Dr Matteo Ciccognani

I was awarded my Bachelor's degree in Humanities curriculum Cinema in 2007 and a Master's in Film Studies Theater and Digital Media in 2009 at the Università degli Studi di Roma. More recently, I have been a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the School of Business of the University of Leicester between 2013 and 2017 until the completion of my PhD with a thesis entitled Metacinematic Gestures: An Investigation of The Productionist Aspect of Self-Reflexive Films. I have been a Teaching Fellow until 2023. I currently work as a Lecturer in Management and Organisation in the School of Business and hold a Fellowship of Higher Education Academy.

My research interest focuses on self-reflexivity in figurative arts with particular attention to cinema and attempts to investigate the issues raised by metacinematic gestures. Through metacinematic gestures, film practitioners promote various organisational technical and linguistic strategies translated into concrete visual outputs to propose a reflection on the process of filmmaking. The analysis of the tension between a film caught in its processual dimension and the finite product that it results in generates insightful and unpredictable reflections upon cinema as organised work. Furthermore, metafilms can provide a blueprint for practitioners from various working sectors to reflect upon their performative roles and reorient them to establish a productive climate of mutual collaboration in the workplace.  

Some of my current explorations revolve around film theory, organisational performance in narratives and movies, self-reflexivity in figurative art, film and media, the relationship between cinema and surveillance, the evolution of language in corporate-sponsored films, ideology critique in movies, and audio-visual products promoting local and regional development.

Ciccognani, M. (2023) 'The enduring legacy of Hollywood’s "individualist revolutionaries"', Interregnum, 6 November. Available at: https://interregnum.ghost.io/the-enduring-legacy-of-hollywoods-individualist-revolutionaries/ 

Ciccognani, M. (2022) 'Exploring Modes of Surveillance in Films', CINEJ Cinema Journal, 10(1), 89-123.

Ciccognani, M. (2020) 'A critical glance into the metacinematic gestures of The Act of Killing', Journal for Cultural Research, DOI: 10.1080/14797585.2020.1836979.

Ciccognani, M. (2020) 'Organising the illumination of the filmmaking process: The experimental contribution of The Five Obstructions', Organizational Aesthetics 9(2), 42-61.

Ciccognani, M. (2018) Metacinematic Gestures: an investigation of the productionist aspect of self-reflexive films, PhD thesis, University of Leicester, Leicester.

Film production 

Media Economics

Film and Media Studies

Organisational Culture and Storytelling

Corporate Social Responsibility

MN2018 Management Theory and Debate (Undergraduate)

MN3126 New Technology, Work and Organisation (Undergraduate)

MN2116 Corporate Social Responsibility (Undergraduate)

'Surveillance Cinema: A Tale of Biopolitical Expropriation and Autoscopic Disruption', Avança Cinema 2001 12th International Conference Cinema' - Art Technology Communication, Online Presentation, August 2021.

'Outstripping Narratives of Denial. A Critical Analysis of the Productionist Metafilm The Act of Killing', International Conference on Film Studies: "(De)Constructing Narrative Identities"' - London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research ­- Birkbeck University of London, February 2020.

'Re-embracing the Horror Vacui of Cinematic Self-Reflexivity in the Hyper-Subjectivised Era of Social Media’, MediAsia 2018 - The Asian Conference on Media Communication & Film 2018. Toshi Center Tokyo, October 2018.

'Self-Reflexive Gestures between Integrated Automediacy and Exceeding Autoscopia', Center for Critical Perspectives on Politics Economy and Culture - European University Cyprus Nicosia Cyprus, September 2018.

'The Notion of Metacinematic Gesture and a Grid of Intelligibility for Metacinema', ISSC 2016 International Conference The Logics of Image: Visualization Iconicity Imagination and Human Creativity, El Greco Hotel Santorini, July 2016.

'The Metacinematic Gesture: A Grid of Intelligibility for Metacinema and an Introduction of its Productionist Side', CINECRI ’16: 3rd International Film Studies and Cinematic Arts Conference, Nippon Hotel, Istanbul, June 2016.