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50 Movies Every Scientist and Engineer Should Watch

These 50 movies are absolute must-sees for scientists and engineers..

Christopher McFadden

Sci-fi and tech movies have been around for a surprisingly long time. They frequently tackle similar themes of exploring consciousness or over-dependence on technology which almost every time leads to disastrous results.

But, which movies are the essential ones to watch?

But, “what is your selection criteria?” we hear you ask. Well, on the whole, we have looked at the movies that show the telltale signs of cinematic excellence.

We wanted to try and cover all genres across the ages and represent as many different types of movies as possible and to include movies with original concepts or the ones that are the first of their kind in one way or the other. This list also includes some of our personal favorites too. 

RELATED: 9 VISIONARY SCI-FI MOVIES FROM PAST TO THE PRESENT 

It goes without saying that this list is far from definitive and we apologize if your favorite movie  has been omitted. There is a slight bias to more modern movies (mainly post 1970’s), as they are fresher in our minds.

Anyway, let’s stop messing around and get stuck in. Here is our list of 50 movies every scientist and engineer should watch. We’ve tried to keep them in chronological order for you.

1. Metropolis, 1927 is definitely a must-watch film for scientists

Practically a work of art and a formative piece of Sci-Fi, its imagery remains potent almost 90 years later. An incredible must-watch. 

2. Frankenstein, 1931 is one of those cult sci-fi movies

Not the first adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel but certainly the most iconic. A must watch for anyone really.

3. Then there’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951

The 1950s was an era of sensational movies. Although it’s been remade recently , the original one is still the best version. Klaatu’s visit and the warning he delivers still resonates today.

4. Godzilla, 1954 is the epitome of the modern science fiction era

This movie goes to show you don’t need sophisticated modern special effects to make a compelling movie. A massive monster wreaking havoc, what more do you need?

5. Make sure you check out Forbidden Planet, 1956

Said to be the first movie set on another planet in deep space, it’s often said it’s inspired by The Tempest. The movie explores our tendency for self-destruction.

6. You have got to watch Doctor Strangelove, 1964

Created during the Cold War, this classic movie  gives insight into the hysteria and paranoia of the age.

7. We’re pretty sure you’ll love Planet Of The Apes, 1968

As well as introducing a whole new genre, this movie flips our perception of what “separates” us from our primate cousins .

8. A Kubrick masterpiece: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

When you mix  Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, the result is awesome. If you’ve been living in a cave and haven’t seen this movie yet, we suggest you watch it as soon as possible! We refuse to give any more spoilers.

You’re welcome.

9. Explore a new dystopia with Silent Running, 1972

After all botanical life ends on Earth, ecologist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) maintains a greenhouse on a space station to preserve various plants for future generations. This movie allows you to have an absolutely magnificent and emotion-driven watching experience. Also, we defy you not to fall in love with his robot companions.

10. Westworld, 1973 will surely keep you on your toes

Now rebooted as a highly regarded series on HBO, this classic sci-fi movie tells the story of advanced robots run amok. A gripping and terrifying visual experience that comes highly recommended.

11. Don’t miss out on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977

This movie captures the mystery and wonder of encountering an advanced race. For years, this movie shaped how people imagined meeting more advanced extraterrestrial beings would be like.

12. We dare you to watch Alien/Aliens 1979/1986

We couldn’t decide between them , so we included both. Merging space opera, Westerns, and horror, these movies are an absolute must-watch. They launched a whole genre of movies that terrify and inspire in equal measure.

13. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980 is an absolute classic

Empire is, hands down, the best of the Star Wars movies — no arguments! Picking up the mantle from A New Hope, Empire takes the series to a new level and sets up all that follows.

14. You really need to watch Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981

Although Mad Max is awesome too, Mad Max 2 resonates the most with its post-apocalyptic setting.

15. Blade Runner, 1982 is another great sci-fi classic

Another Ridley Scott classic , this movie explores what it means to be human. A truly epic and enjoyable journey.

16. Another classic sci-fi film is E.T., 1982

Flipping the narrative from Spielberg’s Close Encounters completely, E.T. (love it or hate it), is a really compelling and thought-provoking tale.

17. Tron, 1982 is another must-watch sci-fi film

1982 was a great year it seems with the release of films like Tron that completely changed the sci-fi genre. It is arguably the best of the first CGI movies and a cinematic legend.

18. Another must-watch sci-fi film is War Games, 1983

This movie tells the story of an advanced AI  capable of controlling every system it interacts with which ends up risking the start of a nuclear war.

19. You really have to watch Back To The Future, 1985

Dispensing with the fear of controversy, Back to the Future jumps feet first into the tempestuous waters of time-travel. Humorous, thought-provoking, and entertaining, this movie is a must-watch for all.

20. Enemy Mine, 1985

Dennis Quaid is crash-landed on a planet with an alien (portrayed by Louis Gosset Jr.). Enemy Mine is a tender and beautiful tale of teamwork that tackles undertones of xenophobia.

21. Transformers: The Movie, 1986 is an absolute classic!

An absolute must-watch if you are the 80s or 90s kid. If you haven’t seen it hang your head in shame! Forget the modern reboots, watch the glory and the beauty of the original characters.

22. If you haven’t already, check out RoboCop, 1987

Merging man with machine, RoboCop explores how technology changes or even negates humanity. A surreal blend of cyberpunk, Frankenstein, and action movies, this movie remains the greatest statement of Verhoeven.

23. The one, and only, Predator, 1987

Tapping into our inner fears, this movie is one of the greatest science fiction movies  ever made. Face and challenge your primeval brain.

24. The Running Man, 1987 is also fantastic

In a world of reality TV, this movie is probably more relevant today than when it was originally released. The movie shows convicted criminals, mostly wrongly, sentenced to death in a “gladiator” style entertainment show .

25. They Live, 1988 will open your eyes

Fed up with that viral video on Facebook with the guy with mullet-wearing  “reality revealing” sunglasses? Don’t be, watch the full movie. We’ll not spoil the rest of it.

26. Watch Akira, 1988 now!

Set in 2019 Tokyo, this anime classic is set in the post World War 3 apocalyptic wasteland of Japan. Kaneda, the main character, attempts to prevent the devastation from happening again. We almost included Ghost in the Shell as well.

27. Another classic sci-fi film is Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991

Do you remember the bit where John Connor switches the Terminator’s head from read-only to read/write? Great, that means you were paying attention. This movie confronts us with questions about the ethics of AI. It is more relevant to us today than over 20 years ago.

28. Make sure you check out Sneakers, 1992

Set in 1969 with two rookie computer hackers , Sneaker sees our “heroes” breaching systems and distributing funds they steal. Big ideas in this tech movie include cybersecurity and financial technology. The modern version would probably have something to do with Bitcoin.

29. Jurassic Park, 1993 is definitely a must-watch

Honestly, this isn’t a Spielberg fan spam. Jurassic Park completely changed how movies used digital effects after its release. Based on Michael Crichton’s remarkable novel (We suggest you read it, it’s actually much better than the movie), JP questions our manipulation of the powers of nature.

30. You will love Twelve Monkeys, 1995

Terry Gilliam, of Monty Python fame, hits hard when it comes to sci-fi movies. We almost included Time Bandits as well but that is arguably more fantasy than sci-fi. Based on the French time-travel story Le Jetee, this is a perfect work of fatalism.

31. Gattaca, 1997 is another great sci-fi film

This dystopian movie takes a thought-provoking look at the implications of gene splicing which is even more relevant today.

32. The Fifth Element, 1997 is another classic sci-fi film

This is a joyously silly and bizarre space opera that’s full of beautiful set pieces and incredible production design. A really enjoyable watching experience whichever way you look at it.

33. The Matrix, 1999 is also a must-watch sci-fi film

And only the original, we don’t talk about the sequels! Set in a dystopian future where mankind is enslaved by machines this movie explores the meaning of reality. Will you take the red or the blue pill?

34. Be sure to check out Minority Report, 2002

Courtesy of Philip K Dick and Steven Spielberg, this movie presents a chilling vision of the future in which “Pre-Crime” detectives can find and apprehend offenders before they commit crimes.

35. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, 2004 is an interesting film

Would you erase some of your memories if you could? This movie works on many levels and is an incredibly clever science fiction movie that is also romantic . Its story is both surreal and believable at the same time.

36. Children Of Men, 2006 is great

This movie is set in the future where humans can no longer procreate and society collapses. It quickly turns into a metaphor for issues such as xenophobia and immigration. Children Of Men sets the standard for gritty science fiction action movies.

37. Wall-E, 2008 is superb

Wall-E is a stunning, charming, and emotional movie set in a post-apocalyptic future. The story revolves around a lonely garbage disposal robot left alone on Earth. The movie quickly turns into a love story for Wall-E.

38. You really need to watch the Moon, 2009

This movie  takes the theme of corporate evil and the nature of selfhood and makes it it’s own.

39. District 9, 2009 is a modern classic sci-fi film

A quasi-documentary that explores mankind living side by side with alien “immigrants”. It exposes men’s tribal nature while telling a story of one of them turning into something unrecognizable.

40. Make sure you check out Avatar, 2009

Written and directed by James Cameron, Avatar takes place in the near future where humankind is colonizing another planet for extraterrestrial mining.

41. Inception, 2010 is pretty good too

Inception examines the nature of consciousness in a clever way that does make sense, in the end. Its story revolves around a brilliantly inventive new technology.

42. Ender’s Game, 2013 is another must-see film

A great depiction of a fantastic sci-fi book series, Ender’s Game plunges our hero, Ender into a futuristic military academy. Ender and his friends undergo a simulated training program that has very real-life consequences. A truly fantastic movie.

43. Her, 2013 is an interesting sci-fi film

This movie is about our ever-growing dependence on technology and virtual assistance. The story is disturbingly relevant to today’s society.

44. Have you seen Snowpiercer, 2013?

In a world where civilization has collapsed, one group of survivors spend their entire existence on a train. In the movie , the class system within the confined space is overemphasized. Eventually, a violent revolt with a mind-blowing revelation takes place.

45. Gravity, 2013 is also worth a watch

Disaster , desperation, isolation, and survival with limited air and options. In this movie, Sandra Bullock’s character faces challenges after challenges from the beginning to the end.

46. Lest we forget Elysium, 2013

Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed “District 9″. It is a must-see if you like movies tech movies full of powered armor, hacking, orbital space stations, advanced robotics, and more.

47. Guardians of the Galaxy, 2014 is a fun watch

Guardians of the Galaxy is a great space movie in its own right. It revolves around a “group of misfits who have to band together to stop a cosmic threat” in a thrilling, and heartbreaking fashion.

