Well this is great news in a difficult year!

My article celebrating the life and work of Peter Wollen has won the Senses of Cinema-UniSA Essay Prize. Here is the Jury Statement:

While writing is often an isolating activity, Duckett signals the communities of care that emerge from the shared pursuit of knowledge. Cinema, at its core, is about exchange. From cinema to spectator, student to lecturer, we articulate and interpret ideas. Inevitably, we're tethered to one another through our theory and our praxis.

"How do we determine meaning, if not through a centrifugal and learned analysis of our own function as critics, readers, and audience members with the lived experience of watching film?"

Duckett applies and evolves her late mentor's work to dynamise his legacy. The piece makes a case for the selfless sharing of knowledge in film scholarship, the vital - and often unsung - role that film scholars play in inspiring the way we think about cinema and the worlds they materialize from. It's a transgenerational dialogue that sustains the "momentum of Peter's continued presence in the world." A beautiful testament to a major figure in film theory.

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So: Thank you Senses of Cinema and the judges: Senses of Cinema managing editor Amanda Barbour, ABC film critic and Critics Campus coordinator for the Melbourne International Film Festival Luke Goodsell and lecturer in screen studies at the University of South Australia Stuart Richards. It means so much to have Peter's work honoured in this way.