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Professor Mattias Frey

Head of Department

School of Communication & Creativity Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries

Contact details

About

Overview

Prof Mattias Frey is Head of the Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries at City, University of London. He is a film and media industries scholar.

Professor Frey takes a critical media industries approach to film (esp. distribution, regulation, exhibition); media audiences; promotional media and cultural intermediation (esp. film marketing, criticism); and digital culture (e.g. algorithmic recommender systems and media platforms). His current work examines streaming services such as Netflix and MUBI as well as the audiences of these platforms.

Professor Frey’s most recent monograph is Netflix Recommends: Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste (University of California Press, 2021). It was awarded the 2023 BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Best Monograph Award.

His seven other books include MUBI and the Curation Model of Video on Demand (Palgrave, 2021); Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture (Rutgers UP, 2016); The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism: The Anxiety of Authority (Amsterdam UP, 2015); and Film Criticism in the Digital Age (Rutgers UP, 2015; co-edited with Cecilia Sayad).

From 2015 to 2018, he received the Philip Leverhulme Prize, which awards ‘the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising’. He is also recipient of an AHRC Early Career Fellowship in 2013-2014 and the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant in 2022-2024. His book Extreme Cinema received the 2017 BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Best Monograph Award Honourable Mention. Another, The Permanent Crisis of Film Criticism, was a shortlisted finalist for the 2016 BAFTSS Best Monograph Award.

Before arriving at City, Professor Frey taught for many years at the University of Kent. In the academic year 2014-2015 Professor Frey served as invited Visiting Professor of Art and New Media at the Universitaet Bremen, where he took part in a research cluster funded through the Exzellenzinitiative. In 2011, he was invited guest researcher at the Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin for a project on cross-cultural film criticism.

Research & Media

Professor Frey’s current projects include a co-edited collection on AI in the International Film and Audiovisual Media Industries; a study of how streaming services like Netflix affect audiences’ media consumption; as well as a study of how audiences respond to ethnic diversity in film casting. 

Over his career, research endeavours have included analyses of specific film genres and production trends (period/historical film and series; arthouse extreme cinema) and media institutions (film and other arts criticism; video on demand platforms such as Netflix). These publications, informed by media industries, sociology of art, political economy and cultural studies perspectives, demonstrate the productivity of triangulating methods first developed in seemingly distant areas of the humanities and social sciences. Professor Frey would welcome serving as a postgraduate supervisor in these and related subjects.

Professor Frey has served as a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College, on several award-granting committees of the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), the Steering Committee of the German Screen Studies Network (GSSN), the Advisory Board of the journal Alphaville, the Advisory Board of the Journal Research in Film and History and in numerous other validation and examining roles.

Professor Frey appears regularly as a commentator in the news media on topics such as Netflix, streaming services and wider issues of film and media culture.

Publications

Publications by category

Books (8)

  • Frey, M. (2021). Netflix Recommends Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste. Univ of California Press. ISBN 9780520382046.
  • Frey, M. (2021). MUBI and the Curation Model of Video on Demand. Springer Nature. ISBN 9783030800765.
  • Pauleit, W., Greiner, R. and Frey, M. (2018). Audio History des Films Sonic Icons - Auditive Histosphäre - Authentizitätsgefühl. ISBN 9783865052544.
  • Frey, M. (2016). The permanent crisis of film criticism the anxiety of authority. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9789048524471.
  • Frey, M. (2016). Extreme Cinema The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today's Art Film Culture. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813576527.
  • Frey, M. and Sayad, C. (2015). Film Criticism in the Digital Age. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813573649.
  • Choi, J. and Frey, M. (2013). Cine-Ethics Ethical Dimensions of Film Theory, Practice, and Spectatorship. Routledge. ISBN 9781136745966.
  • Frey, M. (2013). Postwall German Cinema History, Film History and Cinephilia. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9780857459480.