It has a pretty neat soundtrack too. 

48. You will absolutely love Big Hero Six, 2014

This story takes a teenage genius inventor Hiro on a journey of self-discovery, invention, and revenge. It’s filled with comedy, action, and emotion and we challenge you not to cry at the end.

49. Interstellar, 2014 is another modern classic sci-fi film

This movie is set in a dystopian future where specialists try to find a habitable planet to be the new home for humanity.

50. Ex Machina, 2015 is a superb sci-fi film

This movie cleverly challenges our understanding of consciousness. A must watch if you are interested in Artificial Intelligence.

Some honorary mentions

With many great films on the list, it was tough to choose them over some other fantastic films out there. With that in mind here are some honorable mentions that didn’t quite make it.

Star Trek: Wrath of Khan

The thirteenth floor, good will hunting, the social network, october sky, the man in the white suit, the lathe of heaven, ghost in the shell, galaxy quest, the incredibles, event horizon, pacific rim.

So there you go. Do you agree with our choices?

Clearly, this list isn’t exhaustive and we’d love to hear your suggestions. Otherwise, if you haven’t watched any or all of these films, we recommend you check them out today!

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You will not be disappointed. 

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Christopher McFadden Christopher graduated from Cardiff University in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Geology. Since then, he has worked exclusively within the Built Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Consultancy industries. He is a qualified and accredited Energy Consultant, Green Deal Assessor and Practitioner member of IEMA. Chris’s main interests range from Science and Engineering, Military and Ancient History to Politics and Philosophy.

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The Best Movies About Real Scientists

The fascinating world of science has inspired countless films throughout the years, including some that are based on the lives of scientists. These biographical movies not only illuminate the extraordinary contributions that these individuals have made to their fields but also offer captivating insights into their personal journeys and the challenges they faced. With elements of drama, romance, and adventure, these films not only entertain but also celebrate the scientific spirit that drives human progress. 

The scientist-movie selection covers a wide range of subjects and eras, showcasing the multifaceted nature of scientific discovery. Each film delves into the heart of a scientist's story, highlighting their struggles, triumphs, and the impact of their groundbreaking work. Viewers are given a glimpse of the determination, perseverance, and brilliance that these pioneers displayed, as well as the emotional and intellectual challenges that colored their lives. 

For instance, The Imitation Game presents the story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician who played a crucial role in breaking the Enigma code during World War II, while grappling with his own personal demons. Likewise, A Beautiful Mind explores the life of John Nash, a gifted mathematician who battled schizophrenia while making significant contributions to game theory. The Theory of Everything delves into the life and work of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, depicting his fight against motor neuron disease and the development of his groundbreaking theories in cosmology. These exceptional films are just a few examples of how movies about scientists capture the essence of these pioneering intellects and their achievements. 

The best movies about scientists not only provide engaging entertainment but also serve as inspiring tributes to the indomitable human spirit in the quest for knowledge and understanding. By portraying the lives and works of these remarkable individuals, these biographical movies enable audiences to appreciate the invaluable contributions that scientists have made to society and the world at large. 

The Imitation Game

In this riveting historical drama, audiences delve into the life of Alan Turing, a British mathematician, and logician who played a crucial role in breaking the infamous German Enigma code during World War II. The film elegantly interweaves Turing's personal struggles with his groundbreaking work, highlighting his complex relationships and tragic persecution due to his homosexuality. This compelling story is a testament to Turing's sheer brilliance and unparalleled contribution to modern-day computer science.

• Released : 2014
• Directed by : Morten Tyldum

The Man Who Knew Infinity

An extraordinary cinematic masterpiece, this film revolves around the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught mathematical genius from India. It showcases his abundant talent, determination, and passion for numbers as he gets enrolled at Cambridge University during World War I. Overcoming numerous obstacles and prejudice in a foreign land, the audience is captivated by the deep bond that forms between Ramanujan and his mentor, G.H. Hardy. With breathtaking performances, this movie sheds light on the power of perseverance and the beauty of friendship.

• Released : 2015
• Directed by : Matthew Brown

A Beautiful Mind

This emotionally-charged biopic tells the inspiring story of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics whose groundbreaking theories were often overshadowed by his battle with schizophrenia. The movie explores how Nash's loving wife Alicia supports him through unimaginable hardships while striving to maintain her own sanity. With raw and heart-wrenching performances, this film is bound to leave a lasting impact on anyone who watches it.

• Released : 2001
• Directed by : Ron Howard

The Theory of Everything

Based on the incredible journey of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, this movie follows the young genius as he faces the brutal diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) while pursuing groundbreaking discoveries in the field of cosmology. Simultaneously, it narrates the unwavering love story between Hawking and Jane Wilde set against all odds. With powerful acting and awe-inspiring storytelling, this film demonstrates the true meaning of resilience and transcending one's limitations.

• Directed by : James Marsh

Hidden Figures

A heartwarming tribute to the unsung heroes of NASA, this movie highlights the remarkable contributions of three African-American female mathematicians during the early years of the American space program. Faced with racial and gender discrimination, these exceptional women navigated their way through adversity while playing pivotal roles in sending astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Through captivating storytelling and strong performances, this film showcases the power of determination and perseverance.

• Released : 2016
• Directed by : Theodore Melfi

The Secret of Nikola Tesla

This fascinating biopic delves into the life and groundbreaking work of inventor and visionary, Nikola Tesla. It portrays his never-ending quest for knowledge and innovation, as well as the rivalry between him and Thomas Edison over electrical systems. This film not only illuminates the immense impact Tesla had on modern technology but also reveals his eccentricities accompanied by his genius.

• Released : 1980
• Directed by : Krsto Papić

The 10 Best Movies About Famous Scientists, According to IMDb

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The 10 Worst Superhero Movies of All Time, Ranked

The 10 best non-linear romance movies, ranked, all the new movies and shows coming to netflix in september 2024.

Christopher Nolan's dazzling Oppenheimer has opened in theaters to glowing reviews. The sprawling, 3-hour epic tells the scientist's story in non-linear fashion from his early years as a graduate physics student in 1920s Europe, through the Manhattan Project, his subsequent celebrity, controversy, and regret.

In a way, it's a sort of throwback to the kind of sweeping melodramas big-time Hollywood directors used to make, complete with a huge supporting cast of stars including Kenneth Branagh , Robert Downey, Jr. , and Rami Malek . Coming in currently with a 9.0/10 IMDb rating, how does it measure with these other highly-rated scientist biopics on IMDb?

10 Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)

IMDb rating: 6.5/10

Back in the '80's director Roland Joffe gave us this first historical epic film about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. The film re-enacts the Manhattan Project with an emphasis on the relationship between project leader Colonel Leslie Groves ( Paul Newman ) and Oppenheimer ( Dwight Schultz ).

RELATED: Paul Newman's Performance is the Standout in This Other Movie About Oppenheimer

Newman's Colonel Groves is clearly the film's star here as he clashes with Schultz's Oppenheimer in their personal and professional lives. Oppenheimer also clashes with team members Kathleen Robinson ( Laura Dern ) and Michael Merriman ( John Cusak ) , who question what they are doing and why.

9 Gorillas in the Mist (1988)

IMDb rating: 7.0/10

Sigourney Weaver gives an outstanding performance as naturalist Dian Fossey, a scientist who travels to Africa to devote her life to the study of mountain gorillas and becomes an advocate for their protection. The sweeping real-life adventure tale covers not only intriguing discoveries about the intelligence and communicative abilities of gorillas, but African politics, poaching, and corruption which ultimately ends in tragedy.

Fossey is inspired to walk away from her life as an occupational therapist when she meets her idol anthropologist Louis Leaky, who convinces her to travel to the Congo with him to study gorillas. He and his foundation equip her to make contact with and study the gorillas, and this sets her on a path of amazing discoveries, romance, intrigue, and international acclaim.

8 Kinsey (2004)

IMDb rating: 7.1/10

Director/writer Bill Condon ' s film examines the unconventional life of controversial professor of entomology and sexologist Alfred Kinsey ( Liam Neeson ). His 1948 book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, became a huge bestseller sparking open and frank conversations about such heretofore taboo subjects as orgasms, masturbation, and homosexuality and opening the door to the establishment of sex education in schools.

Kinsey's story is told in flashbacks in an interview as he muses about his repressive childhood, how he met his wife Clara McMillan (brilliantly played by Laura Linney ), and his breakthrough research which not only changed the lives of his subjects and readers but gave him a new understanding of his own sexuality. Nominated for everything from the Independent Spirit Awards to an Oscar, the film offers an insightful look at one of the most misunderstood figures in science history.

7 Madam Curie (1943)

IMDb rating: 7.2/10

Mervyn Leroy' s classic film tells the story of Maria Sklowdowska Curie, the Polish-French chemist and physicist who along with her husband Pierre conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. Curie was the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize, which she actually won twice -- once with her husband and a second time on her own.

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The film presents a romanticized version of their lives, with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon playing the couple, and follows Marie from her days as a student in Paris to her work with and subsequent marriage to Pierre Curie and beyond. Although highly fictionalized, it does manage to adhere to actual facts more than most biopics of the period and was nominated for numerous awards, including Best Actress and Actor nods for Garson and Pidgeon.

6 The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)

Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons star in this film about the life and career of pioneering Indian mathematician Srinivasan Ramanujan and his friendship with mentor Professor G. H. Hardy in pre-World War 1 Britain. As a young man living in Madras, India his stellar mathematical ability helps him rise above the poverty of his home and catches the attention of Cambridge University's Professor Hardy who invites him to Britain to study.

A stranger in a strange land facing tough academic standards as well as racial prejudice he nevertheless manages to get his work published in major journals of the time and achieves international recognition as an exceptional mathematician. Lack of contact with his family and the wife he left back in India plus a diagnosis of TB take their toll, however, and he eventually returns to his wife before his untimely death at age 32. Although a bit short on accuracy, the performances of Patel and Irons make this film well worth the watch.

5 The Theory of Everything (2014)

IMDb rating: 7.7/10

Based on the book written by his ex-wife Jane, the film explores the life and work of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Eddie Redmayne's moving portrayal of Hawking as he finds love, battles illness, and achieves enormous success in the field of physics earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor.

At the University of Cambridge, young Hawking studies astrophysics, writes his thesis on the creation of the universe, and begins a relationship with literature student Jane Wilde. But he is soon diagnosed with an incurable motor neuron disease which will continue to worsen throughout his life. While mostly focused on the relationship between Stephen and Jane, the film also offers a fairly accurate look at Hawking's science and theories.

