🚨NEW ARTICLE🚨 Noticed a current trend of older-woman/younger-man romcoms? The Idea of You, Bridget Jones 4, A Family Affair... The genre, I argue in Screen (journal), celebrates older women's desire yet polices it - de-aging its stars, and prioritising motherhood. OA: doi.org/10.1093/scre...

Age against the machine: assessing older women’s desire in the new age-gap romcom

Hollywood in the 2020s has witnessed a surge in romantic comedies featuring older women paired with younger men – a trend that has drawn various misogynist

doi.org

🎬 New Palomitas podcast: on Álex de la Iglesia's La chispa de la vida / As Luck Would Have It (2011). A man impaled on a rod markets his own tragedy... Joined by Dr. Raquel Martínez Martín (@unistrathclyde.bsky.social), expert on Spanish crisis cinema. For students & scholars! 🎧 tinyurl.com/56wjspth

New episode of Palomitas, with special guest @drpetewatson.bsky.social! We're talking Princesas (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2005): a film about sex work, race, migration, and labour. Essential Spanish cinema. Listen: tinyurl.com/zc6vz9vv

On May 19, I’m giving an online talk @baftss.bsky.social @universityofleeds.bsky.social on the new "anti-romcom" - films that swap happy endings for violence, revenge & discord. See you there! 📅 May 19, 4pm IST 🔗 lnkd.in/eH4rA4ki Pw: DE7SU3Hu #FilmStudies #SpanishCinema #RomanticComedy

The Spanish and Lusophone Film Festival (Theme: “Roots/Routes”) will run from 31st March to 9th April in Room C215 (Screening Room), Newman Building, UCD. - Screenings are *free*, *subtitled*, and take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 18:00! www.ucd.ie/slcl/newsand...

¿De quién te ries? Race & Comedy in Spanish Film - at ALCES XXI (Valencia, July 14-17 2026). Join us for this seminar - on how contemporary Spanish comedies mobilise race & globalisation for laughs! 📝 Send 250-word abstracts by *12 March* - 🔗 networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

New Palomitas pod with Prof Rosi Song @languagesdurham.bsky.social - on Icíar Bollaín's "Flowers from Another World" (1999) 3 women join a "love caravan" to a depopulated Castilian village. What follows is tender, tense, and radically human. Listen here ⬇️ open.spotify.com/episode/71R6...

9. Flores de otro mundo (Icíar Bollaín, 1999) (with Rosi Song)

open.spotify.com

New OA article with @jen-studies-death.bsky.social How did Paddington Bear - immigrant from Peru - become the go-to British symbol… and its grim reaper? 🐻💀 From Jubilee tea with Queen Elizabeth II to #CreepyPaddington memes, read all here! tinyurl.com/bdeu4tb5 #Paddington #ComedyStudies

My new article is out: I analyse Netflix’s LGBTQ+ romcom #Smiley (2022) to explore how digital intimacies are visualised onscreen, from split-screens to algorithmic desire. Read it here: doi.org/10.1386/ijis... #Romcom #DigitalIntimacy #ScreenStudies #TV #LGBTQ #Netflix

Estamos ya en directo en @pleibericos.bsky.social, hablando sobre las nuevas publicaciones en el ámbito del cine español 🎦🎞️📽️

Such a pleasure to have @drpetewatson.bsky.social on the Palomitas Podcast! We discuss this sensual, sun-drenched comedy featuring stars Penélope Cruz and Maribel Verdú! Get it wherever podcasts are found 🎧

Pete Watson@drpetewatson.bsky.social · 9mo ago

My episode discussing Fernando Trueba’s Oscar winning film Belle Epoque has just come out on @matthewhilborn.bsky.social’s excellent Palomitas podcast; open.spotify.com/episode/6mzm... Do give it a listen, and subscribe, like and share with friends, colleagues and students interested in Spanish film

Thrilled to have won the 2026 Edgar Allison Peers Prize of the AHGBI! My article examines East-Asian representation in 2 Spanish comedies of 2019, investigating gender, comedy, and nationhood @ucdslcl.bsky.social @livunipress.bsky.social #LoveIrishResearch

🥳 New publication! “A High Price Toupee: The Costs of Baldness in Por los pelos” is out in NECSUS (Autumn 2025, #Ageing). I explore how screen comedy frames baldness, masculinity & hair-loss anxiety via Spain’s Very Bald Trip (Nacho G. Velilla, 2022) necsus-ejms.org/a-high-price...

