Past Essay Contests
2025 Essay Contest Winners
Histories in the Shadows: Cinematic Resistance in Taiwanese and Hong Kong New Wave
Essay by Kiki Hu '28 for Chinese & Sinophone Cinemas Course in Fall 2024
First Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2025
Cloud Atlas and the Globalization of Cinema
Essay by Ben Rotko '25 for German Cinema Course in Fall 2024
Second Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2025
Farewell My Concubine and Its Censorship Saga
Essay by Rocio Guay '25 for Queer Media Course in Fall 2024
Third Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2025
The Spectacular Cinematic Utopia of Oz
Essay by Jayho So '26 for American Narrative Cinema Course in Spring 2025
Honorable Mention in FMST Critical Essay Contest in 2025
2024 Essays
Bridging Cultures Through Animation: Exploring the Tension and Intersection of East Asian and Western Values in Contemporary Animated Features
Essay by Liya Hughes '24 for Animation and Media Course in Fall 2023
First Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2024
Bong Joon-ho and Transnational Flow Through Auteurism
Essay by Rocio Guay '25 for Critical Approaches to World Cinema Course in Fall 2023
Second Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2024
The Boy Who Swallowed a Star: Transformational Synthesis in Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Essay by Josephine Low '27 for Animation and Media Course in Fall 2023
Third Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2024
Demystifying the Voice of AI
Essay by Anastasia Lewis '24 for FMST Capstone in Spring 2024
Honorable Mention in FMST Critical Essay Contest in 2024
2023 Essays
AIDS and Time Travel: 12 Monkeys and Philadelphia
Essay by Rachel Lapides '23 for Popular Music and Media Course in Spring 2023
First Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2023
2001: A Jeanne Dielman Odyssey (or, Passivity and Agency in Safe)
Essay by Jake Rothman '23 for FMST Capstone in Spring 2023
Second Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2023
Kamen Rider Black Sun: Tokusatsu’s Past, Present, and Future
Essay by Ben Rotko '25 for Television Studies Course in Spring 2023
Third Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2023
From Theater to Thriller: The Evolution of Horror Television
Essay by Ellie Tsapatsaris '24 for Television Studies Course in Spring 2023
Third Place FMST Critical Essay Award Winner in 2023
2021 Essays
Maria Braun and the Formulation of a Nation
Essay by Chili Shi '22 for German Cinema Course in January Term 2021
Co-Winner of FMST Critical Essay Award in 2021
The Politics of Yesterday Girl
Essay by Isabelle Titcomb '22 for German Cinema Course in January Term 2021
Honorable Mention in FMST Critical Essay Contest in 2021
