Hilary Smith, BA (Hons), MA (Distinction)

At Birkbeck Hilary Smith lectures in film studies, is an Academic Advisor in film and media and Year Tutor to first year BA Film and Media students. She also teaches film at Bishopsgate Institute and Imperial College.

Hilary has programmed, lectured, written and broadcast on various aspects of cinema. She is the former Programme Planning Manager and Deputy Head of the National Film Theatre of the British Film Institute. At the NFT she curated seasons on Humphrey Bogart, Jem Cohen, Daniel Day-Lewis, film noir, Nicole Kidman, Veronica Lake, Robert Lepage, Margaret Lockwood, Carole Lombard and Ida Lupino amongst others, as well as overseeing numerous other seasons and on-stage events.

She has diverse specialist interests in film, reflecting her cinémathèque role working across a breadth of cinema past and present. An abiding interest has been in the role of women in film, both in front of and behind the camera, from pre-sound cinema through classic Hollywood to post-revolution Iranian cinema and beyond. She also has a background and continuing interest in visual and performing arts.