A high price toupee: The costs of baldness in Por los pelos - NECSUS

by Matthew Hilborn

necsus-ejms.org

🎬 New Podcast Episode - Pan's Labyrinth, with Professor Ann Davies, Emerita of Spanish at @stir.ac.uk! For film fans and Spanish students/teachers! 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/7Ky7... #PansLabyrinth #GuillermoDelToro #FilmStudies #Podcast

7. El laberinto del fauno (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) (with Ann Davies)

open.spotify.com

🎉 Buzzing from the launch of Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre & the Nation 1970–2020! 🎉 Huge thanks to @ucdslcl.bsky.social for sponsoring and to everyone who joined - in person & online! 🙌 Honoured to receive the @hispanists-ahgbi.bsky.social Publication Prize! Get yours👇 tinyurl.com/25s7vtph

Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020 - Matthew Hilborn

Modern Humanities Research Association - Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020 - Matthew Hilborn

mhra.org.uk

Come along tomorrow @4pm!

My Book Launch is happening next Tuesday 25th! Please do come along if you can :) Hybrid option available - if you're interested, shoot me a quick email or write to me on here 📚

📢 My chapter is out in Feminismos e Humor! I analyse Javier Fesser's "Ayoub's birthday", from his Unfortunate Stories (2020) as a romcom gone wrong, inverting national myths to critique historical amnesia RE Spain's "de-Africanization". Full ebook: €5! tinyurl.com/56bhesuf #SpanishFilm #FilmStudies

The paperback of Ophelia Through Time: Reimaginings in Art and Film (by Prof Carolina Sanabria, translated & edited by me, with a co-written Intro) is out now via Cambridge Scholars! 📖 £32.99 - or ask me nicely for a cheeky further discount 😉 Buy here: cambridgescholars.com/product/978-...

After a year online, our Convergence article is out in print! We analysed how British film & TV circulate (and sometimes hide) on Europe’s VoD platforms. Huge thanks to my co-authors @jeanettesteemers.bsky.social and Cathrin Bengesser! doi.org/10.1177/1354...

Yesterday UCD's Newman Building was transformed by 'Metamorphosis' - a giant inflatable sculpture by Olga Diego. Students & staff drew and performed on this reusable plastic canvas, turning art into a living act of sustainability. Kudos colleagues Ana Vera & Eva Bru-Domínguez! @ucdslcl.bsky.social

📣 Thrilled that my article "Tough Love: Violence and Revenge in Contemporary Spanish Comedy" is out in Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies! I analyse a wave of cynical anti-romcoms - like new film The Roses (2025) - reflecting cynicism and waning couple confidence #filmstudies doi.org/10.1080/2474...

Tough Love: Violence and Revenge in Contemporary Spanish Romantic Comedy*

This article analyses the trend of violent romantic comedies in Spain that, following the nation’s economic crisis (loosely 2018–2017), swap adoration for marital discord and divorce. Unlike screwb...

doi.org

A pulsating panel on self-representing streaming services at ECREA 2025! I spoke about how Netflix Spain comedies about sex & intimacy incorporate Netflix itself into their own diegesis! #loveirishresearch

What an amazing panel on gender and the body in Spanish cinema at @acis46.bsky.social! Thanks to the organisers for such a stimulating conference 😍

Terrific first day of @acis46.bsky.social, sharing conversation and good food with Hispanists from right across the globe! And all in one of my favourite Spanish cities: Santiago de Compostela :)

NEW Palomitas episode on Fe de etarras (Bomb Scared) (2017)! We dissect Borja Cobeaga's satire of 4 inept militants trapped in a flat during Spain's 2010 World Cup win ⚽️ With expert Alison Posey Listen: tinyurl.com/4jt682cw #PalomitasPodcast #CineEspañol #ETA #Spanishfilm

6. Fe de etarras (Borja Cobeaga, 2017) (with Alison Posey)

Palomitas · Episode

tinyurl.com

📢 Delighted to announce that my book, "Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020", is out! Get your copy - or ask your library for one - here: www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Film-Comedy-Spain Thanks to everyone who supported me through this process! #NewBook #FilmStudies

New Pod!🎙️ Remember the Jenni Hermoso/Luis Rubiales "kiss"? 🎧 Palomitas explores feminist struggles in Spanish docs: 📽️ No estás sola (fighting the "Wolf Pack") ⚽ #SeAcabó (women’s football revolution) Special guest Dr. Abigail Loxham @abigail 🔗 tinyurl.com/mr3vaz5x #WomensFootball #MeToo #SeAcabó

So much of the discourse surrounding James Gunn's #Superman reminds me of his Spanish parody, #Superlópez (2018). Extracts from my new book, "Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020"! #superheroes #filmstudies #newbook www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

🚩Wrapping up #SpottingRedFlagsSymposium! Thanks to the brilliant presenters, keynote Mary Harrod, our sponsors @baftss.bsky.social, @officialbaas.bsky.social, @kingsfilmstudies.bsky.social & all attendees! Special thanks to my co-organizers @victoriapistivsek.bsky.social & @sarahlahmtv.bsky.social ❤️