Europe on the Global Screen: Geopolitical Scotoma, Transnational Cinema of Memory and Hollywood’s Security Choices

I theorize (in)visibility through the concepts of geopolitical scotoma and global amnesia. I explore how audio-visual mnemonics (feature films and media reports) are used to construct a specific narrative available for global consumption (the global screen) whilst other narratives remain untold (geopolitical scotoma). I aim to examine how European interregional and transnational agency is employed to encode, store and transmit cultural experiences in order to structure the securitization agenda, and I am also concerned with how an external, globalized agency (Hollywood) is required to articulate global securitization imperatives. My focus is on the 2015 nominations and how they give voice to European mnemonic concerns; conversely, I propose a consideration of the Oscar nomination process as a means for European creative industries to engage in strategies of (de-)securitization on global arena. By analysing common themes found in the 2015 film nominations such as migration, crisis of identity and power struggle in the context of interethnic conflicts, I demonstrate how these films function as emblems of global suffering whilst retaining their particular European dimension.