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Many of you may know that an anthology of writings on various aspects of David’s career has been produced – in part because many of you have contributed to it. Twenty-five to be exact, plus, as the cover says, my foreword and Damien Chazelle’s foreword. It is edited by Charlie Keil and Murray Smith, two graduate students in the Film Studies Department of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Editing collections of essays is a difficult task, so hats off to Charlie and Murray!
Those who didn’t write for it may have attended the David Bordwell Roundtable at the Society for Film and Media Studies conference in Chicago in March. It was an event meant to remember David, but also to announce the upcoming publication of the book.
It’s hard to get an exact number by counting heads in a photo of such a large room, but I tried, and I think about ninety to a hundred people attended, many of whom participated in the Q&A session that followed the presentations. The panel included Charlie Keely as moderator and Murray Smith, Catherine Spring and Jeff Smith, all four of the tribe.
The book’s release date is December 8, 2026, but I got the image above from the pre-order pages that have already appeared on Amazon.com and the Rutgers University Press website. The Amazon page simply says “By Professor Charlie Keely
When David Bordwell died in 2024, he left behind a legacy of film and criticism whose influence is unparalleled. Co-author of a pair of internationally acclaimed textbooks and the driving force behind a blog read by thousands, Bordwell has influenced generations of film students, filmmakers, and film critics. Observing the art of cinema Examines the breadth of Bordwell’s work among those who knew him best, with the perspectives of collaborators, former students, and critics. This is the first collection devoted to Bordwell’s work, and it gives equal attention to each aspect of his prodigious scholarship, structured to highlight his interest in theory, history, analysis, and criticism. The cornerstones of his approach to film studies, including formalism, cognitivism, and historical poetics, are discussed in detail, as are major works including Classic Hollywood cinema (with Christine Thompson and Janet Steiger) and Narration in a feature film.
At this point, Amazon’s prices for paperback, paperback, and Kindle are the same as Rutgers’ paperback, paperback, and e-book (ePUB or PDF).
But if you go to the Rutgers site and click on this option, you can get a brochure that contains a code for 30% off.
Thank you to everyone who attended the SCMS panel and participated in the live Q&A, who contributed essays Observing the art of cinemaAnd who will read and remember David sweetly. Thanks also to Colin Burnett for the photos of the roundtable event.
This entry was posted on Thursday | On June 11th, 2026 at 3:06 pm and filed under David Bordwell. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
