Sofie Cato Maas

Dissertation

Title: The formal and aesthetic enactment of mourning in experimental cinema

Supervisor: Michael B. Gillespie

Sofie Cato Maas’ PhD research is on the formal and aesthetic enactment of mourning in experimental cinema, focussing on the work of Christopher Harris, Peggy Ahwesh, and Phil Solomon.

Bio

Next to being a PhD candidate at NYU, she is also a film critic. She studied Film at King's College London and Film Aesthetics at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of Outskirts Film Magazine and has worked for several film festivals and served on several juries, including the CPH:DOX’s Next:Wave jury (2024), Opus Bonum Main Competition Jury at the Ji.hlava lDFF (2022), and the Giornate Degli Autori 28 Times Cinema jury at La Biennale di Venezia (2018). She was part of the Dear Doc Fellowship at the documentary seminar Doc’s Kingdom (2023), Le Giornate del Cinema Muto’s Collegium (2022), where she won the annual essay prize, and the Locarno Critics Academy (2019) and has written for outlets such as MUBI Notebook, La vida útil, and Senses of Cinema. She has also contributed to Balthazar Filmkritik’s publication dedicated to Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, the Jeonju Film Festival’s publication Jeonju Cinema Project: Ten years dreaming of a festival as a producer, and Courtisane Film Festival’s publication In the Midst of the End of the World: António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro (2024).