Chapters (19)

  • Vicente, P.N., Burnay, C.D., Frey, M. and Chow, P.-.S. (2026). Introduction. Artificial Intelligence in the International Film and Audiovisual Media Industries (pp. 1-6). Routledge.
  • Frey, M. (2024). Recommendation Logics and Exposure Diversity: Researching the European VOD Experience. Palgrave European Film and Media Studies (pp. 131-149). Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9783031421815.
  • Frey, M. (2023). Algoritmi in občinstva [Algorithms and Audiences]. In Banko, A. and Sturm, A. (Eds.), Mi gledamo film, film gleda nas (pp. 23-36). Slovenska kinoteka.
  • Frey, M. (2019). Unstomachable: Irréversible (2002) and the Extreme Cinema Tradition. Unwatchable (pp. 165-169). Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813599601.
  • Frey, M. (2017). Institutional Roles in Using Film to Teach Difficult History: The Federal Agency for Civic Education and The Lives of Others. Teaching Difficult History Through Film (pp. 89-105). Routledge. ISBN 9781138190771.
  • Frey, M. (2015). The New Democracy? Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Twitter, and IMDB. Film Criticism in the Digital Age (pp. 81-98). Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813573649.
  • Frey, M. (2015). Critical Questions. Film Criticism in the Digital Age (pp. 1-20). Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813570747.
  • Frey, M. (2014). Ekel und Langeweile: Der unbelehrbare Zuschauer. In Pauleit, W., Rüffert, C., Schmid, K.-.H., Tews, A. and Odorico, S. (Eds.), Filmerfahrung und Zuschauer: Zwischen Kino, Museum und sozialen Netzwerken (pp. 48-62). Bertz + Fischer.
  • Frey, M. (2013). The Ethics of Extreme Cinema. Cine-Ethics Ethical Dimensions of Film Theory, Practice, and Spectatorship (pp. 145-162). Routledge. ISBN 9781136745966.
  • Frey, M. and Choi, J. (2013). Introduction. Cine-Ethics Ethical Dimensions of Film Theory, Practice, and Spectatorship (pp. 1-14). Routledge. ISBN 9781136745966.
  • Frey, M. (2012). Supermodernity, Sick Eros and the Video Narcissus: Benny’s Video in the Course of Theory and Time. The Cinema of Michael Haneke Europe Utopia (pp. 151-161). Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231504652.
  • Frey, M. (2012). 23 July 1991: ZDF Broadcast of Ostkreuz Initiates Darker Reckoning with the Wende. A New History of German Cinema (pp. 512-517). Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781571135957.
  • Frey, M. (2012). Tuning Out, Turning In, Walking Off: The Spectator in Pain. Ethics and Images of Pain (pp. 93-111). Routledge. ISBN 9780415893824.
  • Frey, M. (2011). The Possibility of Desire in a Conformist World: The Cinema of Ulrich Seidl. New Austrian Film (pp. 189-198). Berghahn Books. ISBN 9780857452320.
  • Frey, M. (2010). The Message and the Medium: Haneke’s Film Theory and Digital Praxis. On Michael Haneke (pp. 153-165). Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814334058.
  • Frey, M. (2009). Re-Connecting the Body ‘in’ to the Body ‘of’ Pasolini with Porcile. Film and Sexual Politics (pp. 128-134). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443804059.
  • Frey, M. (2007). Theorizing Cinema in Sebald and Sebald with Cinema. Searching for Sebald Photography After W.G. Sebald (pp. 226-241). Institute Cultural Inquiry. ISBN 9781889917115.
  • Frey, M. (2006). Structuralism and Poststructuralism. Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film (pp. 165-168). Schirmer G Books. ISBN 9780028661001.
  • Frey, M. (2006). Postmodernism and Guy Maddin. Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film (pp. 291-296). Schirmer G Books. ISBN 9780028661001.

Internet publication

Journal articles (37)

  • Frey, M., Declercq, D. and Pascual, G.R. (2025). The Roles of Race and Ethnicity vs. Awareness and Attractiveness in Film Audiences’ Casting Preferences. Communication and Race, 2(2-3), pp. 105-129. doi:10.1080/28346955.2025.2584235

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2022). The International Reception of Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. doi:10.1080/01439685.2022.2116862

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2020). The Ends of (German) Film Criticism: On Recurring Doomsday Scenarios and the New Algorithmic Culture. New German Critique, 47(3), pp. 45-57. doi:10.1215/0094033x-8607577

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2019). The Internet Suggests: Film, Recommender Systems, and Cultural Mediation. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 59(1), pp. 163-169. doi:10.1353/cj.2019.0068

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. and Janssen, S. (2018). Researching Sex and the Cinema in the #MeToo Age. Film Studies, 18(1), pp. 1-13. doi:10.7227/fs.18.0001

