore the revision of her book which now includes a new chapter on women directed rape-revenge films. Here, Alexandra rejects the idea that women-led rape-revenge narratives are purely a post #MeToo phenomenon.

Keynote Alison Peirse also considers women’s contributions to the horror genre. Alison’s multi award-winning edited collection ‘Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre’ (Rutgers University Press, 2021) has been praised for transforming the discourse on women-led horror. Building on this timely work, Alison’s keynote address considers female shape shifters in cult and horror cinema, with a specific focus on the disruptive werewolf archetype.

Over the past 15 years Cine-Excess has developed a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome emerging and established and scholars, activists, film makers and community groups as participants to our annual event.