[Commlist] CFP Work and Play conference 17-18 July 2024

Conference call for papers


WORK AND PLAY: STUDYING THE LABOUR OF AND AROUND ACTING IN CONTEMPORARY 
EUROPEAN CINEMA


Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e del Patrimonio Culturale

Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy, 17-18 July 2024


Scholarship addressing actors and actresses has traditionally focused on 
theories and issues of stardom. The centrality of the star as a 
prominent signifier in film texts, as well as a major asset in the 
production and commercialisation of film products, has been variously 
and fruitfully investigated by star and celebrity studies. Stars’ 
performances and personas have been analysed as the epitome of their 
actual or perceived national identities, as the expression of their 
coeval cultural and political context, as well as marketing mainstays 
for their respective national film industries (e.g., Gundle 1995; 
Leahy 2003; Reich 2004; Spicer 2022). Less explored has instead been the 
labour of and around acting. This conference, which originates from the 
research project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and 
Research titled F-ACTOR. Forms of Contemporary Media Professional 
Acting. Training, Recruitment and Management, Social Discourses in Italy 
(2000-2020), therefore wishes to study labour issues in connection not 
just to stardom, but to screen acting in Europe. In the Old Continent, 
the ‘fluidity of identities’ (Bergfelder 2005: 329) that characterises 
the region from a cultural and geo-political standpoint is echoed in the 
transnationality of many film actors, such as the French Juliette 
Binoche (Vincendeau 2015), the Italian Ksenia Rappoport (Faleschini 
Lerner 2012), or the Spanish Daniel Brühl (Vidal 2016). Transnationality 
is regarded as one the distinctive features of Europe’s predominant mode 
of film production (Jäckel 2003), as it relies to a great extent on 
international co-productions, funded through bi- and multi-lateral 
agreements, supranational schemes like Creative Europe and Eurimages, as 
well as dedicated film festivals’ initiatives (Iordanova 2015). How does 
the relationship between film actors, (trans)national identity, policy 
framework, and production system play out in labour practices and 
individual decision-making within Europe? If, as Richard Dyer (1986) 
observes quoting Marx, the star image is an example of ‘“congealed 
labour”, something that is used with further labour (scripting, acting, 
directing, managing, filming, editing) to produce another commodity, a 
film, what are the material and symbolic conditions in which such labour 
is performed, and by whom? How is the labour of and around screen acting 
performed within the framework of European cinema produced over the last 
two decades? How are digital technologies impacting on acting and 
acting-related practices and labour within Europe? What part, if any, 
does transnationality play in shaping the values and practices of actors 
and non-acting professionals in European film industries? This 
conference aims to explore the multiple forms of labour that constitute, 
inform, and surround contemporary screen acting. In this sense, we are 
not only interested in the labour of contemporary European screen 
actors, and how it intersects with individual traits such as gender and 
age. We also wish to examine the varied forms of labour that prepare, 
accompany, manage, circulate, manipulate, consume, and evaluate the 
screen actor’s performance against the backdrop of an increasingly 
globalized and corporatized European film industry.


The conference invites proposals for presentations that explore 
symbolic, social, organizational, economic and/or juridical dimensions 
of labour performed by and around screen actors in the context of 
contemporary European film industries (ca 2000-present time). The list 
of possible topics includes, but is not limited to:

  *

    The labour of acting across national and trans-national production
    cultures;

  *

    Intersectional approaches to screen acting;

  *

    Actors and promotional labour: (self-)branding, transmedia persona,
    digital intimacy;

  *

    Actors and the law: labour rights, welfare, contracts;

  *

    Labour organizations, unions, and industry associations;

  *

    The labour around acting: coaches, casting directors, talent agents,
    PR professionals;

  *

    Training actors: schools and institutions, professions, methods;

  *

    Making up actors: make-up and hairstyling artists, fashion stylists,
    image consultants;

  *

    Voice acting: dubbing professions, cultures and practices across 
Europe;

  *

    Acting and digital technologies;

  *

    Acting and film criticism;

  *

    Actors and the economy of prestige: Festivals, awards, accolades;

  *

    Actors and fandom.


We invite proposals for individual papers and pre-constituted panels. 
All proposals should be written in English. Abstracts for 20-minutes 
individual papers should be of 300 words (max). Panel proposals should 
include a 300-word (max) description of the panel, including a title, 
plus a 200-word (max) description of each individual paper (min 3, max 4 
papers of 20 minutes each per panel). All proposals should include also 
a 100-word bio of the presenter(s), 5 keywords descriptive of the 
proposal, and 3 to 5 key bibliographic references.

The conference will be held in-person.

Participation in the conference is free, no fee required.

Further details about the conference programme and keynote speakers will 
follow.

For more information and resources about F-ACTOR. Forms of Contemporary 
Media Professional Acting. Training, Recruitment and Management, Social 
Discourses in Italy (2000-2020), please visit 
https://italianperformers.it/en/ <https://italianperformers.it/en/>


Proposals should be submitted to (workandplayuniud /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(workandplayuniud /at/ gmail.com)> no later than 11:59PM (CET) on 
January 31st, 2024.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by March 31st, 2024.

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact the conference organizing 
committee: (workandplayuniud /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(workandplayuniud /at/ gmail.com)>

*
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