The British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies’ Special Interest Group on Colour and Film is an international forum of scholars, filmmakers, archivists and film conservation specialists.

The BAFTSS Colour and Film SIG offers a space in which to discuss the questions that arise through the study of colour, its technologies, theories and philosophies, and their historical contexts in cinema. The Colour and Film research group organises seminars, screenings, conferences, publications, and the ‘Notes on Colour’ blog to facilitate discussion about colour in film, television and screen studies.

Areas of research include colour materials and processes (for example, tinting, toning, hand painting, Kinemacolor, Pathécolor, Gasparcolor Kodachrome); access and discoverability of archival films and photographs (including glass lantern slides, 35mm and 16mm film, VHS tape, digital platforms and databases); techniques such as digital colourisation; the theories and intermedial contexts that have informed colour design and approaches to colour advocated by companies such as Technicolor, Eastmancolor, Agfacolor, Dufaycolour and more. Events organised foster discussion about a variety of topics, from critical analyses of the association of colour with the cosmetic and trivial, which acknowledge its vital role in film history, making, and theory, through to questions of colour perception, subjectivity, the affects and the archive, colour and genre, and innovations in the conservation, restoration and exhibition of archival film.

The BAFTSS Colour and Film SIG is affiliated with the Colour Group (GB) who organise an annual International Conference on Colour in Film

The British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies’ Special Interest Group on Colour and Film, which is convened by Professor Sarah Street (University of Bristol), Dr Liz Watkins (University of Leeds) and Dr Vicky Jackson (University of Bristol) continues to welcome new members. If you would like to join the Colour and Film SIG please visit BAFTSS Membership. If you would like to receive updates about Colour and Film SIG activities, please contact Dr Liz Watkins, University of Leeds liz.i.watkins@gmail.com

Founding Members of the BAFTSS Special Interest Group in Colour and Film. Twitter:  @BAFTSSColorFilm Bluesky:@baftsscolorfilmsig.bsky.social

(added 4th December 2017/ recent updates September 2025)