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2018). The Authenticity Feeling: Language and Dialect in the Historical Film. Research in Film and History, 1(1)
  • Frey, M. (2017). Fassbinder: The Formal Innovator. SIGHT AND SOUND, 27(5), pp. 28-28
  • Frey, M. (2017). A nova democracia?: Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Twitter e IMDb. (De Mattos Teixeira Neto, W. , Trans.) Rebeca: Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Cinema e Audiovisual, 6(2), pp. 343-374
  • (2016). Editorial: Institutions and Agency (Part II). Film Studies, 14(1), pp. 1-4. doi:10.7227/fs.14.0001

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2015). Netflix Crit in the Twenty-First Century. Film Criticism, 40(1). doi:10.3998/fc.13761232.0040.111

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2015). Editorial: Institutions and Agency (Part I). Film Studies, 13(1), pp. 1-4. doi:10.7227/fs.13.0001

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2015). The Recalcitrant Discipline. Film Studies, 12(1), pp. 10-18. doi:10.7227/fs.12.0003

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2013). The critical question: Sight and Sound's postwar consolidation of liberal taste. Screen, 54(2), pp. 194-217. doi:10.1093/screen/hjt002

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2013). Filmkritik, with and without Italics: Kracauerism and Its Limits in Postwar German Film Criticism. New German Critique, 40(3), pp. 85-110. doi:10.1215/0094033x-2325437

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2013). The Greatest of These Is Love: Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Trilogy. Artforum International, 51(10), pp. 149-150
  • Frey, M. (2012). Review of: Roy Grundmann, ed., A Companion to Michael Haneke (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2010). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 32(1), pp. 127-129
  • Frey, M. (2012). Grand Finales: The International Forum of New Cinema at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 62
  • Frey, M. (2011). Searches for Identity: German Films at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 58
  • Frey, M. (2010). Cultural problems of classical film theory: Bela Balazs, 'universal language' and the birth of national cinema. Screen, 51(4), pp. 324-340. doi:10.1093/screen/hjq028

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2010). A Cinema of Disturbance: The Films of Michael Haneke in Context. 2nd rev. ed. Senses of Cinema, 57
  • Frey, M. (2010). Goodbye Germany: Emigration, Reality TV and Schadenfreude. Jump Cut, 52
  • Frey, M. (2010). Art and Artifice: German Films at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 55
  • Frey, M. (2009). Insecure Times, Confident Localities: German Films at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 50
  • Frey, M. (2008). Review of: Jörn Ahrens und Stephan Braese, Hg., Im Zauber der Zeichen: Beiträge zu einer Kulturgeschichte des Mediums (Berlin: Vorwerk8, 2007). MEDIENwissenschaft, 2008(2), pp. 145-147
  • Frey, M. (2008). Gazing Lessons: German Films at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 47
  • Frey, M. (2007). Review of: Pam Cook, Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema (London: Routledge, 2005). Film International, 5(5), pp. 87-89
  • Frey, M. (2007). In/Flux: German Films at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 43
  • Frey, M. (2007). The End of Innocence: Scandinavian Films at the 30th Gothenburg International Film Festival. Senses of Cinema, 43
  • Frey, M. (2007). Review of: Rosalind Galt, The New European Cinema: Redrawing the Map (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). Film International, 5(1), pp. 70-71
  • Frey, M. (2006). London à la mod: Fashion, Genre, and Historical Space inPerformance. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 23(4), pp. 369-375. doi:10.1080/10509200600910484

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2006). No(ir) Place to Go: Spatial Anxiety and Sartorial Intertextuality in Die Unberührbare. Cinema Journal, 45(4), pp. 64-80. doi:10.1353/cj.2006.0044

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2006). Benny's Video, Caché, and the Desubstantiated Image. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 47(2), pp. 30-36. doi:10.1353/frm.2006.0011

    [publisher’s website]

  • Frey, M. (2006). Fidelio: Love, Adaptation, and Eyes Wide Shut. Literature-Film Quarterly, 34(1), pp. 39-45
  • Frey, M. (2006). Review of: Graeme Harper and Andrew Moor, eds., Signs of Life: Medicine and Cinema (London: Wallflower, 2005). Film International, 4(2), pp. 78-81
  • Frey, M. (2004). Border Zones: The Films of Ulrich Seidl. Senses of Cinema, 32
  • Frey, M. (2003). A Cinema of Disturbance: The Films of Michael Haneke in Context. Senses of Cinema, 28
  • Frey, M. (2002). Supermodernity, Capital, and Narcissus: The French Connection to Michael Haneke’s Benny’s Video. Cinetext