International Society for Philosophy in Film

Fifth Annual Symposium

Call for Abstracts

August 20-22, 2026
London, England

Mission Statement: The International Society for Philosophy in Film (ISPiF) promotes philosophical engagement with film by conceiving film as a form or expression of thought. Rather than a mere source of entertainment or collection of objects for aesthetic scrutiny, film expresses ideas and arguments worth engaging. From the perspective of ISPiF, to engage films philosophically means to think through, along with, and/or against films, to make sense of them, to learn from them, and to further expand the practice, study, and teaching of philosophy into new regions through thoughtful engagement with film.

Theme: Dreams and Nightmares in Philosophy and Film

Abstract Deadline: May 1, 2026
“Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” - Alfred Hitchcock

Like the world of dreams, the realm of cinema can be seen as a playground for the imagination, presenting us by turns with uncanny, unsettling, or revelatory reflections of the ‘real’ world. Both worlds defy the constraints that govern our ordinary relations, including our relations to time, space, ourselves, and each other. Yet when we are no longer restricted by the laws that keep waking life in check, will the products of our imaginings instill horror or delight, revelry or despair? Even if we grant Socrates’ claim that “our dreams make it clear that there is a dangerous, wild, and lawless form of desire in everyone” (Republic 574e), are these untethered fancies a window into our true yet repressed nature, or merely aspects of our lives distilled and decontextualized to the point of absurdity? Likewise, do the images they present offer access to the hidden textures of reality, or does the medium confine them to shadowy reflections destined to mislead? Like the walls of Plato’s cave, these screens reconfigure the borders of human possibility—but in doing so, do they bring us closer to the truth, or drive us ever further from it?

Dreams and nightmares set loose our hidden fears, secret desires, private fantasies, shared anxieties, prophetic speculations, debilitating delusions, dystopian futures, quixotic recollections,
and still more unsettling aspects of the human experience. But what occurs when the images that populate our sleep are reconstituted in film? What is at stake when the fleeting impressions of slumber are sharpened, stabilized, rendered visible, and available to be shared? By giving form and aspect to our hopes and fears, film does not merely reproduce the logic of dreams; it refracts and reorganizes it, granting meaning and measure to the ideals that orient our aspirations and to the horrors that unsettle our confidence.

Within their own narratives, films frequently take dreams and nightmares as both subject and structure, staging worlds in which fear and desire blur the distinction between what is actual and what is imagined. Cinematic dreams do not simply interrupt reality; they challenge its authority, raising questions about memory, identity, agency, and the fragility of perception itself. Nightmares, in turn, often dramatize the persistence of what cannot be repressed, returning as threats that rupture linear time, destabilize narrative coherence, or trap characters within recursive loops of dread. In such moments, film becomes a philosophical laboratory in which the anxieties and longings of dream-life are tested, magnified, and interrogated—forcing us to ask not only what we fear or desire, but also if the chasm between illusion and reality is as great as we wish to believe, or itself merely a comforting illusion.

ISPiF invites abstracts that address these (and other) topics concerning dreams and nightmares in philosophy and film:

• Nightmares of the Other:
Cinematic dreams and nightmares that figure racialized, gendered, sexualized, or classed fears; the construction of threat, monstrosity, or intrusion, and the moral and political anxieties these express.

• American Dreaming:
Hollywood visions of aspiration, success, domestic happiness, freedom, democracy, and social progress—and the disillusionment, failure, or violence that haunt these ideals.

• Reality or Fantasy?:
Films that unsettle the boundary between waking life and imagination, raising questions about truth, perception, memory, and the reliability of experience.

• Dream-Logic and Narrative Breakdown:
Fragmented storytelling, loops, repetitions, and temporal distortions that mirror the structure of dreams and nightmares.

• The Ethics of Illusion:
Moral responsibility, agency, and accountability when characters act under conditions of deception, hallucination, obsession, or altered reality.

• Noir as Nightmare:
Paranoia, fatalism, corruption, and epistemic uncertainty in dark cinematic worlds structured by suspicion and moral ambiguity.

• Horror and the Return of the Repressed:
Fear, trauma, guilt, and forbidden desire as forces that erupt through nightmare imagery and persistent threats.

• Romantic Fantasies:
Dreams of love, intimacy, and fulfillment; misrecognition and delayed knowledge; and the emotional logic of romantic genres.

• Speculative Dreams:
Science fiction as philosophical dreamingworlds that test identity, consciousness, technology, and the limits of human understanding.

• The Dreaming Body:
Embodiment, vulnerability, transformation, and control in dream-like and nightmarish cinematic spaces.

• Collective Dreams, Social Nightmares:
Films that stage shared anxieties, utopian longings, or dystopian fears in response to historical, political, or cultural crises.

• Awakening and Its Discontents:
What it means to “wake up” within a narrative—and whether awakening brings liberation, loss, or despair.

• Cinema as Thought-Dream:
Film as a medium that does not merely depict dreams and nightmares but thinks through them, transforming private fantasy into shared reflection.

Submission Guidelines and Instructions:

Extended abstracts should be 500-750 words, with standard font and margins.

Deadline: The deadline for receipt of abstracts is May 1, 2026. Any submission received after midnight Pacific time on this date will not be considered. Notification of acceptance will be provided mid-May.

If accepted, final papers, no longer than 15 pages, double spaced, must be provided by July 15th in order to be distributed to all participants in advance of the symposium. This is crucial to the format and success of the symposium, where authors will be provided only 10-12 minutes to summarize, emphasize, or further develop the contents of the full essay. This condensed presentation time, combined with all participants reading each accepted paper and viewing relevant films in advance, is intended to allow substantial time for questions and discussion following each presentation.

Please send all submissions as either a Word or PDF attachment to: ispifconference@gmail.com

ISPiF Executive Board:

Steven Brence – Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon
Caroline Lundquist – Clark Honors College, University of Oregon
Alain Beauclair – Department of Humanities, MacEwan University Chris McTavish – Centre for Humanities, Athabasca University
Joe Saunders – Department of Philosophy, Durham University

Sponsored by the University of Oregon, the Oregon Humanities Center; MacEwan University Office of Research Services; MacEwan University Department of Humanities