4 Awakenings (1990)

IMDb rating: 7.8/10

Based on the true story of neurologist Oliver Sacks, Penny Marshal l' s Awakenings features riveting performances by Robin Williams and Robert De Niro as well as a star-studded supporting cast including John Heard and Max Von Sydow.

Williams plays the neurologist who after working extensively with catatonic patients at a Brooklyn hospital learns about a Parkinsons' drug L-DOPA which he thinks may help his patients achieve a breakthrough. He chooses patient Leonard Lowe (De Niro) to test the drug and finds that it seems to have completely awakened Lowe from his catatonia. Unfortunately, the results do not last long, but they do give Leonard a brief chance to appreciate and fully live life.

3 Hidden Figures (2016)

This homage to the three Black female mathematicians who became unsung heroes of the 1960s NASA space race was not only a huge commercial success ($236 million worldwide according to Deadline Hollywood, with a $25 million budget) but a critical one, garnering a Best Picture Oscar nomination and winning the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.

RELATED: 20 Best Movies About the Space Race, According to IMDb

Katherine Gobel Johnson ( Taraji P. Henson ), Dorothy Vaughn ( Octavia Spence r ), and Mary Jackson ( Janelle Monae ) cross gender, race, and professional barriers in using their genius to help rescue a struggling space program. Strong performances by three of the most talented Black actresses around make this a heartwarming and inspiring treat.

2 The Imitation Game (2014)

IMDb rating: 8.0/10

Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a brilliantly nuanced performance as mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing (known as the father of modern computing and AI) in this nail-biting thriller. It tells the story of Turing's code-breaking work in World War 2 as well as the troubles in his private life that eventually led to tragedy.

Britain's MI6 bring Turing in to help crack Enigma, the Nazi's seemingly unbreakable code machine. Turing designs a machine that can decipher Enigma messages which he eventually convinces Winston Churchill to fund. In a race against time with the Nazis, the machine is created and successfully decodes all Enigma messages, helping to shorten the war and save thousands of lives. This leads to a stellar career after the war designing some of the world's first computers. Sadly, Turing's homosexuality runs afoul of 1950s British law, resulting in his suicide; but his groundbreaking work lives on and forms the basis of modern AI.

1 A Beautiful Mind (2001)

IMDb rating: 8.2/10

Ron Howard 's biopic on the life of mathematician John Nash is both a touching love story and an exposé on mental illness. Nash's harrowing journey is shown through his eyes, bringing the audience along with him.

Winner of four Academy Awards (including Best Director for Howard), with powerful performances by Russell Crowe , Jennifer Connelly , and Ed Harris , it's earned the top spot on this list.

NEXT: Every Christopher Nolan Movie, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

The 20 Best Movies About Human Experiments

A relatively common trope in horror films and psychological thrillers, the concept of human experiments is truly horrific due to the realities of their existence. From World War II Nazi experiments to the birth of psychology field testing, the implantation of testing humans has resulted in a lot of suffering, but also a lot of knowledge about human behavior.

Therefore, the of human experimentation often results in two sides – that the overall good of knowledge counterbalances anything bad that can come out of the experiment, which is the mentality commonly seen in the experimenter, and the counterargument that nothing good can come out of anything bad is generally led by the subjects or victims.

From 1930’s Frankenstein to 1960’s French science fiction to today’s exploitation of horror films as seen in the “Saw” and “Human Centipede” franchises, the theme has had a long tradition.

20. Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975)

Don Edmonds’ endeavour into the nazisploitation genre follows Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne), a Kommandant of a Nazi prison camp. She conducts sadistic scientific experiments to fellow women in order to prove to the higher ranked officers that women are more capable of enduring pain than men are, and therefore should be allowed to fight in the German armed forces, since the Nazi military are in dire need of reinforcements.

Besides torturing women, every night she chooses male prisoners and rapes them and after she finishes with them, she castrates and kills them.

Even though the film is not for the light-hearted and extremely exploitative (hence nazisploitation), the sex-addicted sadist Ilsa is patterned after real-life murderous female Nazi camp personnel Ilse Koch and Irma Grese.

Before the film begins, there is a notice saying: “The film you are about to see is based on documented fact. The atrocities shown were conducted as ‘medical experiments’ in special concentration camps throughout Hitler’s Third Reich.

Although these crimes against humanity are historically accurate, the characters depicted are composites of notorious Nazi personalities; and the events portrayed, have been condensed into one locality for dramatic purposes. Because of its shocking subject matter, this film is restricted to adult audiences only. We dedicate this film with the hope that these heinous crimes will never happen again.”

The film was followed by three sexploitation sequels, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), Ilsa, the Wicked Warden (1977) and Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia (1977).

19. Re-Animator (1985)

Stuart Gordon’s science fiction horror comedy loosely based on the H. P. Lovecraft episodic novella “Herbert West–Reanimator” follows Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), a medical student, as he successfully brings his dead professor back to life, but finds that there are horrible side-effects which end up re-killing Gruber.

West moves away to continue his experiments with the help of fellow medical student, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), as they try convince the University’s Dean, Dr. Alan Halsey (Robert Sampson), about the possibilities of reanimation of the dead.

Originally, Gordon was going to adapt Lovecraft’s story for the stage, and then planned to make a half-hour television pilot, and then reformatted the pilot and the twelve episodes which were planned to follow to be maximized to an hour.

Eventually they decided on making a standard film since the majority of the horror fan bases were found to watch films more than television. Gordon and his writers, Dennis Paoli and William Norris, also intended it to be a period piece at the beginning of the 20th Century, but found it to be too over-budget and hence landed on adapting it to modern-day Chicago.

The fast pace, deadpan humour and bloody special-effects led to the integration of B-grade thrillers, surrealist art and 80s comedy and to an overall cult classic.

18. The Boys from Brazil (1978)

Franklin J. Schaffner’s British-American science fiction thriller based on the novel of the same name by Ira Levin follows young Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) and retired Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) as they track down a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals, including the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), the infamous Auschwitz doctor, who are, themselves, tracking down 94 seemingly random men in different countries, including Austria, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, the United States, and kill them.

Lieberman follows Kohler’s leads and begins travelling to investigate the suspicious deaths of these men. He meets their widows and is astonished to find an eerie resemblance in their adopted, black-haired, blue-eyed sons, who all have similar mannerisms despite being from different places and speaking various languages.

Lieberman also discovers strange similarities with regards to the assassinated men’s cold attitudes towards the boy, the mother’s affectionate bond, and the ages of the parents during the time of adoption. The reason behind the uncanny resemblance is astoundingly chilling as Schaffner utilises iconic actors to tell an original tale that reimagines history and questions the “what if” attitudes of World War II.

The film gained three Academy Award nominations in the following categories – Best Actor (Laurence Olivier), Film Editing (Robert Swink) and for Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith). Gregory Peck was also recognised at the Golden Globes, earning a nomination for Best Actor is a Drama.

17. The Sylvian Experiments (2010)

Hiroshi Takahashi’s Japanese horror follows two sisters, Miyuki and Kaori, who are daughters of two neurosurgeons, Etsuko Ōta and Yukio. They all see a documentary of a secret experiment where the Japanese, Manchu, and Russian subjects’ temporal lobes are electrified until the subjects are strangely able to project a blinding white light.

Years later, Etsuko plans on conducting a similar experiment and recruits her daughter, Miyuki, as well as others to commit mass suicide assisted by Etsuko’s assistant, Hattori, as part of their initiation into the experiment. Miyuki wakes up inside a facility and is told that she has died and is currently astral projecting.

After having lost contact with her sister for six months, Kaori tracks down her last movements as she sees and talks to her in her dreams. Soon, her mother takes Kaori to the facility to learn about the experiment.

Etsuko reveals that she and Kaori have always wanted to become enlightened by the true reality beyond the current one in order to achieve a spiritual evolution. Takahashi, known as a screenwriter of “Ring”, once again utilises the source of thought through video since the documentary they initially saw sparked off their quest for enlightenment through experimentation.

16. Exam (2009)

Stuart Hazeldine’s psychological thriller, set in a parallel version of present-time United Kingdom, follow eight candidates as they sit for an employment assessment exam for the company, DATAPREV.

The Invigilator explains that the exam is 80 minutes and consists of only one question, but there are three rules that if broken, lead to disqualification. They must not talk to him or the armed guard at the door, they must not “spoil” their paper, and they must not leave the room. Each desk contains a question paper with the word “candidate”, followed by a number, from one to eight.

Set in real time, the exam begins and it is revealed that the papers are blank. One candidate is immediately disqualified, leaving the remaining seven – nicknamed Black, White, Brown, Dark, Blonde, Brunette, and Deaf – referring to their skin and hair colours, to realize that they can talk to each other and work together.

“White”, who is arrogant and rude, takes control of the group as they try to figure out how to reveal any hidden questions on the paper. The group manipulates tricks and uses each other in hopes of their disqualification. The scenario soon becomes dangerous, but they cannot talk to the armed guard or the invigilator for help.

Nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut, Hazeldine’s film makes incredible use of a single location, a few actors, and a tense countdown clock to the end of the exam, and subsequently, the end of the film. With multiple twists and turns, one wonders what job could be so important for such a chillingly claustrophobic interview, and Hazeldine does not disappoint.

15. Dead Ringers (1998)

David Cronenberg’s psychological thriller based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus and on Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel “Twins”, follow Elliot and Beverly Mantle (both played by Jeremy Irons) who are identical twins and gynecologists who specialise in female fertility treatment.

The more confident and cynical of the two, Elliot, seduces women patients and when he eventually gets bored of them, passes them off to the shy and passive Beverly, without the women even realising that they have switched.

However, soon Beverly gets a girl by himself, Claire Niveau (Genevieve Bujold), who realises the difference between the two brothers.

The two become close, but she soon leaves town for work, sending Beverly into a depressive episode and leading him to abuse prescription drugs, become slave to paranoid delusions and see “mutant women” with abnormal genitalia. He must “fix” these women and commissions metallurgical artist Anders Wolleck to create a set of strange gynecological instruments specifically for operating on these fictional, mutant women.

Cronenberg, who is a master of body horror, is no stranger to graphic imagery and psychological dishevelling. Another film of his which could fall under this list is “The Fly” (1986), which follows Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), an eccentric scientist who has just successfully managed to create a teleportation device, and is anxious to use it himself.

