Staff and students featured in Best Video Essays of 2025

Staff and students from the Department of Film Studies were featured in and contributed to this year's Sight & Sound list of best video essays. The list was curated by Jiří Anger, Veronika Hanáková, Kevin B Lee, and Occitane Lacurie, and is compiled from the votes of 72 international voters, featuring 225 video essays of 2025.

Aurélie Coop, a 4th year English and Film Studies Honours student, was featured in the 'Emerging Voices' section of the poll, where voters highlight the work of new and exciting members of the video essay community.

PhD candidate and film curator, Ilinca Vânǎu, contributed her choices to the list, for the 3rd year in a row.

Professor Lucy Fife Donaldson contributed a list to the poll, and also had her work featured by others. '(Dis)orienting horror: Feeling queerly'; (published in January 2025 in a special issue of Monstrum, 'Queer/ing Horror: Video Essays at the Intersection of Horror and Queerness' edited by Dayna McLeod) was among the most mentioned videos this year, receiving 6 votes from contributors to the list.