British academic and filmmaker Laura Mulvey granted BFI Fellowship
Laura Mulvey Receives BFI Fellowship for Pioneering Work in Feminist Film Theory
Laura Mulvey, a UK filmmaker, author, theorist, and academic, has been awarded the prestigious BFI Fellowship. This recognition is seen as affirmation that film studies matter and is a testament to Mulvey's groundbreaking contributions to the field.
Mulvey, an emerita professor of film and media studies and fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, is best known for her seminal 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". This essay introduced the concept of the male gaze in cinema, a pivotal shift that combined psychoanalysis, particularly Freudian and Lacanian theories, with feminist critique.
In her essay, Mulvey argued that classical Hollywood cinema is structured around a masculine viewer, where women are portrayed as erotic objects for men’s scopophilic pleasure (pleasure in looking), reinforcing patriarchal power dynamics. She also drew from Freud's theories on castration anxiety and Lacan’s psychoanalytic framework to show how cinematic narrative and visual strategies reinforce gendered power, with women symbolizing lack and men as bearers of the “phallus” (power/signifier).
Mulvey's work remains a critical point of reference for understanding gender and representation in film, as well as a foundation for debates on ways to construct a female or feminist gaze as an alternative to the dominant male gaze paradigm.
Mulvey's filmmaking credits include the 1977 experimental drama "Riddles Of The Sphinx", which was written, directed, and produced by her and Peter Wollen. The feminist movement provided political energy that influenced Mulvey's work.
Teaching has been crucial for Mulvey in ensuring each generation discovers its critical voice. She is an honorary professor of film at the University of St Andrews and has participated in various feminist and film projects, such as advising on feminist approaches to film and visual culture.
The BFI Fellowship acknowledges the collective nature of Mulvey's work and her influence on film education, an original BFI commitment in 1933. A BFI Southbank season - Laura Mulvey: Thinking Through Film will take place throughout November and December, featuring a season pass, an 'in conversation' event, and a BFI Player collection celebrating Mulvey's work and impact.
Laura Mulvey will receive the BFI Fellowship award at BFI Southbank on November 4. Previous recipients of a BFI Fellowship include Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Broccoli, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, and Tom Cruise. Mulvey expresses gratitude for receiving the BFI Fellowship and believes critical thinking about images can change how we see ourselves and each other.
[1] Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual and Other Pleasures. Routledge. [2] The Mark of Lilith (1973) - A short film co-advised by Laura Mulvey. [4] Mulvey, L. (2009). Visual and Other Pleasures. Routledge.
Movies-and-TV and entertainment are two realms that have greatly benefited from Laura Mulvey's groundbreaking work, as her pioneering contributions to feminist film theory, particularly her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of gender and representation in these fields.
Laura Mulvey's influential essay called for the development of a female or feminist gaze, offering alternative perspectives in contrast to the dominant male gaze paradigm, thus proving her enduring impact on entertainment and cinematic studies.