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The 15 Best Movies About Inventions and Discoveries

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A good chunk of human history was spent living in caves, foraging for wild food, and fighting each other with sticks and stones. But when we developed science and technology, we evolved rapidly.

Our path through history has been mapped by inventors and discoverers, to whom we owe all kinds of thanks. One way to recognize and appreciate them? Telling their stories through cinema.

From forgotten geniuses to social media founders, here are my picks for the best movies about inventions and discoveries that explore the difficulties and ramifications of bringing forth something new.

15. Tesla (2020)

Directed by Michael Almereyda

Starring Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Eli A. Smith

Biography, Drama (1h 42m)

5.1 on IMDb — 58% on RT

It's a shame that the name Nikola Tesla is nowhere near as ubiquitous as, say, Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein.

Nikola Tesla basically invented wireless electricity and cemented his status as one of the most heralded scientists in all of history.

Not only does his famous Tesla Coil looks immensely cool, it was Tesla's work that paved the way for things like radio, television, Wi-Fi, and more—all from his harnessing of electrical currents.

Sadly, like many historical figures, the Serbian-American scientist died penniless and alone in a tiny hotel room. His story is explored in Michael Almereyda's Tesla where he's brought to life by Ethan Hawke.

14. Joy (2015)

Directed by David O. Russell

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper

Biography, Drama (2h 4m)

6.6 on IMDb — 60% on RT

Joy Mangano shows us the meaning of a strong independent woman, fiercely portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence. She's a real-life entrepreneur who got rich off mops. Specifically, the Miracle Mop.

Most millionaires are born to other millionaires, only able to succeed by being spoon-fed handouts from their parents. Joy isn't like them. She knows that the world doesn't owe her anything—that it's up to her to go and get it. So, that's exactly what she does.

If you look past the uneven pacing, Joy is a sparky and inspiring biopic studded with comedy. David O. Russell directs the Hollywood cast list, which includes the likes of Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper.

13. Radioactive (2019)

Directed by Marjane Satrapi

Starring Rosamund Pike, Sam Riley, Anya Taylor-Joy

Biography, Drama, Romance (1h 49m)

6.3 on IMDb — 63% on RT

Until recently, most industries have been dominated by men—and that includes all the various scientific fields. For a long time, women weren't even allowed access to laboratories or education, so it was always men winning the Nobel Prizes.

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, but it didn't come without a fight. It's hard to say whether her fiery attitude helped or hindered, but it's one she shared with husband Pierre Curie.

Marie Curie discovered polonium, radium, and radioactivity. Her research went on to save lives (with radiation therapy) and take lives (with nuclear bombs). Together, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, even if it was mainly Marie who did the work.

Marie herself died of radiation at age 66, and Rosamund Pike retells her life story in Marjane Satrapi's sincere period drama Radioactive .

12. Little Joe (2019)

Directed by Jessica Hausner

Starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox

Drama, Horror, Mystery (1h 45m)

5.8 on IMDb — 67% on RT

This one's geared towards the indie kids who aren't averse to a touch of horror. Little Joe is more creepy than scary, luring viewers in with a minimalist arthouse look that cinephiles often adore.

Jessica Hausner's international drama is about an invention-gone-wrong, centering on a plant breeder who creates a flower that's better than any antidepressant.

The more you care for this plant, the more it cares for you, pollinating the air with happy chemicals that soon turn into angry ones.

Alice (played by Emily Beecham) comes to regret smuggling one of these "Little Joe" plants home for her son, who slowly turns against her. Ben Whishaw also stars in this nuanced horror that was good enough to compete for the Palme d'Or.

11. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

Directed by Joe Johnston

Starring Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, Marcia Strassman

Adventure, Comedy, Family (1h 33m)

6.4 on IMDb — 76% on RT

The tone of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is perfectly encapsulated by its title. But this silly film has more heart to it than you'd expect!

Wayne Szalinski (played by Rick Moranis) is your stereotypical eccentric scientist. He's a lot like Dr. Frankenstein, except he lives in a suburban family home and isn't surrounded by all the usual horrors.

When Wayne's son and the neighbor's kid enter the attic to retrieve a baseball, Wayne's latest ray gun accidentally shrinks the both of them. As you can imagine, a whole range of funny stuff can be made from this basic plotline, including giant killer ants.

Joe Johnston's wholesome sci-fi flick is filled with family fun, equally enjoyable by kids and adults. It's nostalgic, it's original, and it was followed by a sequel ( Honey, I Blew Up the Kid ) in 1992.

10. Primer (2004)

Directed by Shane Carruth

Starring Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden

Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller (1h 17m)

6.8 on IMDb — 73% on RT

Time travel has been tackled many different ways throughout cinema. I could have easily put The Time Machine on this list, but I'm giving the spot to a lesser-known indie movie that'll warp your mind.

Shane Carruth wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his psychological sci-fi flick where two engineers accidentally discover time travel.

This little time machine of theirs ends up putting them in a pickle as they face the issues that arise when interfering with the historical timeline.

Carruth explores the outlandish idea of time travel in a grounded way, hence two guys in a dingy room with shirts on. The science behind it is surprisingly solid, adding layers to Carruth's realist slice of sci-fi.

9. The Professor and the Madman (2019)

Directed by P. B. Shemran

Starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Eddie Marsan

Biography, Drama, History (2h 4m)

7.2 on IMDb — 41% on RT

Everything had to come from somewhere, and that includes the dictionary. What you might not know is that the first English dictionary took 70 years to write, much of which was done by a schizophrenic murderer in a prison cell. At least, that's how everyone saw him.

Dr. William Chester Minor was actually a troubled genius hell-bent on atoning for his sins. Sean Penn portrays the "madman" with grit and honor, encapsulating his guilt at having killed a man out of delusion.

Eventually, the guards at Broadmoor come to respect William, as does the linguistics professor he converses with.

James Murray (played by Mel Gibson) took lead of the Oxford English Dictionary project when everything came to a halt, and he took on the dual challenge of publishing it and setting William free.

8. The Current War (2017)

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Oliver Powell, Sophia Ally

Biography, Drama, History (1h 42m)

6.5 on IMDb — 61% on RT

Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse are two huge names in history—both inventors, businessmen, and electrical pioneers. Edison is particularly famous for giving us the lightbulb, and then cinema itself with the first motion picture camera!

But whereas Edison promoted the Direct Current to be used across America, engineer/entrepreneur Westinghouse believed it should be the Alternating Current. Thus, their famous conflict began.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon star as the feuding men, alongside Nicholas Hoult who makes an appearance as Nikola Tesla. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon directs this crowd-pleasing period drama that boasts a cast list as dazzling as their characters' inventions.

7. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Starring Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau

Biography, Comedy, Drama (1h 50m)

6.9 on IMDb — 81% on RT

In Tucker: The Man and His Dream , Francis Ford Coppola delights us with a kitschy, all-American historical comedy about Preston Tucker, the automobile man who released the Tucker 48 sedan in 1948.

The charismatic innovator only saw 51 models hit the ground before he declared bankruptcy. As loved as he was, Tucker was also a bit of a sleaze—and after manufacturing problems, he faced fraud accusations.

Coppola takes us through a whirlwind of scandals and corruption until Tucker is eventually acquitted, but dies of cancer not long after his trial.

Many features of the Tucker 48 are now found in modern cars, so we have a lot to thank him for! Coppola's biopic is condensed but keeps with the spirit of Tucker, vividly portrayed by Jeff Bridges.

6. Steve Jobs (2015)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen

Biography, Drama (2h 2m)

7.2 on IMDb — 85% on RT

"You can't write code. You're not an engineer. You're not a designer. You can't put a hammer to a nail." Steve Wozniak to Steve Jobs

Co-founder Steve Wozniak was the brain behind Apple, which is now the biggest tech company on Earth. So, why does Jobs get all the credit?

Danny Boyle exposes Jobs for having less to do with the making of Apple than many think he did. However, when Mac was in trouble, it was Jobs who returned as CEO to save the company and subsequently launch it into domination.

Boyle's slick biopic shows us a 14-year chunk of Jobs's life. The notoriously spearheaded business tycoon is perfectly embodied by Michael Fassbender—cold to the touch and sometimes a little cruel.

5. Back to the Future (1985)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi (1h 56m)

8.5 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Doc Brown didn't just invent a time machine—he made one out of a DeLorean! The gull-winged sportscar was a famously terrible vehicle, but the Back to the Future trilogy gave it a new legacy.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a skateboarding teen who's friends with the crazy local scientist Doc Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd).

Nobody approves of this friendship—and if Marty listened to them, he wouldn't end up fighting the space-time continuum across timelines!

In the first film, Marty is sent back to 1955, where his mother accidentally falls in love with him. A bit disturbing, but Back to the Future is actually a heartwarming 80s classic, forever referenced in pop culture.

4. The Imitation Game (2014)

Directed by Morten Tyldum

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode

Biography, Drama, Thriller (1h 54m)

8.0 on IMDb — 90% on RT

The Imitation Game managed to take one of the most important but overlooked figures in modern history and make him known by the public.

Alan Turing's Enigma machine didn't just help defeat the Nazis and win the Second World War—it was a prototype for the first computer!

Sadly, Turing was treated poorly during his short life. He was a homosexual (illegal at the time) who had undiagnosed autism, plus all his heroism was kept secret by the government.

After he was arrested and forced into hormonal therapy, Alan Turing eventually committed suicide at age 41.

Benedict Cumberbatch was perfectly cast to play the misunderstood genius. Morten Tyldum's very British biopic has us alternate between marveling and crying, told with sympathy and prestige.

3. The Aviator (2004)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale

Biography, Drama (2h 50m)

7.5 on IMDb — 86% on RT

Howard Hughes showed a knack for engineering at a young age, and he used it to become one of the richest people in the world.

Hughes's biggest interests were in the film and aviation industries. Not only did he make the most expensive film ever made (at the time), he helped build the H-4 Hercules airlift flying boat.

The Aviator shows us just how finnicky Hughes was—a perfectionist who spent three years directing Hell's Angels and didn't actually complete the H-4 Hercules until after the war was over.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a stunning performance as the headstrong magnate whose mind gradually unravels. The Aviator is one of the best films by Martin Scorsese, who color grades the biopic with only the shades that were available back in the 1930s.

2. The Prestige (2006)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson

Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi (2h 10m)

8.5 on IMDb — 76% on RT

Nikola Tesla makes another appearance on this list—albeit a relatively small one—in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige .

Played by glam rock icon David Bowie, Tesla helps a magician build a teleportation device. Annoyingly for him, it doesn't actually transport objects (or people) away. Instead, it doubles them.

