CALL FOR PAPERS

We accept articles – in Polish or in English language – concerning subjects as announced below, as well as papers not strictly connected with the main topic of the volume, especially if they are related to history of Polish cinema, film theory or issues from the area of film and media studies that are underresearched so far. We also accept reviews of the books on film published in Poland or concerning Polish cinema and media.

No. 136 (Winter 2026)

THEATRE AND FILM: METAMORPHOSES

(submission deadline: August 31, 2026)

Over a decade after the first film- and theatre-oriented volume of Kwartalnik Filmowy (nos. 87-88, 2014), we find it hard not to reiterate the truism that cinema and theatre have always been closely related, regardless whether we approach this affinity (convergent or antagonistic) from a historical (diachronic mutual influences) or theoretical perspective (medium, method, conceptual frameworks, and transposability).

Convinced that the dynamic interface between film and theatre may continue to inspire both film and theatre studies or, in fact, their interdisciplinary convergence, we invite submissions for a volume with the subtitle “metamorphosis” as a guiding concept. We encourage contributors to approach this term in an inclusive and meta-critical way (as transformation, evolution, modification, or reconfiguration) in order to capture as fully as possible the changes that have recently reshaped the relationship between theatre and film, along with their coexistence in the broader field of the arts.

Sixty years ago, Susan Sontag concluded her well-known essay “Film and Theatre,” devoted to theatrical cinema and theatre incorporating film, with the words: We need a new idea. It will probably be a very simple one. Will we be able to recognize it? We hope that the submitted articles will outline such a new idea, whether through innovative ways of conceptualizing the relationship between cinema and theatre, critical reassessments of existing scholarship, reflections on new techniques of imaging and staging, or analyses of contemporary artistic practices engaging with the metamorphic material of theatre and film. We encourage contributors to consider the interrelation between theatre and film from as broad a perspective as possible – not only from a film and theatre studies standpoint (including narrative, thematic relations, technique, technology, media, and production contexts) but also from theoretical and philosophical perspectives (e.g., apparatus theory, dispositif, or metaphors revealing affinities between the two arts).

Examples of thematic areas:

• creators – problem-oriented approaches to artistic practices that innovatively reconcile theatre and film
• new perspectives on film adaptations of theatrical works and stage versions of film texts
• convergences of film and theatre methodologies – for example, quantitative methods as tools in film-theatre research
• film and theatre (film-theatrical) doctrines in critical and re-evaluative perspectives
• film-theatre hybridity – new media genres combining the materialities of film and theatre
• theatre-film self-reflexivity – the category of backstage film, films about theatre, performances about cinema
• film-theatre narratology – new narrative forms at the intersection of theatre and film, trans-medial narratives in theatre and cinema
• broadcasts and rebroadcasts (opera, theatre performances, concerts) – contemporary modes, aesthetics, and conventions
• streaming platforms and the distribution/dissemination of theatrical performances
• theatre’s opening to new media realities – e.g., augmented reality and virtual reality as extensions of immersive experience and participation
• the recording of theatrical performances – current approaches and debates
• film vs. theatre audio description – similarities and differences in methods and techniques
• animated film, puppet film, stop-motion animation as forms of theatre’s cinematographisation
• theatrical and film scenography – inspirations, exchanges, and cross-contaminations in scenographic practice
• editing, framing, shot – film tools on stage
• performative works in art history – addressing the interplay of film and theatrical strategies
• film and theatre acting in new perspectives – masks, personae, stars in a film-theatre framework
• generative AI tools in the film-theatre imaginary
• film-theatre intersections in the light of critical media theory
• film work by theatre practitioners and theatre work by filmmakers
• film as a source in theatre studies
• theatre and film through the lens of philosophical concepts

No. 137 (Spring 2027)

TIMES OF HORROR

(submission deadline: December 7, 2026)

Today, horror constitutes one of the most dynamically developing areas of popular cinema. Long treated as a reservoir of repetitive conventions and recognizable patterns, the genre is now undergoing a phase of intense growth and even more intense transformation. New generations of filmmakers have introduced previously under-represented perspectives – bringing the experiences of marginalized groups into the horror imaginary has not only expanded the range of themes, affects, and modes of representing the body and violence but has also reshaped the very rules that organize horror narratives. Consequently, current horror no longer merely reproduces its own conventions but rather subjects them to negotiation and reinterpretation.

The current stage of the genre’s development begs the question about the relationship between transformations in horror and the experience of our time. In a world marked by catastrophic imaginaries, sense of permanent polycrisis, and mounting uncertainty, horror cinema seems to function as a particularly sensitive seismograph of social anxieties. Is the contemporary flourishing of horror and transformations of its aesthetic and narrative a response to the “times of horror” in which we live? Or are we simply witnessing another phase in the genre’s evolution, in which horror redefines its own boundaries and tests new ways of representing fear? To what extent does current horror remain a tool of critical reflection on reality, and to what extent does it offer merely another, albeit particularly intense, form of escapism?

We invite submissions addressing recent developments in horror, with particular emphasis on genology. We are especially interested in contributions that reflect on the current transformations of horror, as well as analyses of its deconstruction, reconfiguration, or hybridization with other cinematic forms, along with how the genre responds to contemporary social and cultural tensions.

Examples of thematic areas:

• times of horror: the present – horror as a reflection of current anxieties and social conflicts; the past – horror as a way of working through the past/history; the future – horror as an attempt to confront what is yet to come (apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic)
• horror as a hybrid and transmedial genre
• folk horror, body horror, queer horror, eco-horror, techno-horror, political horror – (new) subgenres or merely new thematic inflections?
• horror revisions: new readings and reworkings of genre classics; adaptations, reboots, remakes – faithful renditions or creative betrayals?
• horror and metaphysics: horror cinema and transformations in religious sensibility and so-called new spirituality; current forms of satanic horror; horror and questions of evil and transcendence
• horror and humour: meta-play with genre conventions, self-reflexivity, camp, grotesque, absurd; the limits of taste and aesthetics
• horror and national cinema codes: local and regional variations (J-horror, K-horror, giallo, New French Extremity, Ozploitation, Éire horror, etc.); horror as a tool for negotiating national and social identity
• horror from the perspective of the affective turn: fear, anxiety, dread, unease, disgust, tension; trauma as both theme and aesthetic strategy
• formal and stylistic strategies in contemporary horror: narrative solutions and visual codes; the role of editing and sound in producing affective and physiological responses in the viewer
• the audience of modern horror: empirical research perspectives; distribution channels (cinema, streaming, digital platforms, film festivals)
• horror production: the genre as industry, production and marketing strategies, authorial perspective
• nobilitation strategies: relations between horror and art cinema; post-horror, elevated horror, arthouse horror
• transformations of monstrosity: representations of disability and neurodivergence; reinterpretations of classic monstrous figures (e.g., the vampire, the werewolf) from queer, gender, and disability studies’ perspectives; horror in the context of posthumanism and transhumanism