The project seeks to understand how fictional film and TV engages, promotes or challenges populist narratives, especially through emotional discourses.
In recent decades, populist forces have transformed the European landscape, challenging the legitimacy of institutions and representational systems. Frequently aligned with reactionary platforms, these actors rhetorically position themselves against the mainstream media, the elites and/or external enemies. Narrative work is a crucial element in populist affect, yet the role of audiovisual fiction remains understudied: grasping this relationship is necessary to disentangle populisms’ capacity to hegemonize the framing of contemporary European crises.
We aim to address this gap, by focusing on key contemporary films and TV series from the five largest markets in Europe - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. The project will analyze these fictional narratives, trace their reception, interactions, and appropriations, with a particular emphasis on social media discussions. The collaboration with two stakeholder organizations working in youth participation and in media literacy will also enable a better understanding of the role of fiction in creating and spreading populist affect in the current conjuncture.

Key Publications

Valerio Coladonato, Dom Holdaway & Arianna Vietina, “Popular European Cinema in the Platform Era: Circulation Cultures on YouTube”, in Cinéma et cie, v. 43, n. 42), forthcoming, 2024.

Dom Holdaway & Massimo Scaglioni, “From Distribution to Circulation Studies: Mapping Italian Films Abroad”, Comunicazioni sociali, a. XL, n. 3, 2018, pp. 341-355.

Holdaway, D. 2022. “Peppino Impastato in Made and Unmade Scripts: The Standards and the Limits of Engaged Cinema”, in La valle dell’Eden, n. 39, 2022, pp