Laura Sava Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Film Studies

Dr. Laura Sava is Assistant Professor in Film Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. A Romanian native, originally trained in art history, she also holds degrees in British Cultural Studies (MA) and film studies (MA, PhD).

Laura Sava completed her doctorate at the University of Warwick, UK, where she also served as Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study and as Associate Fellow in the Department of Film and Television Studies, before joining XJTLU in February 2013.

Her book Theatre Through the Camera Eye: The Poetics of an Intermedial Encounter was published in June 2019 with Edinburgh University Press. A description of the book can be found here:
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-theatre-through-the-camera-eye-hb.html

The book was reviewed in the BAFTSS journal Open Screens:
https://www.openscreensjournal.com/article/id/8017/

And in Aniki: Portuguese Journal of the Moving Image:

https://aim.org.pt/ojs/index.php/revista/article/view/981?fbclid=IwAR0WQ1VDWgOwO-cq9IuZHWof5pJM_LATjyHh2kXrPcET2wM2DCJTmKNmOck


  • PhD in Film Studies, University of Warwick, UK, 2011
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education (with Distinction), University of Liverpool, 2021
  • MA in Film and Television Studies (with Distinction), University of Warwick, UK, 2006
  • MA in British Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania, 2004
  • BA in History and Theory of Art, National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania, 2003


  • Assistant Professor in Film Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University - 2013 to present
  • Associate Fellow, Department of Film and Television Studies, University of Warwick - 2012 to 2013
  • Early Career Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick - 2011 to 2011
  • Seminar tutor, Department of Film and Television Studies, University of Warwick - 2009 to 2009
  • Researcher, 'Ion Mincu' University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest - 2007 to 2007


  • European Cinema
  • Film Theory and Film Aesthetics
  • Intermediality Studies
  • Adaptation Studies
  • Art History


  • Peer reviewed journal articles
  • Sava, L. (2022). Enabling student participation in syllabus design through film nominations and voting: An action research project. Film Education Journal 5(2), pp.80-92.
  • Sava, L. (2011). Theatre du Soleil Meets the Cinema: Acting and Mask Work in Ariane Mnouchkine's Moliere (1978). Screening the Past, 31.
  • Sava, L. (2010). The Problem of Film-Theatre Intermediality in Jesus of Montreal. Excursions 1(1), pp.102-122.
  • Book reviews
  • Sava, L. (2013). Review of Andrew Utterson (2011). From IBM to MGM: Cinema at the Dawn of the Digital Age. Quarterly Review of Film and Video 30 (4), pp. 335-338.
  • Sava, L. (2010). Review of David E. Morrison et al. (2007) Media and Values: Intimate Transgressions in a Changing Moral and Cultural Landscape. Film-Philosophy 14 (1), pp.361-366.


  • Sava, L. (2019). Theatre Through the Camera Eye: The Poetics of An Intermedial Encounter. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.


  • Sava, L. (2024, Forthcoming). The Intersection of Male Perspective and Female Performance in the Romanian New Wave Representation of Motherhood: Maternal Contradictions in Child's Pose (2013). In S. Liddy and D. Flynn (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Motherhood on Screen.
  • Sava, L. (2012). Ruins and Replicas: The Movie Camera in the Artist's Studio. In Demetrescu, R., Carabas, I. and Magureanu, I. (Eds.) Di suo' maniera e di suo' aria: Studii in onoarea Ancai Oroveanu. Bucuresti: Unarte, pp.254-264.
  • Sava, L. (2008). Adapting (to) the Letter: Patrice Chereau's Gabrielle. In Petho, A. (Ed.) Words and Images on the Screen: Language, Literature, Moving Pictures. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.104-118.
  • Sava, L. (2008). Segmente urbane: Spatiul public revizitat cinematic. In Zahariade, A.M. and Oroveanu, A. (Eds.) ACUM 2: Spatiul public si reinsertia sociala a proiectului artistic si arhitectural. Bucuresti: Editura Universitara Ion Mincu, pp.190-203 (Romanian)
  • Sava, L. (2007). Ken Loach's Travelogues. Destination: War Zone. In Ciugureanu, A., Vlad, E. (Eds.)Travel (of) Writing: A Collection of Essays. Constanta: Ovidius University Press, pp.179-185.
  • Sava, L. (2006). Home as a Sound Effect: Danica Dakic's Installations. In Ciugureanu, A., Irimia, M. & Vlad, E. (Eds.) Balkan Cultural Identities. Constanta: Ovidius University Press, pp.347-354.


