Dr Ruby Cheung

I am Associate Professor in Film Studies at the University of Southampton. I serve as Director of Programmes for Postgraduate Taught Programmes, Film, and Convenor of the MA Film and Cultural Management programme.

In recent years, I have also been a member of various committees and work groups at different levels of the University of Southampton: at the level of the School of Humanities (e.g., Humanities School Programmes Committee [ongoing], Humanities Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team); at the level of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (e.g., Faculty of Arts and Humanities Futures Strategic Assurance & Advisory Group, Faculty Research Ethics Committee, Faculty Vision Working Group); and at the University level (University Annual Monitoring Scrutiny Group [ongoing]).

I provide subject leadership in international film industry studies at undergraduate, postgraduate (taught) and PhD levels.

I hold a BSc in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, an MA in Mass Communications from the University of Leicester, UK, and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews, UK.

In May 2016, I received the recognition as Fellow (FHEA) of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) for my attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education.

I joined the Film Department at the University of Southampton as Lecturer in 2015 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. Before joining Southampton, I worked as Visiting Lecturer in Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK (2015), Assistant Professor in Culture, Creativity and Management at the United International College in Zhuhai, the PRC (2011–13), Research Associate in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews (2008–11; this subsequently led to an appointment as Honorary Research Fellow in Film Studies at St Andrews for 2011–14), part-time Lecturer in Visual Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong (2008). In addition to my academic positions, I have served as E-marketing and Publicity Consultant for UK-based film festivals, and film distributors and exhibitors.

My research and publications focus primarily on East Asian cinemas. I am an internationally recognised specialist in the study of contemporary Hong Kong cinema, Chinese-language film industries, as well as film festivals. I have published widely in peer-reviewed and internationally focused academic publications.

I was the Winner of the Best Monograph Award of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) in 2024 for my single-authored monograph Hong Kong’s New Indie Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). The BAFTSS publications awards judges comment: ‘This is an important book that elucidates a new perspective and moment in Hong Kong cinema culture.’ The book argues that Hong Kong’s new indie cinema of the 2010s was a vital tool—in effect, the lifeblood—for the long-term sustainability of the city’s film industry as a whole. It examines closely the production, distribution and exhibition of Hong Kong’s new indie cinema of the 2010s.

My single-authored monograph New Hong Kong Cinema: Transitions to Becoming Chinese in 21st-century East Asia (Berghahn Books, 2015) analyses the relationships between Hong Kong-related Chinese-language films made since the 1980s and the effects of the sovereignty transfer of Hong Kong on the city, its inhabitants, Hong Kong filmmakers, the audiences of relevant Hong Kong films, as well as Hong Kong cinema’s situation in East Asia’s film landscape at large in the early 21st century. This book has gained a significant, and still growing, reputation nationally and internationally.

I have also made significant contributions to film festival scholarship through publishing a number of single-authored essays and co-editing two volumes of the field-defining Film Festival Yearbook series, Film Festival Yearbook 2: Film Festivals and Imagined Communities (St Andrews Film Studies, 2010) and Film Festival Yearbook 3: Film Festivals and East Asia (St Andrews Film Studies, 2011). I am the main editor of Cinemas, Identities and Beyond (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009).

I am currently working on three publication projects: 1) co-edited volume Global Film Policies: New Perspectives (with John Hill, Nobuko Kawashima and Paul McDonald; Routledge, forthcoming); 2) co-edited volume Music in Chinese-language Audiovisual Culture since the 1990s (with Kevin Donnelly; Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming); 3) as an Editor-in-Chief of The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Cinema (with Tim Bergfelder and Nitin Govil; Bloomsbury, forthcoming).

I have built significant global research networks involving scholars with similar research interests. At Southampton, I am a member of the Centre for International Film Research. Externally, I am a member of the BAFTSS, and am affiliated to several of its special interest groups in different capacities:

• Co-founder and Co-convenor, East Asian Screen Cultures special interest group
• Founding member, Screen Industries special interest group
• Founding member, Transnational Film & TV special interest group

For many years, I have also been a member of other international academic associations related to film and media studies:

• Network for European Cinema and Media Studies (NECS) (Since 2022, I have served as Co-chair of the Screen Industries Work Group at NECS.)
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)

I have frequently been approached by mainstream media outlets to comment on developments in Chinese-language cinemas and film industries.