The upcoming AIM Annual Meeting and International Conference will take place in Mirandela on 13–15 May 2026, at the School of Communication, Public Management and Tourism (EsACT), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Cruzeiro Campus), in partnership with the Transdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development (CITeD). We invite scholars and researchers who study the moving image from various perspectives to submit their proposals in Portuguese, English or Spanish. Submissions received until 8 January 2026 will be peer-reviewed by the conference scientific committee. Notification of the accepted proposals will start in February 2026. Submit your proposal now!

Keynote speakers:

Julio Arce, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

Julio Arce is Professor and former Chair (2016-2024) of the Department of Musicology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He has conducted pioneering studies on the interactions between music and media, with special interests in music and broadcasting, music in silent cinema, popular genres and media, the representation of sexuality in the Spanish cinema of the transition, and the exchanges of music and musicians between Spain and Latin America. He was vice-president of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SIBE) and president of the commission for Music and Audiovisual Languages of the Spanish Society of Musicology. He was also a visiting professor to several universities, such as the U of California Los Angeles, U of Buenos Aires, the University Alberto Hurtado (Santiago de Chile) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales EHESS (Paris).

Sounds Over Silence. Challenges in Researching Music in Silent Film
The period between 1896 and 1927 is usually designated as the era of silent cinema. However, these denominations arose when the cinematograph incorporated sounds into the celluloid. From that moment on, films have not only included dialogue, music, and sound effects but have also employed silence as an expressive resource. As Béla Balázs and Robert Bresson pointed out, “sound cinema invented silence.” My dissertation, however, will address the sonic dimension of this cinema, mistakenly labelled as silent—from the first pre- cinematic experiences to the sound synchronization tests of the mid-1920s. I will expose the challenges and problems involved in researching such an extensive and complex period, in which the sound complement was dissociated from the physical support of the image and, in most cases, depended on the exhibitors, regardless of the creators’ intentions.

Yvonne Zimmermann, Marburg University, Germany

Yvonne Zimmermann is Professor of Media Studies at Marburg University, Germany. Her research focuses on the history/historiography and pragmatics of visual media. She has published widely on questions of film historiography and what is now called useful cinema. Among her recent publications are the co-authored book Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures (2021) and the co-edited volumes Films That Work Harder: The Global Circulation of Industrial Film (2024) and How Film Histories Were Made: Material, Methods, Discourses (2024) – all available in open access. She is the editor of a special issue on “Asta Nielsen, the Film Star System and the Introduction of the Long Feature Film” in Early Popular Visual Culture (2021) and a principal investigator in the DiCi-Hub project that explores and implements digital tools and methods in film and media studies.

Hans Richter and the Exchange of Film Culture: Exile and the Making of Film History
This talk uses the case of Hans Richter in exile(s) to reflect on film historiography, archival practice, and the production of value in film history. Focusing on the transatlantic circulation of Richter’s films, lectures, and teaching activities around 1940, it examines how archives, museums, and universities shaped what counted as film history at a moment of displacement and institutional consolidation. Particular attention is paid to marginal or neglected materials—such as sponsored films, educational works, and lecture prints—and to their uneasy status between art, utility, and historiographical bycatch. By foregrounding archival traces, gaps, and negotiations, the keynote argues that exile is not only a historical condition but a historiographical one. Film history, it suggests, is produced through practices of selection, preservation, and exchange that continuously assign cultural value and, as importantly, produce forms of neglect, marginalization, and historiographical invisibility—often precisely through objects and practices deemed secondary or peripheral.

Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews, UK

Dina Iordanova is a film and festival historian. She has published extensively on Balkan and Eastern European cinemas, on the cinemas of the Soviet republics, small national cinemas, and on transnational film industries and film festivals.  A native of Bulgaria, she is Emeritus Professor of Global Cinema at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She also held positions with the University of Texas at Austin, U of Chicago, U of Leicester and the U of Hong Kong and was a visiting professor to various other organisations in Europe and Asia. She regularly serves on film festival juries (e.g. Toronto IFF, Busan IFF, Yamagata DIFF, IDFA, etc.) and works with international film organisations, such as the European Film Academy. 

Beyond the Archive: Film Restoration and the Politics of Heritage Film Sidebars/Festivals
In the past decade, many of national and specialised film archives around the globe acquired the hardware and the skills to digitise and restore films. The digitisation of film legacies of lesser-seen film traditions (e.g. China, the Maghreb, the republics of the former Soviet Union) as well as of paranational or supranational film traditions (such as Romani or Sami) is well advanced. Specialised heritage film festivals (like Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Le Giornate del cinema muto in Pordenone, and others) are rising in visibility and reputation. An increasing number of large festivals have introduced sidebars for restored films (Cannes Classics, Venice Classics, Berlinale’s Retrospective & Classics, and others), and work closely with film archives and intermediaries. What are the results of this significant increase in digitisation and restoration activity so far? Do we see a more enriched picture? Has our understanding of the dynamics of film history changed? In my talk, I will discuss the global circuit of film restoration, festival consultants and peer reviewers, as reflected in the circuit of heritage film festivals and sidebars.

