About Senses of Cinema

Senses of Cinema

Senses of Cinema is a quarterly online film journal based in Melbourne, Australia, devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. Founded in late 1999 by independent filmmaker Bill Mousoulis, it is one of the first online film journals of its kind in the world and has set the standard for professional, high-quality film criticism on the internet. Publishing work by critics from around the globe — critical essays, career overviews of great directors, festival coverage and interviews — it is freely available to all readers and indexed in the National Library of Australia's APAIS database.

Overview

Senses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine, owned by Senses of Cinema Inc. and carrying ISSN 1443-4059. Based in Melbourne, it publishes critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, coverage of international film festivals, interviews, book reviews and special dossiers. Its contributors have included some of the most distinguished names in world film criticism and scholarship: Raphaël Bassan, Salvador Carrasco, Barbara Creed, Wheeler Winston Dixon, David Ehrenstein, Thomas Elsaesser, Valie Export, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Dušan Makavejev, Edgar Morin, Joseph Natoli, Murray Pomerance, Berenice Reynaud, Jonathan Rosenbaum, David Sanjek, Sally Shafto, David Sterritt, Robert Dassanowsky and Viviane Vagh, among many others. The current editors are Nace Zavrl, Leonardo Goi, Abel Muñoz-Hénonin, Fiona Villella and Alex Williams.

History

The journal was founded in late 1999 to address the absence in Australian film culture of an informed, serious and passionate cinema magazine. The story, as told in the journal's centennial editorial for Issue 100, captures the gamble: in 1999, the then 36-year-old Melbourne-based independent filmmaker Bill Mousoulis hatched the idea for an online film journal at a moment when the notion was barely self-evident. The world wide web as we know it had existed for barely half a decade; mobile phones were still a niche product; smartphones, iPods, streaming platforms and social media did not exist. Films were still shot on 35mm and screened on celluloid prints, and generous windows safeguarded theatrical releases from VHS rentals and television broadcasts. Online film appreciation was "a largely disreputable sphere" — serious criticism lived on the printed page, in newspapers, cultural weeklies, specialist magazines and academic journals.

Despite the unprecedented nature of the endeavour, Mousoulis and Fiona Villella launched Senses of Cinema in December 1999, as the world greeted the new millennium amid Y2K anxieties. Soon after launch, the journal garnered the interest, enthusiasm and respect of readers worldwide — filling a gap in local film culture while speaking to an international readership aligned with its ideals.

The journal was modelled on the great international film magazines: Cahiers du cinéma and Positif (France), Film Comment and Cineaste (USA), Skrien (Netherlands) and Close-Up (Italy). From the start it sought to straddle the extremes of journalism and the academy — "critical and intellectual ideas of cinema mix with subjective thoughts and feelings, and where the politics of cinema and the mass media at large can be rigorously discussed in an accessible and eclectic manner." Independence has been fiercely preserved, with public funding as the primary means of survival.

Growth has been exponential. The inaugural issue contained eight articles, organised into contents, links, top tens and editorial. Since then the journal has published thousands of articles — all freely available — and expanded to include new sections such as the Great Directors critical database, undergoing several major website redesigns. Issue 100, the centennial edition, arrived in 2022; recent issues run to Issue 118, maintaining the quarterly rhythm across more than 25 years.

Format and Content

Every issue follows roughly the same format: about a dozen featured articles, often related to a unifying theme; a special dossier, often devoted to some aspect of Australian cinema; reports from major international, regional and underground film festivals; book reviews; and articles devoted to recent screenings and retrospectives at the Melbourne Cinematheque. Interviews appear regularly in the featured articles section.

The Great Directors database — career-overview essays on great directors, all maintaining an auteurist perspective — is one of the journal's signature resources, widely cited by students, scholars and cinephiles. All Australian content in the journal is indexed in APAIS (Australian Public Affairs Information Service) of the National Library of Australia, giving its Australian cinema coverage the status of a research archive.

The journal commissions and accepts articles from academics and journalists, internationally known authorities and previously unpublished cinephiles alike; its stated criteria are that pieces "should shed new light on their subjects, and be informed by a broad knowledge and love of cinema." Its readership is genuinely diverse — people from a wide range of backgrounds, professions and interests, bound by "an informed, passionate and serious attitude toward cinema as an art."

The Great Directors database

The journal's most-used resource may be its Great Directors section: a critical database of career-overview essays on the cinema's major filmmakers, each maintaining an auteurist perspective while ranging widely in scope and length. In an internet full of plot summaries and star ratings, the database offers something rarer — sustained critical argument about directors' bodies of work, written by scholars and critics who know the films deeply. It is routinely assigned in film courses and cited in scholarship, functioning as an open-access reference work that commercial publications have never matched for free.

Funding independence

Senses of Cinema has always sought to preserve its independence and its commitment to covering the whole of cinema — from the industrially produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work — and its primary means of survival has been public funding, supplemented by reader donations through Patreon. That funding model is the material basis of its editorial freedom: no paywall, no advertiser pressure, no proprietor's agenda. Access to the journal is completely free to everyone, a principled stance the journal has held since December 1999, when charging for online content barely existed as a concept and giving it away was simply how the web worked.

Coverage and Audience

Based in Melbourne, Senses of Cinema covers world cinema for a global readership of cinephiles, filmmakers and scholars, with a special commitment — as an Australian journal — to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Its festival reports span the major international festivals as well as regional and underground events. Access is completely free, supported by public funding and reader donations via Patreon.

Ownership

Senses of Cinema is owned by Senses of Cinema Inc., a not-for-profit entity. It was created by founding editor Bill Mousoulis with Fiona Villella; the current editorial team comprises Nace Zavrl, Leonardo Goi, Abel Muñoz-Hénonin, Fiona Villella and Alex Williams. Further ownership and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The journal lives at sensesofcinema.com, where the entire archive — thousands of articles across 118 issues — is freely available. The site is updated quarterly with new issues alongside the Great Directors database and festival coverage. The journal maintains a Patreon for reader support, inviting contributions from $1 to $10 per month to sustain its free-access model.

Sources and Further Reading

• Senses of Cinema, "About" — history, mission, format and funding model.
• Wikipedia, "Senses of Cinema" — publication details, editors, contributors and format.
• Senses of Cinema, "Issue 100: the Centennial Edition" (2022) — the founding story and 25-year retrospective.
• Senses of Cinema homepage — current and recent issues (through Issue 118).