The Prestige is centered on a feud between two rival magicians in Edwardian London, who compete to perform the ultimate trick. And with Nolan being Nolan, the movie itself turns out to be a trick.

1. The Social Network (2010)

Directed by David Fincher

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake

Biography, Drama (2h)

7.8 on IMDb — 96% on RT

If you aren't a fan of dialogue-heavy drama and prefer action-packed blockbusters, you might disagree with my top pick—but when it comes to movies about inventions, The Social Network is one of the best.

The Social Network is the kind of film where you can really feel the presence of its script. Written by Aaron Sorkin, we're treated to a fast-talking Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, who goes on to invent Facebook and ends up in a big mess afterwards.

Mark Zuckerberg isn't nearly as unlikable as he's depicted to be in The Social Network , as David Fincher leans heavily on artistic license to direct such a masterful, compelling movie. That aside, it's truly one of the best movies about inventions ever made.

Five award-winning short films made by researchers that you should watch

Senior Research Fellow, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University

Lecturer in Media and Communications., University of Sussex

Senior Lecturer in Television and Film Production, Bournemouth University

Disclosure statement

The research project was led by Amanda Ravetz in partnership with Mark Prest, founding director of PORe (Portraits of Recovery), GMRF and in2recovery, and funded by the AHRC through the Connected Communities programme.

Pollyanna Ruiz received funding for the project from the AHRC.

Sue Sudbury's film was partially funded by the WorldView Development Fund. She also runs a production company, Sequoia Films.

Manchester Metropolitan University , Bournemouth University , and University of Sussex provide funding as members of The Conversation UK.

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The art of storytelling through film is a powerful tool for understanding the world we live in, from its mind-boggling complexities to simple tales that lift the soul. Academic research seeks to shed light on many of the questions about our world and through film it can engage and inspire. Here, three of the five winners of the Research in Film Awards , set up to recognise the best in film-making from arts and humanities research, write about the films they made and the people from diverse walks of life who shared their stories.

Wonderland: The Art of Becoming Human, Amanda Ravetz, Manchester Metropolitan University

The film attempts to capture the ambitions of a group of people in recovery from substance use disorder to “feel and be felt by other feeling people”. This is the phrase Will Self uses in the introduction to the Recoverist Manifesto on recovering from addiction. I think it’s a fitting description of what unfolds over the course of the film.

We see and hear participants connecting emotionally and aesthetically with themselves and each other and we witness in a small way the centrality of emotional truth-making to recovery. Feelings are central to the methodology used by Cristina Nuñez, the artist who features in the film. Nuñez uses photographic self-portraiture to explore human vulnerability, allowing those who take part, as she puts it, to: “turn shit into diamonds”.

The film was shot during two intensive three-day workshops run by Nuñez at the Manchester School of Art. The action unfolds within two slightly claustrophobic spaces – the photographic studio where participants are guided to take portraits and a classroom where the resulting images are reviewed by the group together. The message I hope the film conveys is that by bringing recovery and art together and hearing people speak their narratives as they want to tell them, people in recovery can throw off stigma and imagine better, more socially just futures.

Village Tales: Sue Sudbury, Bournemouth University

A group of young women in rural India were being trained as video reporters as part of a local government initiative to give women a voice. As child brides, they chose to make their first film about the problems of child marriage – a continuing practice in their villages. In Village Tales I filmed them as they made their own film and found out how the project was changing their lives. I also asked four of them if they would use their cameras to film their everyday lives and use video diaries to access their thoughts and feelings.

My intention was to locate “the third voice” - a concept created by Barbara Myerhoff in which, through participatory research , the filmmakers’ and subjects’ contributions are edited together to form a new perspective. Anthropologist Jay Ruby described such films as “blended in such a manner as to make it impossible to discern which voice dominates the work … films where outsider and insider visions coalesce”. Through this innovative layering of footage from different cameras, the audience is given a unique insight into the lives of rural women in India today.

You Can’t Move History: Pollyanna Ruiz, University of Sussex

You Can’t Move History was inspired by Long Live South Bank’s campaign to save a space in central London called the “undercroft” from being redeveloped. The film is part of a project into why successive generations of skaters have felt so strongly about this skating spot and how they have communicated these feelings to the wider public.

We drew upon a large body of archival material, including planning documents, newspaper reports and social media to inform the questions we asked the skaters. It was this detailed research that enabled us to elicit exactly why history could not be moved.

The film was collaboratively produced and features a mixed media of video, photos and documents combined with contemporary footage from many contributors. Editing together super wide-angle tracking shots with the clattering sounds of the undercroft created an evocative and unusually immersive experience that encapsulates key elements of the skater’s experience.

AWA: Zimbabwe’s Rap Queen: Max Thurlow, Noisey Raps

Rising rap star AWA tells her story as she prepares to perform at Zimbabwe hip-hop festival, Shoko, in the capital Harare. Her journey has taken her from one of the poorest ghettos in the country to impending success.

Caterthuns: Kieran Baxter, University of Dundee

Two prehistoric hill forts in the Grampian Mountains in Scotland are filmed from the air using aerial photography and reconstructed using digital techniques.

Best of the rest

160 Characters : Victoria Mapplebeck, Royal Holloway, University of London

After discovering an old series of text messages with a former partner, Mapplebeck’s film tells the story of dating, breaking up and dealing with unplanned pregnancy. Shot entirely on an iPhone 6.

They Call Us Maids – The Domestic Worker’s Story : Leeds Animation Workshop and Amy Charlesworth, The Open University.

An animated film telling the stories of migrant domestic workers and their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.

Timeline : Sara Penrhyn Jones, Bath Spa University

Comprising footage collected during seven years of climate activism, the film is a journey through Greenland’s melting landscapes to the low-lying South Pacific island of Kiribati.

Spiritual Flavours : Laura Cuch, University College London

Told using the experience of cooking in the home, the film follows Betty, Aziz and Ossie as they cook, eat and pray in their Catholic, Muslim and Jewish communities.

People Like Us : Tina Gharavi, Newcastle University

Academic and BAFTA-nominated Tina Gharavi follow former US death row prisoners coming to terms with life after being exonerated and released after wrongful convictions.

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Subject Guide

Film and television studies at American University

If you’re new to the American University Library’s website and have not used our resources much, this is a guide to the resources that should be considered when getting started with film studies research. Brief descriptions of the results of a sample search in various databases are used to illuminate the breadth and depth of the databases listed.

The filmmaker Atom Egoyan is the example used partly because his name is distinctive and doesn’t yield too many false hits and secondly his work isn’t mainstream or what one might consider popular so search results weren’t expected to be unmanageably large. The results should be substantial enough to indicate the strengths of some of the databases available to the AU community and encourage individuals researching lesser known films and filmmakers.

Atom Egoyan (1960-) was born in Cairo, raised in Canada,  and is an ethnic Armenian. He began making films in the early 1980s and is probably best known for   Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter   (1997), and   Ararat   (2002). His films often deal with the themes of isolation, alienation, and loss. He has won many international film awards and has been the subject of considerable critical attention.  

In the sample searches the keywords “atom” and “egoyan” were searched together but not as a phrase – in order to capture all incidences of his name including subject headings that placed his last name first and articles that may have included a middle name or initial.

NOTE : Unless noted, remote access to these databases, such as from your home or office, is restricted to American University students, faculty, and staff. For a full list of our ALADIN databases (with descriptive notes), go to the Databases link on our homepage. Also note some of the databases do not contain full-text. For assistance in locating articles found in the citation-only databases, please contact the AU Library Reference Desk or call (202/885-3238).

Don't forget print The list is composed only of electronic resources, but thorough film studies research still requires extensive use of print resources as well. For a guide to some of the standard film studies reference books available at the AU Library go to our  Film and Television Studies Print Reference Guides .

• Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window Mostly interviews with the filmmaker.
• Encyclopedia Brittanica Online References to Egoyan in the context of Canadian cinema and in the Performing Arts sections of various Book of the Year editions.
• FIAF International Film Archive This link opens in a new window Results from a broad international collection of film periodicals. A high percentage of articles are written in languages other than English. The database cites articles from a variety of scholarly, industry and aficionado journals on film. It contains no full-text of articles.
• Google Scholar This feature of the ubiquitous search engine claims to be the definitive way to search for scholarly articles on the web. Results vary wildly from scholarly articles to cryptic web pages. Results are ranked by the number of times the works are cited in other scholarly publications. When Google Scholar is used from an AU affiliated computer, search results will include a search in catalog link to find consortium owned books or will include a Full text at AU link if an article is available in an AU database. Editors choice.
• Internet Movie Database (IMDB) This free database contains biographical information and a thorough filmography of works for which Egoyan has written, directed, produced, edited, and/or acted. Each film has its own entry. Entries include a wide variety of information including credits, filming locations, box office, trivia, and user comments. Editors choice.
• Movie Review Query Engine This free database with links to full-text movie reviews must be searched by individual title. Editors choice.
• PapersFirst (Worldwide Conference Papers) This link opens in a new window This is a database with partial full-text coverage. It’s not strong in film studies subjects.
• Periodicals Index Online (PIO) This link opens in a new window This article index focuses on thirty-seven subject headings in the humanities. Film Studies are lumped into Performing Arts. Since PIO is just an index, it doesn’t contain full-text articles but does provide links to full-text in other databases when available. There is overlap with other full-text databases on this list so for film studies research this need only be consulted in the course of an exhaustive literature search. Periodicals Archive Online does provide full-text articles and includes one relatively thorough review of a book about Egoyan.
• Proquest Research Library At the bottom of the search screen, select "magazine"
• VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever An online e-book of the print movie guide. VideoHound provides very brief information about films such as cast, crew and plot summary.
• WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window Primarily book citations (including some in French, Spanish, German, and Italian), and film/video citations. Note: Worldcat is a union catalog of holdings from libraries around the world and since a given title may have been released in different editions or different formats, it’s not unusual to find multiple (and sometimes many) records for the same title.
• Next: Film/Television Studies Databases >>
• Last Updated: Jul 30, 2024 3:43 PM
• URL: https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/c.php?g=175106

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Film Analysis Guide: Film & Media Studies Program

• Film Analysis Guide The Film Analysis Guide is intended to familiarize faculty and students with the vocabulary of film studies and the techniques of cinema. Related links are provided as appropriate.

