Dr Tess Van Hemert
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Biography
Dr Tess Van Hemert is a Senior Lecturer and the Academic Lead for Learning and Teaching in the School of Communication. Her research focuses on cinema exhibition, film festivals and audience practices, with a particular interest in independent and regional screen cultures in Australia. Her work examines the social and industrial dynamics shaping contemporary cinema going and viewing practices. Many of her recent publications have focused on the changing film festival landscape in Queensland, and the transformation toward digital distribution as a crucial method for both film festivals and emerging filmmakers. A major strand of her research investigated the social, economic and industrial value of cinema-going in Australia, drawing on several years of collaboration with industry partners in Australian distribution and exhibition. She is also developing a new research area examining youth audiences, long-form film and television content, and evolving media and viewing practices. Tess is a Chief Investigator of the Digital Media Research Centre and a member of the Transforming Media Industries and Culture research program. Tess' work has been published in Studies in Australasian Cinema, New Review of Film and Television Studies and Cultural Studies Review.Personal details
Positions
- Senior Lecturer, Media & Entertainment
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Communication
Keywords
Screen exhibition, Film Festivals, Screen industry, Screen culture
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
Dr Van Hemert is a member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the Film Festival Research Network.
Teaching
Tess teaches into the Media and Communication Industries program in the School of Communication. She plays a leading role in overseeing industry partnerships in the study area, with organisations such as Screen Queensland, Women in Film and Television, Sony Music, Reading Radio and Like a Photon Creative. Prior to joining QUT, Tess was a Teaching Fellow at Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand, and has extensive experience lecturing in Film History, Genres, International Cinema and Australian Cinema at other institutions. She teaches courses in the field of critical media industries, including:
- CCB306 Media Industries Capstone
- CYB102 Introduction to Media and Entertainment Industries
- KXB101 Global Media and Entertainment
- KXB201 Entertainment Practice: Balancing Creativity and Business
- KXB302 Entertainment Project 1: Pre-Production
- KXB303 Entertainment Project 2: Production
Tess supervises postgraduate students in the field of critical media industry studies, with a particular interest in the screen industries. Her past supervision topics include:
- Nollywood and Digital Distribution
- Transnational Greek Cinema and the Economic Crisis
Experience
Tess regularly engages with external industry partners in both her research and teaching roles. This includes screen distributors, cinema operators, programmers and development executives. She has worked closely with organisations such as the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Screen Queensland, GoMA Cinematheque, Cinema Association Australasia, Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Australia and Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Australia. Tess has been a judge for the Brisbane International Film Festival and the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Awards. Public Talks
- Fifty Years of Film Festivals: Remembering BFF. Queensland Film Festival, New Farm. 2016.
- Going to the Movies: The cultural impact of cinema in Queensland. Heritage Talk, State Library of Queensland. Brisbane, 2023.
Publications
- Van Hemert, T. & Ellison, E. (2021). Queensland's Film Festivals: Industry Report 2018-2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/216591
- Ellison, E. & Van Hemert, T. (2020). Regional screen cultures: The precarity and significance of Queensland's film festival landscape. Studies in Australasian Cinema, 14(2), 95–110. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/206126
- Ellison, E. & Van Hemert, T. (2019). Editorial. The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(1), 3–6. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/133451
- Van Hemert, T., (2016). BIFF to BAPFF: considering 'festival memory' in the face of change and innovation. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 14(1), 164–180. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91994
- Van Hemert, T., (2015). Festival focus: Brisbane International Film Festival. Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand 2, 20–22. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/81289
- Van Hemert, T. & Ellison, E. (2015). Queensland's film culture: the challenges of local film distribution and festival exhibition. Studies in Australasian Cinema, 9(1), 39–51. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/79837
- Yeates, H., McVeigh, (. & Van Hemert, T. (2011). From ethnocentrism to transculturalsim: A film studies pedagogical journey. Cultural Studies Review, 17(2), 71–99. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50734
- Van Hemert, T., (2011). Searching for a feminist voice: Film festivals and negotiating the tension between expectation and intent. Ejournalist, 11(1), 1–13. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/42521
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Tess, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/tess.vanhemert
Supervision
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