All forms of age representations are undergoing profound changes in the first quarter of the 21^st century, with human beings today having the prospect of attaining their highest values at advanced ages, both chronological and statistical. Since age measurements were systematically taken, chronological age possibilities and/or life expectancy constantly increased in the recent past, and, as projected in the (near) future, life expectancy will continue to grow, with an EU-average of 80.1 years for babies born in 2021 within the Union.

Many state institutions and NGOs have been engaged in trying to understand the consequences of these processes, and cinema is one such culturally prestigious institution in which the age changes can be observed. We are looking for papers who focus on issues related to Age and Ageing, especially in European and Anglophone cinemas, advancing our understanding of how a ”greying medium” as cinema, persists in an overall ”greying” social contexts, or how it collaborates with other ”younger” cultural forms in order to survive.

We are asking how cinema culturally represents and redefines what ageing means;

How cinema is battling with gender gaps and ageing roles;

How cinema is affected by its own ‘greying’ – as some of the most ardent questions of this research and in this (sub-)field.

Following Kathleen Woodward’s seminal essay on “Performing Age, Performing Gender” we are discussing six basic types of age-related functions:

”Chronological age refers to the number of years a person has lived. Biological or functional age refers to the state of a person’s physical capacities. . .  Social age refers to the meanings that a society accords to different categories of age. . .  Like social age, cultural age refers to the meanings or values that a culture assigns to different people in terms of age, but here status and power are crucial. . . Psychological age refers to a person’s state of mind in terms of age. . . Finally, by statistical age I mean predictions concerning age based on large data sets.”

A fundamental starting point, a key reference to “the need to view old age as part of the life course rather than as an isolated life stage” (Tracy, Shrage-Früh 2023, 4) is represented by Ageing Masculinities in Contemporary European and Anglophone Cinema, analysing the visually and dramatically striking features of ageing and how it necessarily affects the audiovisual medium of film narration. Because they operate as continuums, films and series are capable of figuratively representing other such elements of our existence that also may be identified rather as spectrums and less as clear-cut categories.

Such connections example in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), a story of two former star sisters, their ageing feud meta-referenced in the 2017 first season of FX channel’s Feud series, which dramatizes the rivalry of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis as real-life actresses of the 1962 classic, with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon’s fascinating impersonation in focus. Female heroes (past/of) middle-age or wise old women populate blockbuster fantasy worlds from Harry Potter’s universe to Mad Max and Dune, and smaller budget European titles like Spoor or Nightsiren offer further variations. Obviously, age and ageing don’t have gendered or social status limits: Daniel Blake’s or Dante Lăzărescu’s ordeals are counterbalanced by the humor of French comedies or the beauty of Italian melodramas, and the determinacy of greying Anglo-Saxon detectives, Scandinavian political decision makers, and last but not least ageing stars, fictive and actual, in The Substance, The Last Showgirl or in Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.

This thematic issue of Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media dedicated to Age and Ageing in European and World Cinema(s) welcomes proposals in the following – and further related – areas:

Industries of ageing in films and series:

• Film and series (personnel) and ageing: from casting decisions to longevity on (different) screens; career paths and career breaks affected by gender bias, ageism, and other types of exclusionary practices of the industry.

• Film and series and ageing: industry policies, trends and future changes.

• Film and series, and their ageing audience: loyalty, new allegiances and shrinking fanbase; different generations – the same content?

• Star studies and ageing: short- and long-span careers, loops among star personas and acting performances; de-ageing; prosthetic ageing.

Representations of ageing in films and series:

• Film and series and the topic of ageing: arthouse narratives, generic variations, remakes and transmedial expansions.

• Anglophone cinemas, European cinema, and ageing: regional, historical or politized differences.

• Film and series, ageing and society: inclusion, exclusion, class and habitus, informal and formal practices, work and migration; technological changes.

• Film and series, ageing and gender(ed), sexualized, racialized identities.

• Film and series, ageing and intersectionality: possibilities for synthesis?

• Film and series, ageing and creativity: outbursts and former glitter.

• Film and television industry, ageing and the question of research methodologies.