Related Websites and Guides

• Yale Film and Media Studies Program
• Yale Film Archive
• Yale Film Archive Guide to Film Resources
• Japanese Reference Materials for Japanese Cinema
• Latin American & Spanish Film
• Streaming Video at Yale

About this Guide

This site provides a guide to conducting research in Film & Media Studies at Yale University, highlighting key resources and crucial search strategies. There are many special aspects to doing Film & Media Studies research, including:

• important search terms
• techniques for finding videos, reviews, and screenplays
• cast and crew information

Most of the pages give examples that you can use as models for searches, descriptions of the main resources, and tips on how to use databases.

• Next: Find Books, Articles, Videos & More >>
• Last Updated: Mar 24, 2024 11:29 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/film

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Count “1992” as one of those films with its heart in the right place but its execution in the wrong space. Set on April 29, 1992, the day of the Rodney King verdict, this is a surprisingly uncomplicated film, one that attempts to balance its heist-thriller elements with its combustible racial milieu. It features Tyrese Gibson as a single father named Mercer, working to protect his teenage son Antoine (Christopher Ammanuel) from the surrounding violence only to upset an ensuing robbery led by Lowell (the late Ray Liotta) and his crew. There are shootouts, a car chase, some heroics and some hard life lessons—but this film isn’t breaking new ground on either the action or socio-political front.   

Director Ariel Vromen’s “1992” often plays like a significantly lesser mishmash of Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit” and John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13.” It poses a one-night structure that puts to test the resolve of its Black protagonist to simply survive the night whether through brunt force or through pained civility. And while certain thrills can be had from its nuts and bolts construction, you’re left wanting this film to lessen its well-worn genre elements in deference to the difficult father-son dynamics it initially sells.   

Those dynamics, in an on-the-nose script written by Vromen and Sascha Penn, come in two forms. The first arises between Mercer and Antoine. The former was recently released from prison six months ago, and now he’s working on not going back by staying away from the gang he once ran with and by plying his trade as a maintenance worker in a plant. Mercer, of course, doesn’t want Antoine to follow in his footsteps. So he has the teen, despite Antoine’s charge that he’s being locked in a proverbial cage by his dad, to return directly home from school. The film’s other strained father-son relationship is Riggin Bigby (Scott Eastwood) and his father Lowell. It’s Riggin who thinks up a get-rich-quick scheme, proposing that Lowell’s gang rob Mercer’s plant where there happens to be $10 million worth of platinum—with the uprising associated with the Rodney King verdict providing the perfect cover for their plan. 

Of the two threads, it’s clear that Mercer and Antoine have a far more potent relationship. Through their eyes we are transported back to the hood films of the 1990s, where the potential for danger seems to rise higher around every corner. It’s here Mercer is still a local legend for his violent ways. In the film’s first half, Gibson remains stoic, as though he is afraid that any show of emotion will lead to trouble. The same could be said of his hunched posture, the way his body is swallowed up by the oversized jumpsuit he wears to work. This is a man attempting to change himself from the inside out. When Mercer’s acquiescence is thrown against Antoine’s fervent desire for revenge following the verdict, an enthralling explosiveness develops between the two. Unfortunately that energy is often undone by the film’s frank dialogue and blunt scenarios, such as a police barricaded roadblock that nearly goes wrong. 

That father-son relationship only leaves the other more wanting. We know that Riggin is tired of working for his dad and his band of petty criminals. He also wants to take his younger, sensitive brother away from Lowell. Beyond that the writing just sorta stops. There are very few scenes between Liotta and Eastwood, which admittedly, might have been out of Vromen’s hands. We’re not sure why Riggin hates Lowell and vise-versa. Nor do we get a sense of Lowell. Liotta is delivering his lines with confidence, but they don’t string together into a complete character. He is merely violent and heartless, and not much else. 

Fascinatingly, these two families do not immediately meet. In fact, Lowell and his crew are halfway done with their robbery, over halfway through the film, before Antoine and Mercer stumble onto their criminality. The film then becomes a fight for survival as Mercer and Antoine attempt to avoid Lowell’s wrath. Though the majority of the action happens in these scenes, the film, mysteriously, appears to slow down. There is no suspense to Mercer brawling with Lowell’s men. Maybe that’s because it’s all been thrown together at the last minute, casting away the pleasures of seeing rivalries and vendettas that have naturally been developed over the course of the picture? Or maybe it’s because the shooting of these sequences is fairly rudimentary?

In any case, “1992” doesn’t wear its genre elements well. It can also struggle in the edit too, such as the clumsy integration of archival footage from the Los Angeles uprising. Vromen can’t decide whether to show us those images via the television, whose broadcasts of the news often occupy the back of the composition or to show it as a documentary. The score also feels mismatched, opting for syncopated jazz music in a film that plays as far too sweaty and far too grimy for such precise percussion. 

And yet, it’s difficult to wholly disavow this film. There is an albeit obvious tension in two Black men avoiding these white criminals while in the film’s outer world white folks are steering clear of Black protestors. There is also a palpable anger felt by Mercer and Antoine that the film understands. And Liotta, in his final completed film, is a plus presence. You just wish all of those elements came together in a movie that had the ability to lean on its human components and find drama in their relationships rather than pushing them aside for lackluster set pieces in a conventional social picture.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the  New York Times ,  IndieWire , and  Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the  Los Angeles Times , and  Rolling Stone  about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

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174 Film Research Paper Topics To Inspire Your Writing

Also known as a moving picture or movie, the film uses moving images to communicate or convey everything from feelings and ideas to atmosphere and experiences. The making of movies, as well as the art form, is known as cinematography (or cinema, in short). The film is considered a work of art. The first motion pictures were created in the late 1880s and were shown to only one person at a time using peep show devices. By 1985, movies were being projected on large screens for large audiences.

Film has a rich and interesting history, as well as a bright future given the current technological advancements. This is why many professors will really appreciate it if you write a research paper on movies. However, to write a great paper, you need a great topic.

In this blog post, we will give you our latest list of 174 film research paper topics. They should be excellent for 2023 and should get you some bonus points for originality and creativity. As always, our topics are 100% free to use as you see fit. You can reword them in any way you like and you are not required to give us any credit.

Writing Good Film Research Paper

Before we get to the film topics for research papers in our list, you need to learn how you can write the best possible film research paper. It’s not overly complicated, don’t worry. Here are some pointers to get you started:

Start as early as possible Start your project with an outline that will keep you focused on what’s important Spend some time to find a great topic (or just use one of ours) Research every angle of the topic Spend some time composing the thesis statement Always use information from reliable sources Make sure you cite and reference properly Edit and proofread your work to make it perfect. Alternatively, you can rely on our editors and proofreaders to help you with this.

Now it’s time to pick your topic. We’ve made things easy for you, so all you have to do is go through our neatly organized list and select the topic you like the most. If you already know something about the topic, writing the paper shouldn’t take you more than 1 or 2 days, however if you have no desire to spend a lot of time on your assignment, thesis writing help from our professionals is on its way. Pick your topic now:

Easy Film Research Topics

We know most students are not too happy about spending days working on their research papers. This is why we have compiled a list of easy film research topics just for our readers:

• What was the Electrotachyscope?
• Research the history of film
• Describe the first films ever made
• Talk about the Kinetoscope
• Who were Auguste and Louis Lumière?
• An in-depth look at film during World War I
• Talk about the evolution of sound in motion pictures
• Most popular movie actors of all time
• The life and works of Charles Chaplin
• The life and works of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein
• Discuss the Mutoscope device
• Talk about the introduction of natural color in films

Film Topics To Write About In High School

If you are a high school student, you probably want some topics that are not overly complicated. Well, the good news is that we have plenty of film topics to write about in high school. Check them out below:

• An in-depth analysis of sound film
• Research the shooting of Le Voyage dans la Lune
• Talk about the Technicolor process
• Research the film industry in India
• The growing popularity of television
• Discuss the most important aspects of film theory
• The drawbacks of silent movies
• Cameras used in 1950s movies
• The most important cinema movie of the 1900s
• Research the montage of movies in the 1970s
• The inception of film criticism
• Discuss the film industry in the United States

Interesting Film Paper Topics

Are you looking for the most interesting film paper topics so that you can impress your professor and your fellow students? We are happy to say that you have arrived at just the right place. Here are our latest ideas:

• Are digital movies much different from films?
• Research the evolution of cinematography
• Research the role of movies in Indian culture
• The principles of a cinema camera
• Technological advancements in the film industry
• The use of augmented reality in movies
• Talk about the role of film in American culture
• An in-depth look at the production cycle of a film
• The role of the filming crew on the set
• Latest cameras for cinematography
• An in-depth look at the distribution of films
• How are animated movies made?

Controversial Movie Topics

Why would you be afraid to write your paper on a controversial topic? Perhaps you didn’t know that most professors really appreciate the effort and the innovative ideas. Below, you can find a whole list of controversial movie topics for students:

• An in-depth look at Cannibal Holocaust
• Controversies behind Fifty Shades of Gray
• A Clockwork Orange: the banned movie
• All Quiet on the Western Front: a controversial war movie
• Discuss The Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie
• Apocalypse Now: one of the most banned movies
• Brokeback Mountain and the controversies surrounding it
• Talk about The Last Temptation of Christ
• The Birth of a Nation: the movie that was banned in America

Movie Topics Ideas For College

As you probably know already, college students should choose topics that are a bit more complex than those picked by high school students. The good news is that we have compiled a list of the best movie topics ideas for college students below:

• Methods to bring your sketches to life
• Discuss problems with documentary filming
• War movies and their impact on society
• What does a director actually do on the set?
• Talk about state-sanctioned movies in China
• Research cinematography in North Korea
• Talk about psychological reactions to films
• Research the good versus evil theme
• African Americans in the 1900s cinematography in the US
• Discuss the creation of sound for films

Hottest Film Topics To Date

Our writers and editors did their best to compile a list of the hottest film topics to date. You can safely pick any of the topics below and write your essay or research paper on it. You should be able to find plenty of information online about each and every topic:

• The life and works of Alfred Hitchcock
• Talk about racial discrimination in war movies
• The psychology behind vampire movies
• The life and works of Samuel L. Jackson
• Classic opera versus modern movie soundtracks
• Hollywood versus Bollywood
• The life and works of tom Hanks
• Research the Frankenstein character
• Major contributions by women in cinematography
• The life and works of Harrison Ford
• The 3 most popular topics for a moving picture

Good Movie Topics For 2023

We know, you probably want some topics that relevant today. You want to talk about something new and exciting. Well, we’ve got a surprise for you. This list of good movie topics for 2023 has just been added to the blog post, and you can use it for free:

