Archives, political cinema, and questions of representation define the longlist for the UK's leading prize celebrating excellence in photography and moving image publishing.
The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation published the 2026 longlist for its Moving Image Award, and this year's selections explore subjects including early Hollywood stardom, Pan-African cinema archives, Chilean exile filmmaking, experimental film typography and social media activism.
The selected titles revisit everything from marginalized performers in the studio era and radical filmmaking movements of the 1960s and 1970s to transnational solidarity networks and contemporary digital video. The books reflect how moving image publishing uses cinema and media to reinterpret the past and challenge dominant cultural narratives.
The Longlisted Titles for the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award
Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, & Male Sex Appeal by Mark Gallagher (University of Texas Press)
Examines male screen sex appeal as a form of global cultural capital shaped by race, ethnicity, and performance. It analyzes how international stardom is constructed through appearance, voice and movement across film and television.
Hollywood's Others: Love and Limitation in the Star System by Katherine Fusco (Columbia University Press)
Explores early Hollywood stardom through performers positioned outside mainstream norms of gender, race, and ability. It examines how audiences formed emotional attachments to marginalized stars while the industry regulated identification and empathy.
June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive by Onyeka Igwe (Lawrence Wishart)
Onyeka Igwe traces the work of curator June Givanni and her Pan-African film archive spanning Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora. The book highlights women cultural workers and positions the archive as a feminist counter-history of global cinema.
Out There in the Dark by Katharine Coldiron (Autofocus Books)
Katharine Coldiron blends film criticism, memoir and experimental writing to explore how cinema shapes memory, truth and perception. The essays move between Hollywood films and personal reflection to question how stories construct reality.
Read Frame Type Film: Or, Written on the Screen by Enrico Camporesi, Catherine de Smet, and Philippe Millot (MUBI Editions)
This book explores the role of text in experimental and arists' cinema, from subtitles to title cards. Based on research at the Centre Pompidou, it examines how typography and moving images interact in avant-garde film history.
The Animist Imagination in East Asian Cinema by Pao-chen Tang (Amsterdam University Press/ Routledge)
Pao-chen Tang examines East Asian cinema through the lens of animism, where humans and nonhuman forces coexist on screen. The book explores exological and philosophical themes through films that reimagine agency and perception.
Shaping Global Cultures Through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds edited by Rose Ferrell and Rosanne Welch (Intellect)
This collection highlights women screenwriters working across film, TV and digital media who use storytelling as a form of activism. The book explores how screenwriting engages with issues of gender, race, war and social change.
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A. by Josslyn Jeanine Luckett (University of California Press)
This book tells the story of the Ethno-Communications Program at UCLA, where filmmakers of color created radical independent cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s. It highlights cross-racial collaboration and media activism outside Hollywood.
Transnational Cinema Solidarity: Chilean Exile Film and Video after 1973 by José Miguel Palacios (University of California Press)
José Miguel Palacios traces Chilean exile cinema after the 1963 coup, focusing on global networks of solidarity that sustained production. The book examines how films travelled, circulated and were preserved across borders.
Understanding Video Activism on Social Media by Jens Eder; Britta Hartmann; and Chris Tedjasukmana (Intellect)
This study examines how online video shapes political communication and activism in the age of social media. It explores how digital platforms influence public discourse, power structures and civic engagement.
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