Queer East is launching the Emerging Critics Project, which will run from April to May with six participants. This series of sessions is aimed at emerging writers who have never had work published in national media outlets or notable online publications. It aims to foster a strong creative voice for aspiring film critics. We hope to publish a digital zine of the work from the sessions, including reviews/features/interviews written both before and during the festival. The programme is designed to be entirely collaborative and an exchange of ideas between the mentors and mentees.

This project will be led by three critics: Cici Peng, Ian Wang and Phuong Le. There will be an in-person session on Saturday 6th April in London. Please only apply if you are able to attend this session.

About our Mentors

Phuong Le is a Vietnamese film critic based in London. Her writing can be found in The Guardian, Sight & Sound, and other publications. She is also a regular contributor to the Free Thinking programme on BBC Radio 3.

Ian Wang is a critic based in London. His writing has appeared in Sight & Sound, The Baffler, ArtReview, Tribune and other publications. His video essay Swimming, Dancing appeared at the Asian Film Archive in 2023.

Cici Peng is a film journalist and film programmer based in London. She has written for British GQ, LWLies, Dazed & Confused, i-D, and led and edited an editorial project for gal-dem. She has programmed screenings and events at the BFI, ICA, and the Barbican among others. She is a part of Sine Screen, a film collective dedicated to highlighting films from ESEA filmmakers.

About Queer East

Queer East is a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts, and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities. Its fifth edition runs from 17 to 28 April in venues across London, exploring what it means to be queer and Asian today.

REQUIREMENTS

• Applicants need to demonstrate an interest in film criticism and have an interest in queer Asian cinema.
• Applicants should be relatively new to film criticism – applicants should not have experience writing for national newspapers and notable magazines. We accept those who’ve written mostly on an amateur level – whether it be for a blog, or a small publication.
• Applicants should be able to write fluently in English.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, please fill in the application form here. You are also required to send us a sample of your writing, which can be an online article, blog, short essay or social media post of your own choice. Please email it to [email protected], with the subject as Emerging Critics Project 2024 – [Your Name]

Please note that all the workshop participants will be expected to take part in online sessions as well as a full-day event in London.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

In the application form, you will be given five questions listed below, and you only need to select two to answer. You can use up to 300 words to answer the question.

• Why do you want to be a film critic, and why do you want to participate in this workshop?
• What critical writing do you love or find particularly inspiring, and how has it influenced your own work?
• How does film criticism fail?
• Talk about a film you have seen recently and what you found most interesting about it.
• What purpose does film criticism serve in 2024?

KEY DATES

Application deadline: Friday 8 March 2024
All applicants will receive an email with the outcome by 19 March 2024