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  Julio Arce, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

  Julio Arce is Professor and former Chair (2016-2024) of the Department of Musicology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He has conducted pioneering studies on the interactions between music and media, with special interests in music and broadcasting, music in silent cinema, popular genres and media, the representation of sexuality in the Spanish cinema of the transition, and the exchanges of music and musicians between Spain and Latin America. He was vice-president of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SIBE) and president of the commission for Music and Audiovisual Languages of the Spanish Society of Musicology. He was also a visiting professor to several universities, such as the U of California Los Angeles, U of Buenos Aires, the University Alberto Hurtado (Santiago de Chile) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales EHESS (Paris).

  
  

  Sounds Over Silence. Challenges in Researching Music in Silent Film
  The period between 1896 and 1927 is usually designated as the era of silent cinema. However, these denominations arose when the cinematograph incorporated sounds into the celluloid. From that moment on, films have not only included dialogue, music, and sound effects but have also employed silence as an expressive resource. As Béla Balázs and Robert Bresson pointed out, “sound cinema invented silence.” My dissertation, however, will address the sonic dimension of this cinema, mistakenly labelled as silent—from the first pre- cinematic experiences to the sound synchronization tests of the mid-1920s. I will expose the challenges and problems involved in researching such an extensive and complex period, in which the sound complement was dissociated from the physical support of the image and, in most cases, depended on the exhibitors, regardless of the creators’ intentions.
  

• 

  Yvonne Zimmermann, Marburg University, Germany

  Yvonne Zimmermann is Professor of Media Studies at Marburg University, Germany. Her research focuses on the history/historiography and pragmatics of visual media. She has published widely on questions of film historiography and what is now called useful cinema. Among her recent publications are the co-authored book Advertising and the Transformation of Screen Cultures (2021) and the co-edited volumes Films That Work Harder: The Global Circulation of Industrial Film (2024) and How Film Histories Were Made: Material, Methods, Discourses (2024) – all available in open access. She is the editor of a special issue on “Asta Nielsen, the Film Star System and the Introduction of the Long Feature Film” in Early Popular Visual Culture (2021) and a principal investigator in the DiCi-Hub project that explores and implements digital tools and methods in film and media studies.

  
  

  Hans Richter and the Exchange of Film Culture: Exile and the Making of Film History
  This talk uses the case of Hans Richter in exile(s) to reflect on film historiography, archival practice, and the production of value in film history. Focusing on the transatlantic circulation of Richter’s films, lectures, and teaching activities around 1940, it examines how archives, museums, and universities shaped what counted as film history at a moment of displacement and institutional consolidation. Particular attention is paid to marginal or neglected materials—such as sponsored films, educational works, and lecture prints—and to their uneasy status between art, utility, and historiographical bycatch. By foregrounding archival traces, gaps, and negotiations, the keynote argues that exile is not only a historical condition but a historiographical one. Film history, it suggests, is produced through practices of selection, preservation, and exchange that continuously assign cultural value and, as importantly, produce forms of neglect, marginalization, and historiographical invisibility—often precisely through objects and practices deemed secondary or peripheral.
  

• 

  Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews, UK

  Dina Iordanova is a film and festival historian. She has published extensively on Balkan and Eastern European cinemas, on the cinemas of the Soviet republics, small national cinemas, and on transnational film industries and film festivals.  A native of Bulgaria, she is Emeritus Professor of Global Cinema at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She also held positions with the University of Texas at Austin, U of Chicago, U of Leicester and the U of Hong Kong and was a visiting professor to various other organisations in Europe and Asia. She regularly serves on film festival juries (e.g. Toronto IFF, Busan IFF, Yamagata DIFF, IDFA, etc.) and works with international film organisations, such as the European Film Academy. 

  
  

  Beyond the Archive: Film Restoration and the Politics of Heritage Film Sidebars/Festivals
  In the past decade, many of national and specialised film archives around the globe acquired the hardware and the skills to digitise and restore films. The digitisation of film legacies of lesser-seen film traditions (e.g. China, the Maghreb, the republics of the former Soviet Union) as well as of paranational or supranational film traditions (such as Romani or Sami) is well advanced. Specialised heritage film festivals (like Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Le Giornate del cinema muto in Pordenone, and others) are rising in visibility and reputation. An increasing number of large festivals have introduced sidebars for restored films (Cannes Classics, Venice Classics, Berlinale’s Retrospective & Classics, and others), and work closely with film archives and intermediaries. What are the results of this significant increase in digitisation and restoration activity so far? Do we see a more enriched picture? Has our understanding of the dynamics of film history changed? In my talk, I will discuss the global circuit of film restoration, festival consultants and peer reviewers, as reflected in the circuit of heritage film festivals and sidebars.