• The life and works of Will Smith
• Why do people love movie monsters?
• Talk about the popularity of fan movies
• The life and works of Morgan Freeman
• Gender inequality in UK films
• Research movies that were produced because of video games
• The life and works of Anthony Hopkins
• The importance of the Golden Raspberry Award
• Outer space: the future of cinematography
• Compare today’s filming techniques to those in the 1950s
• The importance of winning a Golden Globe Award

Fascinating Film Topics

Are you looking for some of the most fascinating film topics one can ever find online? Our experts have outdone themselves this time. Check out our list of ideas below and choose the topic you like the most:

• Talk about the development of Star Wars
• Talk about spaghetti western movies
• Discuss the filming of Pride and Prejudice
• Research fantasy films
• The most popular movie genre in 2023
• What makes a movie a blockbuster?
• Filming for the Interstellar movie
• Peculiarities of Bollywood cinema
• Talk about the era of Hitchcock
• Discuss the role of motion pictures in society
• Talk about Neo-realism in Italian movies
• Research the filming of A Fistful of Dollars

The History Of Film Topics

Writing about the history of film and cinematography can be a good way to earn some bonus points from your professor. However, it’s not an easy thing to do. Fortunately, we have a list of the history of film topics right here for you, so you don’t have to waste any time searching:

• Research the first ever motion picture
• Discuss the idea behind moving images
• Research the Pioneer Era
• Talk about the introduction of sound in movies
• Talk about the Silent Era
• Who created the first ever movie?
• Discuss the Golden Era of cinematography
• The era of changes in 2023
• The rise of Hollywood cinematography
• Discuss the first color movie
• Research the first horror movie
• Discuss the phrase “No one person invented cinema”

Famous Cinematographers Topics

You can, of course, write your next research paper on the life and works of a famous or popular cinematographer. You have plenty to choose from. However, we’ve already selected the best famous cinematographers topics for you right here:

• The life and works of Sir Roger Deakins
• Research the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
• An in-depth look at Bill Pope
• Research the cinematographer Gordon Willis
• The life and works of Wally Pfister
• An in-depth look at Robert Burks
• Research the cinematographer Stanley Cortez
• The life and works of Conrad Hall
• An in-depth look at Rodrigo Prieto
• The life and works of Claudio Miranda
• Emmanuel Lubezki
• An in-depth look at Jack Cardiff
• Research the cinematographer Michael Ballhaus
• The life and works of Kazuo Miyagawa

Famous Films Topic Ideas

The easiest and fastest way to write an essay or research paper about movies is to write about a famous movie. Take a look at these famous films topic ideas and start writing your paper today:

• Research A Space Odyssey
• Research the movie Seven Samurai
• Cinematography techniques in There Will Be Blood
• Discuss the film The Godfather
• An in-depth look at La Dolce Vita
• Research the movie Citizen Kane
• Cinematography techniques in Goodfellas
• An in-depth look at the Aliens series
• Cinematography techniques in Singin’ in the Rain
• Research the movie Mulholland Drive
• An in-depth look at In The Mood For Love
• Research the movie City Lights

The Future Of Movies Topic Ideas

Did you ever wonder what the movies of the future will look like? We can guarantee that your professor has thought about it. Surprise him by writing your paper on one of these the future of movies topic ideas:

• The future of digital films
• Discuss animation techniques of the future
• The future of cinematography cameras
• How do you view the actors of the future?
• Will digital releases eliminate the need for DVDs?
• The role of streaming services in the future
• Talk about the direct-to-consumer distribution concept
• Is cinematography a good career for the future?
• Will movie theaters disappear?
• Virtual reality in future films
• The rise of Pixar Studios

Awesome Cinema Topic Ideas

Our experts have just finished completing this section of the topics list. Here, you will find some of the most awesome cinema topic ideas. These should all work great in 2023, so give them a try today:

• The concept of the Road Movie
• Review the film “Donnie Brasco”
• The popularity of musical movies
• A comprehensive history of cinematography
• Discuss the A Beautiful Mind movie
• Compare watching movies now and in the 1990s
• Talk about film narrative
• The importance of the main characters in a movie
• The process of selecting the right actor for the role
• Well-known produces in the United States
• The most popular actors in 2023
• Research Nazi propaganda films

Simple Cinema Essay Ideas

If you want to write about cinematography but don’t want to spend too much time researching the topic, you could always choose one of our simple cinema essay ideas. New ideas are added to this list periodically:

• Discuss the concept of limited animation
• War movies during World War II
• The importance of James Bond for Americans
• What is docufiction?
• The traits of a filmophile
• The success of early crime movies
• An in-depth look at Hanna-Barbera
• The transition from VHS tape to DVD
• Best comedy movies ever made
• Discuss the Film Noir genre
• What is a Blaxploitation?
• The best samurai film ever produced

Movies And The Internet Topics

• How does piracy affect the movie industry?
• An in-depth look at Netflix
• Research the top 3 movie streaming websites
• Compare and contrast Netflix and Amazon Prime
• Should movies be shared for free online?
• The effects of online streaming on piracy
• Is pirating movies illegal everywhere?
• Illegal downloads of movies in North Korea
• Piracy: a form of film preservation
• The most pirated movies of the 21st century
• Research the best ways to stop film piracy
• The economic impact of movie piracy in the United States

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‘september 5’ filmmaker on tackling tragic event with tireless research, “highest respect”.

Director Tim Fehlbaum joined 'September 5' actors Leonie Benesch and Ben Chaplin at his film's Venice Film Festival press conference.

By Chris Gardner

Chris Gardner

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Tim Fehlbaum ‘s September 5 — a Venice Film Festival world premiere about the terrorist attack that occurred at the 1972 Munich Olympics — is not a documentary. But the filmmaker, who made a mark in science fiction films like The Colony and Hell , treated it like one.

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“When the idea came up for us to maybe tell the story [of September 5 ], it became a research conversation,” Fehlbaum said, adding that conversations with an eyewitness named Geoffrey Mason (played in the film by John Magaro) fueled the storyline and laid the foundation for how the project unfolded. He was also guided by a goal of approaching the sensitive subject “with the highest respect” possible.

First-time German screenwriter Moritz Binder penned the screenplay with Fehlbaum and co-writer Alex Davis. The 94-minute film is set in Munich inside the production hub of ABC Sports as the outlet is covering the 1972 Summer Olympics. The sports broadcasting team was forced to pivot from routine coverage of the games to breaking hard news when a group of Israeli athletes were taken hostage by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September. The terrorists infiltrated the Olympic Village where they took the hostages and killed two in quick order. Nine others were captured only to be tragically killed at the airport during a failed rescue attempt.

Rather than tell the story from inside the hostage situation, September 5 focuses on the broadcasting team’s experience and high-level decision-making in navigating a tense and tragic developing story that was seen by an estimated one billion people at the time. It had implications on live broadcasting and raised questions on the value of showing a view of the terrorists in real-time that reverberated for decades that followed. The full broadcast spanned 22 hours.

“We are used to following an event like this on a phone,” Fehlbaum said at the press conference. “We thought it could be interesting to take a step back to see how it was covered like this for the first time.” He added that while technology has changed, the questions a situation like this raises are still the same.

Other key pieces of research included chapters in the memoirs by McKay as well as Roone Arledge (played by Sarsgaard) and conversations with Sean McManus, the CBS Sports chief who is the son of McKay and who happened to be in Munich that day as a teenager.

“The original footage was a great source of research material,” Fehlbaum continued, adding that they also received police files and footage that allowed them to put together a view into what likely happened both in Munich and in the control room that day. Speaking of the control room, Fehlbaum and his collaborators, such as production designer Julian Wagner, sought to recreate a control room featuring monitors and tech of that time period. “Real devices and as authentic as possible,” he said. “Everything should be working.”

Asked how he related to the subject matter, Chaplin talked about his relationship to the current news landscape. “As a consumer of news, I worry about it all the time. It’s probably the thing I worry most about: How do we sustain as a species in a post-truth age where we can’t share objective facts? I relate to news coverage with great fear and worry.”

Co-star Leonie Benesch ( The Teachers’ Lounge , Babylon Berlin ) also weighed in. “I am a little addicted to news. I love following a news feed and that is something that helped me tap into what probably happened that night,” said the actress, who plays a translator with a key role as the events unfold. “I don’t love that I read news first thing in the morning and the last thing at night.”

In a director’s statement released to the press ahead of the festival, Fehlbaum said he was drawn to the “special angle” of the film’s story as it focused on the role of the media. “By focusing on the broadcaster’s perspective, we are confronted with the moral, ethical, professional, and ultimately psychological dilemmas of journalists: Can we share information before it is confirmed? Can a live broadcast include acts of violence? What is the role of media and journalism, and what is the line between news and spectacle?” he says in the statement.

September 5 will have a world premiere on the Lido on Thursday.

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New Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer showcases Peach, Donkey Kong, and Mario Kart

• Author: Dave Aubrey

The Super Mario Bros. Movie just might be the best video game movie yet

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to debut globally in April, and now we have a second trailer that showcases more of the movie adaptation of the beloved Mushroom Kingdom.

The new trailer kicks off with Mario entering a colosseum-like arena, only fought on a thin, red platform. He then gets his ass beat by Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong, who doesn’t speak a single word before pummeling the poor plumber.

It’s clear that in this movie Mario is out of his depth, a newbie in a strange world, quite unlike the polished professional we see in modern Mario games.

Another key highlight is Jack Black’s Bowser interrogating Charlie Day’s Luigi, to which he cries: “Do you think I know every human being with a mustache wearing an identical outfit with a hat with the letter of his first name on it? Because I don’t!” Very good.

Bowser is portrayed to be incredibly intimidating here, as Princess Peach also takes the spotlight, with Anya Taylor-Joy’s voice bringing the princess to life as she arms herself for war, trains Mario, and even takes control of a fire flower, giving the royal an appropriate outfit change.

We also get snapshots of Toads being cute, Captain Toad himself journeying with Mario, the Tanuki Suit power-up from the games, and much more.

The trailer finally climaxes with a Mario Kart race down Rainbow Road, with Chris Pratt’s Mario letting out a surprisingly muted “wahoo” as the plumber drifts down the track.

All in all The Super Mario Bros. Movie is managing to impress with every subsequent showcase of new footage, and we’re very excited to see the full thing in cinemas this April.

Peach wielding a Fire Flower

Princess Peach's throne room

The Mario Brothers

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Study reveals the benefits and downside of fasting

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Low-calorie diets and intermittent fasting have been shown to have numerous health benefits: They can delay the onset of some age-related diseases and lengthen lifespan, not only in humans but many other organisms.

