Winner of the Film-Philosophy Annual Article Award 2023

In 2022, Film-Philosophy published articles that explored various themes, predominately addressing the consequences and affective resonances of human interaction.

The winning article is Kevin Hunt's <ahref="https: www.euppublishing.com="" doi="" abs="" 10.3366="" film.2022.0203"="" target="_blank">Michel Serres, Topology and Folded Time in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.</ahref="https:>

Hunt’s sophisticated article demonstrates impressively how cinema can audio-visually represent homeomorphic relations and implement a topological thinking, both of which bring forth the significance of a relational approach (to cinema, to thinking) that connects seemingly different or geographically distant but topologically equivalent spaces.

The judges felt that this article not only illuminates the relevance of Serres’s notions of folded time and topological proximity for cinema, but also provides a compelling way to explore time and space in film. With an engaging prose that draws the reader into the argument, Hunt’s article furthers film-philosophical understandings of time, and, convincingly defends Serresian topological thinking in cinema through a nuanced analysis of Dunkirk.

The five articles shortlisted for the award, in alphabetical order, were:

• Kevin Hunt, Michel Serres, Topology and Folded Time in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk 
• Oisín Keohane, The Disrobing of Aphrodite: Brigitte Bardot in Le Mépris
• Sylvie Magerstaedt, Humility and Greatness in Damien Chazelle's First Man
• Hanne Schelstraete, Truth, Beauty and Goodness: Freedom and the Platonic Triad in Eric Rohmer's Film Theory
• Lydia Tuan, The Matter of Manual Traces: Letters, Photographs and Bean Paste in Naomi Kawase's Cinema of Touch

The shortlist illustrated many ways in which film continues to be generative of new thinking, whether through engagement with the mainstream (biopic, war film) or established auteurs (Jean-Luc Godard, Naomi Kawase), and likewise, that thinking is inspired by its encounter with film (the film theory of Eric Rohmer, say, or the utilisation of the ideas of influential thinkers like Michel Serres). Themes explored ranged from the deeply philosophical – time, truth, beauty –through engagement with Kant, Hegel et al, to contemporary emphases such as the affective. The strongest work was characterised by its ability to propel thinking through reconsideration of the field.

A list of all previous winners of the Film-Philosophy Annual Article Award is available here.