*CFP* "PAST AND PRESENT INTERSECTIONS AMONG ITALIAN, RUSSIAN, SOVIET AND POST-SOCIALIST CINEMAS AND MEDIA", THEMED ISSUE, JOURNAL OF ITALIAN CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES

Italian cinema and media are translational and transnational. They are imported and exported, transferred, translated, adopted, adapted and re-interpreted. They move in multiple directions and constantly intersect with other filmmaking and media cultures, in particular with cinemaand media traditions from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union. The seminal work published in the bilingual (Italian and Russian) volume Russia-Italia. Un secolo di cinema (ABCDesign 2020), edited by Olga Strada and Claudia Olivieri, sponsored by the Italian Embassy in Moscow, and presented both at the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival and at the 42nd edition of the International Film Festival in Moscow in fall 2020, is the first and largest collection of essays, interviews, testimonials, photographs and unpublished documents, exploring the artistic, cultural and historical relationship between Russia and Italy starting from early cinema.

Within such an intersectional framework, scholars are invited to engage in new methodologically critical approaches to Italian cinema and media in order to recover overlooked connections and re-compose them in historic and aesthetic maps, and also to examine commercial and distribution relations marked by cross-national dialogues and trans-generational exchanges.

The purpose of this themed issue of the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies (JICMS) is to explore the encounter between artistic geographies and academic geometries delineated by the role that Italian cinema plays and has played in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and variouspost-Soviet states (like the Central Asia countries, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, etc.) and East Germany,during and after the Soviet period, as well as in cooperation opportunities between the film industries of these countries.

This is a largely under-researched area of studies and with this CFP, the JICMS attempts to fill in such an academic void.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Global Neorealisms: dialogues among Italy, Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and various post-Soviet states (like the Central Asia countries, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, etc.) and East Germany. 
• Reception of neorealist films in Soviet and post-socialist countries. 
• Links between Italian political cinema and media in these regions. 
• Italian popular genres in these geographical areas: commedia all’italiana, television shows and series. 
• The reception of Italian cinema and media in this vast geographical region and vice versa. 
• Transnational stardom in cinema and television. 
• Transnational co-productions and the adaptation to the needs of the respective national markets of film and television productions. 
• Italian film festivals in the aforementioned states. 
• Soviet-Italian film institutional exchanges. 
• Geopolitics in Italian cinema and media in these countries. 
• Soviet-Italian co-productions. 
• Representations of Italy in Russian media. 
• Study of institutional powers like Rai, Mediaset, Sky and variously affiliated production/distribution companies that embody and entertain strong relationships with domestic and international power centers.

Proposals should be written in British English, should be entirely original and unpublished, and should not be under consideration by any other publisher.

Interviews, independent and experimental artist biographies, film and book reviews, conference and film festival reports are considered.

Proposals of English translations or edited versions of previously published works will not be considered.

Abstracts should be sent to the co-editors Flavia Laviosa (flaviosa@wellesley.edu) and Anastasia Grusha (anastasia_grusha@mail.ru) by 31 May 2021, and should include the following information:

• A 500-word abstract outlining: 
• The topic 
• Critical approach 
• Theoretical and historical basis of the proposed article.

The abstract should clearly state the goals of the article and provide a cohesive description of the objective of the argument. In addition to a 500-word abstract, authors should send:

• Relevant bibliography and filmography 
• A 200-word biographical note followed by a detailed list of academic publications

The accepted proposals will be notified by 15 June; completed articles should be sent by 30 September. Authors will be notified of the results of the double-blind peer-review by 30 November 2021.