SHELBY COOKEis an internationally known film critic and curator, specialising in British cinema and identity on screen. She writes interdisciplinary, often combining her interests in other areas of art and culture with cinema and visual media.
She has edited and contributed to four film criticism anthologies — SCREEN DREAMS (2021), Eating the Screen (2022), Queer Projections (2023) and Screen Britain (2024). She has written for various online and print publications and has regularly appeared as a guest film critic on BBC Radio. In addition to her writing, Shelby has worked with public art institutions and universities, such as the British Film Institute, BFI Film Academy, Norwich University of the Arts and the Independent Cinema Office, to lecture on and educate about film and media. She has been accredited press at the Toronto International Film Festival, London Film Festival, BFI Flare and more. Shelby is the current Head Curator and Editor-in-Chief of Film East, a multi-award-winning global film organisation that aims to educate and inspire the next generation of film enthusiasts by offering unique opportunities to connect through thought-provoking cinema. Some of the ways they achieve this are via their slow criticism publication, which is available online and in print collections; their podcast 'Film East Chats,' which uses casual conversation to help listeners better understand the cinematic art form; and their bespoke screenings and events, which take place across the UK, the US' Eastern Shore and online. Her work for the group has been recognised around the world and has been nominated for six British Film Society Awards, winning Best Marketing and Publicity at the 2022 ceremony. Film East also won the ‘Together’ Award at the 2023 BBC Make A Difference Awards. Shelby has an MA in Film Studies from the University of East Anglia, where she completed her thesis on David Bowie’s representation of Englishness through his acting performances. The complete dissertation is archived in the BFI’s Reuben Library, with the first two chapters published by the Celebrity Studies Journal. She is a member of the Film Critics Association UK and GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. Shelby is open for commissions. Please send any inquiries to [email protected]. |
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AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
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SELECT PRINT PUBLICATIONSScreen Britain, edited by Shelby Cooke. 2024
Queer Projections, edited by Shelby Cooke. 2023 Eating the Screen, edited by Shelby Cooke. 2022 SCREEN DREAMS: a zine by Film East, edited by Shelby Cooke, 2021 "David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: an examination of Englishness through stardom", Celebrity Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2020.1769489, 2020 Times Shifting: New Voices from a Changed World, edited by Alan Caig Wilson et al., 2020 |
SELECT LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONSLecturer. New Writings: Screen Britain. BFI Reuben Library. 12 February 2024.
Lecturer. The Memeification of Your Film Business. Independent Cinema Office's Young Audiences Screening Days. 8 June 2022. Lecturer. Working-Class Girls: Gender, Class and Stereotyping in British Cinema. Feminist Art Lecture series for The London Drawing Group (webinar). 12 July 2021. Presenter. David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: An Examination of Englishness through Stardom. International Conference on Film Studies: "(De)Constructing Narrative Identities” at Birkbeck, University of London. 8 February 2020. Presenter. Queering the Aristocracy: The Queering of Aristocratic Men in Edward Berger's Patrick Melrose (2018). Critically Queer Symposium at University of East Anglia. 7 May 2019. |
PRESS ACCREDITATION AND FILM FESTIVAL JUDING |
