[ecrea] CFP: Contemporary Directors Symposium on Sofia Coppola

  Contemporary Directors Symposium: Sofia Coppola


  16^th May 2018, School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex

Keynote speakers: *Fiona Handyside* (University of Exeter), author of 
/Sofia Coppola: A Cinema of Girlhood /(IB Tauris, 2017); *Anna Backman 
Roger*s (University of Gothenburg), author of /Sofia Coppola: The 
Politics of Visual Pleasure /(Berghahn, forthcoming 2018)

https://sussexcds.wordpress.com/

The films of director, writer and producer Sofia Coppola have enjoyed 
critical and commercial success, with 2017 seeing her receive the Best 
Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for /The Beguiled. /Only the 
second woman to win the award, and, in 2004, the first American woman to 
be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director (for /Lost in 
Translation)/ Coppola is one of the most significant directors working 
today. Her six feature films, from /The Virgin Suicides /(1999) to /The 
Beguiled /(2017) have established her as an important and distinctive 
voice in contemporary cinema. Exploring key themes such as adolescence, 
celebrity, fashion, and travel, her films have returned repeatedly to 
young female protagonists, bringing questions of femininity, girlhood, 
and (post)feminism to the fore. Working with key collaborators such as 
Harris Savides and Brian Reitzell, Coppola has also established a 
distinctive and influential audiovisual aesthetic, from cinematography, 
costume, and production design to carefully curated soundtracks. Poised 
between mainstream and indie, Hollywood celebrity and international art 
film ‘auteur’, Coppola occupies a unique place, both creatively and 
industrially, in the global film business. And as director of music 
videos for bands such as /Air/, /The White Stripes/, and /Phoenix/, and 
high-profile advertising campaigns for Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and 
Gap, her influence extends beyond her feature film output into popular 
culture more generally.

This one-day symposium seeks to bring together scholars working on 
Coppola’s films from a variety of perspectives. We are open to proposals 
on all aspects of Sofia Coppola’s work.

Please send proposals for 20-minute papers to the organizers Dr Frances 
Smith (frances.smith /at/ sussex.ac.uk) <mailto:(frances.smith /at/ sussex.ac.uk)>and 
Dr Lawrence Webb (l.webb /at/ sussex.ac.uk) <mailto:(l.webb /at/ sussex.ac.uk)>by 
28^th February 2018. Proposals should include a title, a 250-word 
abstract and a brief biography.

Potential subjects to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

•Questions of female authorship

•Coppola’s authorial persona and ‘brand’

•The construction of girlhood and femininity in Coppola’s work

•The aesthetic style of Coppola’s work

•Coppola and ‘indie’ cinema

•Topics of class, race, sexuality, or gender across Coppola’s films

•Analyses of individual star performances in her films, such as Kirsten 
Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, or Emma Watson

•Questions of the transnational in Coppola’s work

•Coppola as an example of Hollywood dynasty

•Coppola and postfeminism

•Coppola and whiteness

•Coppola and adaptation

•Coppola and fashion

•The use of music in Coppola’s work

•Coppola and her creative collaborators

•Production design in Coppola’s work

•Space, place and landscape in Coppola’s work

•Coppola’s work in music videos and advertising

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