Zone is very happy to share the news that Francesco Casetti has been awarded the 2024 Limina Award for Best International Book on Film and Media for his recent book Screening Fears: On Protective Media!

Click here to learn more about the award. The panel of judges’ commentary on the book appears below:

What if modern screen-based media sheltered us from fear and isolated us from the world? And what are these apparatuses controlling our reality in terms of a protective “bubble” that disconnects us from our surroundings? In his last insightful work, renowned film and media theorist Francesco Casetti explores these questions through a historical and theoretical investigation, advancing the hypothesis that screen-based media both protect and amplify our fears and anxieties. Screening Fears provocatively suggests that visual media serve as a modern protective mechanism, reshaping how we engage with the world over the past three centuries. From 18th-century phantasmagorias to cinema and pandemic-era videoconferencing, Casetti offers an archeological and genealogical analysis, establishing – once more – his contribution as a unique and innovative point of reference nowadays for film and media scholars and for understanding environments shaped by what he claims a “project/protection complex.”