Many complex mechanisms underlie this phenomenon. Previous work from MIT has shown that one way fasting exerts its beneficial effects is by boosting the regenerative abilities of intestinal stem cells, which helps the intestine recover from injuries or inflammation.

In a study of mice, MIT researchers have now identified the pathway that enables this enhanced regeneration, which is activated once the mice begin “refeeding” after the fast. They also found a downside to this regeneration: When cancerous mutations occurred during the regenerative period, the mice were more likely to develop early-stage intestinal tumors.

“Having more stem cell activity is good for regeneration, but too much of a good thing over time can have less favorable consequences,” says Omer Yilmaz, an MIT associate professor of biology, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the senior author of the new study.

Yilmaz adds that further studies are needed before forming any conclusion as to whether fasting has a similar effect in humans.

“We still have a lot to learn, but it is interesting that being in either the state of fasting or refeeding when exposure to mutagen occurs can have a profound impact on the likelihood of developing a cancer in these well-defined mouse models,” he says.

MIT postdocs Shinya Imada and Saleh Khawaled are the lead authors of the paper, which appears today in Nature .

Driving regeneration

For several years, Yilmaz’s lab has been investigating how fasting and low-calorie diets affect intestinal health. In a 2018 study , his team reported that during a fast, intestinal stem cells begin to use lipids as an energy source, instead of carbohydrates. They also showed that fasting led to a significant boost in stem cells’ regenerative ability.

However, unanswered questions remained: How does fasting trigger this boost in regenerative ability, and when does the regeneration begin?

“Since that paper, we’ve really been focused on understanding what is it about fasting that drives regeneration,” Yilmaz says. “Is it fasting itself that’s driving regeneration, or eating after the fast?”

In their new study, the researchers found that stem cell regeneration is suppressed during fasting but then surges during the refeeding period. The researchers followed three groups of mice — one that fasted for 24 hours, another one that fasted for 24 hours and then was allowed to eat whatever they wanted during a 24-hour refeeding period, and a control group that ate whatever they wanted throughout the experiment.

The researchers analyzed intestinal stem cells’ ability to proliferate at different time points and found that the stem cells showed the highest levels of proliferation at the end of the 24-hour refeeding period. These cells were also more proliferative than intestinal stem cells from mice that had not fasted at all.

“We think that fasting and refeeding represent two distinct states,” Imada says. “In the fasted state, the ability of cells to use lipids and fatty acids as an energy source enables them to survive when nutrients are low. And then it’s the postfast refeeding state that really drives the regeneration. When nutrients become available, these stem cells and progenitor cells activate programs that enable them to build cellular mass and repopulate the intestinal lining.”

Further studies revealed that these cells activate a cellular signaling pathway known as mTOR, which is involved in cell growth and metabolism. One of mTOR’s roles is to regulate the translation of messenger RNA into protein, so when it’s activated, cells produce more protein. This protein synthesis is essential for stem cells to proliferate.

The researchers showed that mTOR activation in these stem cells also led to production of large quantities of polyamines — small molecules that help cells to grow and divide.

“In the refed state, you’ve got more proliferation, and you need to build cellular mass. That requires more protein, to build new cells, and those stem cells go on to build more differentiated cells or specialized intestinal cell types that line the intestine,” Khawaled says.

Too much of a good thing

The researchers also found that when stem cells are in this highly regenerative state, they are more prone to become cancerous. Intestinal stem cells are among the most actively dividing cells in the body, as they help the lining of the intestine completely turn over every five to 10 days. Because they divide so frequently, these stem cells are the most common source of precancerous cells in the intestine.

In this study, the researchers discovered that if they turned on a cancer-causing gene in the mice during the refeeding stage, they were much more likely to develop precancerous polyps than if the gene was turned on during the fasting state. Cancer-linked mutations that occurred during the refeeding state were also much more likely to produce polyps than mutations that occurred in mice that did not undergo the cycle of fasting and refeeding.

“I want to emphasize that this was all done in mice, using very well-defined cancer mutations. In humans it’s going to be a much more complex state,” Yilmaz says. “But it does lead us to the following notion: Fasting is very healthy, but if you’re unlucky and you’re refeeding after a fasting, and you get exposed to a mutagen, like a charred steak or something, you might actually be increasing your chances of developing a lesion that can go on to give rise to cancer.”

Yilmaz also noted that the regenerative benefits of fasting could be significant for people who undergo radiation treatment, which can damage the intestinal lining, or other types of intestinal injury. His lab is now studying whether polyamine supplements could help to stimulate this kind of regeneration, without the need to fast.

“This fascinating study provides insights into the complex interplay between food consumption, stem cell biology, and cancer risk,” says Ophir Klein, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. “Their work lays a foundation for testing polyamines as compounds that may augment intestinal repair after injuries, and it suggests that careful consideration is needed when planning diet-based strategies for regeneration to avoid increasing cancer risk.”

The research was funded, in part, by Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research award, the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, and the Bridge Project, a partnership between the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

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A new study led by researchers at MIT suggests that fasting and then refeeding stimulates cell regeneration in the intestines, reports Katharine Lang for Medical News Today . However, notes Lang, researchers also found that fasting “carries the risk of stimulating the formation of intestinal tumors.” 

MIT researchers have discovered how fasting impacts the regenerative abilities of intestinal stem cells, reports Ed Cara for Gizmodo . “The major finding of our current study is that refeeding after fasting is a distinct state from fasting itself,” explain Prof. Ömer Yilmaz and postdocs Shinya Imada and Saleh Khawaled. “Post-fasting refeeding augments the ability of intestinal stem cells to, for example, repair the intestine after injury.” 

Prof. Ömer Yilmaz and his colleagues have discovered the potential health benefits and consequences of fasting, reports Max Kozlov for Nature . “There is so much emphasis on fasting and how long to be fasting that we’ve kind of overlooked this whole other side of the equation: what is going on in the refed state,” says Yilmaz.

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Chinese Game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Is an Instant Global Hit, Attracting Great Reviews, Praise at Home and Controversy Abroad

By Patrick Frater

Patrick Frater

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When was the last time a Chinese-developed video game created a global stir as boisterous as the launch of “ Black Myth: Wukong ”?

The noise is mostly plaudits for the quality of the game’s action, design and playability, which has been amplified by Chinese state media. But that has been dampened somewhat by clumsy censorship and attempts to sweep aside allegations of sexism at the company that developed “Wukong.”

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After a heady buildup that included 10 million views of the trailer on YouTube outside China and a further 56 million on Chinese video platform Bilibili, the game claimed more than 1.04 million concurrent players on gaming platform Steam within an hour of its Tuesday official upload. By Wednesday, that figure had risen to 2.2 million.

That kind of international success was not missed by China’s gamers or social media followers. More than 1.7 billion references to “Wukong” had been accumulated on the Weibo microblogging platform.

Chinese state media was just as quick to celebrate the game’s successful debut as a triumph for Chinese culture and technological progress. “[‘Wukong’] exemplifies the growing maturity of China’s gaming sector and integrated resource capabilities of Chinese producers,” said the state-backed tabloid Global Times.

“This release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles. With this breakthrough, the default language of a triple-A game is no longer English, but Chinese,” the official Xinhua news agency wrote in an editorial on Wednesday, translated by Reuters.

“Wukong” was hatched by Game Science, a Tencent-backed startup that had not previously produced a PC and console game, with its marketing handled by (20% owner) Hero Games.

Where most Chinese gaming is done via smartphones, and to a lesser extent personal computers, the initial release of “Wukong” is limited to the Sony PlayStation 5 and to PCs (via platforms Steam, Epic Games and Tencent’s WeGame).

Moreover, it sells as a one-time purchase of RMB268 ($37) for the standard version and RMB328 ($46) for a premium edition, rather than the typical Chinese “freemium” model, where a product is made available for free or little cost, but users then make multiple in-game micro-payments for benefits such as personalization and game powers or early access to new tiers and upgrades.

But the criticism is not of the game’s source material, design or entertainment value. Detractors have aimed their fire at Game Science and at the kind of censorship of discussion that is commonplace in China, but sits less comfortably in the west.

U.S.-based games and entertainment publication IGN last year published a report exposing instances of sexist behavior by multiple Game Science developers, misogynistic social media posts by founder and CEO Feng Ji and Yang Qi, the game’s artistic director, as well as the inclusion of sexual innuendo in the firm’s 2015 recruitment advertising materials. While the new product was being opened up for review by western media, the company’s refusal to comment on the executive’s moral values sparked the first signs of controversy — albeit mostly outside China. Game Science has still not made any comment on the allegations.

That grew along with anticipation that the game was on course to be a blockbuster. On Steam, discussion boards outside China were peppered with largely-unrelated criticism of the Chinese government and its president. Some of the comments appeared to come from inside China from users who would only have had access by using an (illegal) virtual private network.

In advance of the game’s launch, Hero Games invited overseas reviewers and selected players to preview the game, but it also required them to sign up to a set of guidelines, which some took as an request that they self-censor.

The guidelines appeared to reveal many of the current red lines in Chinese society. “The list of forbidden subjects laid out in a document under ‘Don’ts’ — politics, ‘feminist propaganda,’ COVID-19, China’s video game industry policies and other content that instigates negative discourse,” reports the New York Times.

The clampdown now appears to have eased and games approvals have increased this year, which make the arrival of a Chinese-developed AAA hit a further piece of positive news.

For some of China’s beleaguered tech and entertainment companies, the “’Wukong’ effect’s” impact on their valuation may allow them to see past the game’s overseas controversies. Hero Games owner Zhejiang Publishing saw its shares climb by their daily limit on Tuesday to reach a three-year high. CITIC Press, which is expected to publish a book of “Wukong” illustrations, was up by 20%. Tencent, the industry leader which earlier this month also reported some rebound in its Chinese games segment , held firm but its stock price was little changed.

The Global Times reports that private sector film company Huayi Brothers , which has endured a torrid period weighed down by debts and poor performance, may be the biggest winner on paper. Huayi recently disclosed that it holds 5% of Hero Games’ equity and, in turn, has seen its own share price climb by more than 70% since Aug. 14.

With the sexism and censorship controversies unlikely to have much impact inside China, Game Science and other Chinese developers are expected to continue trying their hand at developing other AAA games.

As investment bank Goldman Sachs wrote in a recent note, “We see signs that the government is recognizing the industry’s potential value for exports and culture, [not least of which was] the interview of Game Science’s founder by state media Xinhua agency ahead of its game launch.”

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