  • Sava, L. (2023). 'Painting in the 'Age of Nervousness': Peter Watkins's Edward Munch. Affective Intermediality Conference, Sapientia Hungarian University, Cluj Napoca, Romania, 20-21 October.
  • Sava, L. (2022). ''You can't get innocent twice': The Performance of 'Real' and Acted Feeling in Clouds of Sils Maria'. The 10th Annual Conference of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS). University of St. Andrews, UK, 20-22 April.
  • Sava, L. (2021). 'Teaching European Cinema at a Sino-British University in China: A Transnational Perspective'. The International Virtual Conference 'Media Education in an Uncertain and Polarized World'. The Media Literacy Education Center, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, P.R.China, 13-14 June
  • Sava, L. (2019). 'Infantilisation and Insecure Attachments in Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills (2012)'. Screen Studies Conference, Glasgow, UK, 28-30 June
  • Sava, L. (2018). 'It's Theatre, It's an Interpretation of Life, It Can Be Truer Than Life Itself: Performance, Possibility, and Intermedial Thresholds in Clouds of Sils Maria'. Conference 'Intermediality Now: Remapping In-Betweenness', Sapientia University, Cluj Napoca, Romania
  • Sava, L. (2018). 'Infantile Attachment, Group Submission and the Ethics of Care in Beyond the Hills'. The International Conference on Psychology and the Arts, Institute of Advanced Studies, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 27 June-1 July
  • Sava, L. (2016). 'The Value of Attribution: Questions of Adaptation and Authorship in Beyond the Hills'. The Fifth Annual London Film and Media Conference, 7-9 July
  • Sava, L. (2015). 'Compulsive re-telling and the search for the perfect moment in Spalding Gray’s performance films'. Film-Philosophy Conference 'Evaluating Form', St. Anne’s College, Oxford University, UK, 20-22 July
  • Sava, L. (2013). 'Voicing the Other: Post-medium Articulations of Sound and Image in The Arbor', Panel ‘Post-medium Condition of the Moving Image’ at the Annual Convention of the Association for the Studies of Culture and Representation, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan, 29-30 June
  • Sava, L. (2012). 'Coming into Focus: The Vanishing Subject and the Revivifying Camera in The Strange Case of Angelica'. Alphaville Conference ‘Cinema in the Interstices’, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 7-9 September
  • Sava, L. (2012). 'An Intermedial Mix-and-Match: The Arbor between Verbatim Technique, Archive and Street Performance'. Colloquium ‘Théâtre au cinéma, cinéma au théâtre dans les aires culturelles anglophones et francophones’, New York University in Paris, Paris, France, 15-16 March
  • Sava, L. (2011). 'Listening Demands and Aural Perspectives in Je rentre à la maison'. NECS Conference ‘Sonic Futures: Soundscapes and the Languages of Screen Media’, King’s College, London, UK, 23-26 June
  • Sava, L. (2010). 'The Deferred Performance: The Experience of Theatre through Film in Synecdoche, New York'. ‘Theatre and Film’ Southeastern Theatre Conference, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Atlanta, US, 9-11 April
  • Sava, L. (2009). 'Welcoming the Intermedial: Interactions between Film and Theatre'. In-Sight: Visualing the Theory, Theorising the Visual Conference, University of Sussex, UK, 15-16 April
  • Sava, L. (2008). 'Do It Again For the Camera: The Intermediality of The Reenactment'. NECS Conference ‘New and Old Frames’, Budapest, Hungary, 19-21 June.
  • Sava, L. (2007). 'Actors in search of a stage: Theatricality in Fanny and Alexander'. 80th Annual Convention of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA). Louisville, Kentucky, US, 7-9 November


  • 2022-2023 HSS Research Start-up Fund HSS-RSF-2022-03 Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Learning Alliances: Teaching (with) Film in Transnational Educational Settings (with Alan McCluskey), 9000 RMB
  • 2014-2015 RDF Award (13-03-14) Principal Investigator, 55721 RMB
  • 2015-2016 SURF Award Between Propaganda and Entertainment: The Marketing of the Chinese Main Melody Film (Best poster in the Humanities and Social Sciences cluster)
  • 2014-2015 SURF Award Film Policy and Institutional Infrastructure in the Shanghai Moviemaking Sector


  • Reviewer for Edinburgh University Press and for the journals Transnational Screens, Critical Arts, Technoetic Arts: Journal of Speculative Research
  • 2020-2023 Programme Director, BA Media and Communication Studies, XJTLU
  • 2020-2021 Deputy Head of Department and Line Manager, Department of Media and Communication, XJTLU
  • 2019-2021 Global Engagement Officer, Department of Media and Communication, XJTLU
  • 2019-2020 Chair of the Departmental Progress Committee (DPC), Department of Media and Communication, XJTLU
  • 2019-2020 Film Studies Pathway Leader, Working Group for the Review of BA Communication Studies, Department of Media and Communication, XJTLU
  • 2018-2020 Deputy Chair of the SSLC, School of Film and Television Arts and, subsequently, Department of Media and Communication
  • 2018-2019 Member of XJTLU's Academic Practice Subcommittee
  • 2016-2020 Member of the Departmental Learning and Teaching Committee (DLTC), School of Film and Television Arts, XJTLU
  • 2016-2019 Examination Officer, School of Film and Television Arts, XJTLU
  • 2016-2017 Member of XJTLU's Assessment Subcommittee
  • 2016-2017 Programme director, BA Digital Media Arts, School of Film and Television Arts, XJTLU
  • 2013-2016 Member of XJTLU's Research Review Panel (later renamed Research Funding Subcommittee)
  • 2013-2014 Health and Safety Officer, Department of English, Culture and Communication, XJTLU
  • 2011 Organiser of the interdisciplinary workshop Engaging with Film: Perspectives on Cinematic Literacy, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick.


  • COM156 Foundations in Film Studies (2021-present)
  • COM263 European Cinema (2020-present)
  • COM309 European Cinema (2015-2019)
  • COM203 Adaptation Across the Media (2014-2020)
  • COM202 Global Media and Entertainment (2013-2017)
  • COM102 Perspectives on Visual Media (2014-2016)
  • COM301 Media and Global Crisis (2013-2014)
  • COM103 Media Management (2013)


  • Fellow of Higher Education Academy
  • European Network for Cinema and Media Studies
  • The Association of Adaptation Studies
  • Society For Cinema and Media Studies


  • 2011 Roberts Funding Award, University of Warwick
  • 2011 Early Career Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick
  • 2010 Humanities Research Fund Award, University of Warwick
  • 2008 American Study and Student Exchange Committee Award, University of Warwick
  • 2007 Warwick Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2007-2010), University of Warwick
  • 2006 OSI/Chevening/FCO/University of Warwick Eastern Europe Scholarship, Chevening
Laura Sava