In July 2008, Professor Dina Iordanova was awarded generous funding by the Leverhulme Trust, one of the most prestigious and largest research funding bodies in the UK, to conduct investigation into the global distribution of World Cinema.

Entitled 'Dynamics of World Cinema: Transnational Channels of Global Film Distribution', the study, which will run in the period 2008-2011, aims to examine the cycles of four distinctly active circuits of contemporary film distribution, and the dynamic pattern of complex interaction between them.

The four aspects of investigation will explore the mainstream distribution of international blockbusters from around the world, the film festival circuit, the film circulation amongst diasporic communities, as well as various new Internet-enabled film dissemination forms.

Unlike existing studies that focus primarily on only one of these circulation methods often acknowledging, implicitly or explicitly, the thrust led by the predominance of Hollywood, this research will regard Hollywood blockbuster distribution as just one among those many other underreported channels. The project's distinctiveness is in the endeavour to correlate all diverse strands of film circulation with a combination of approaches, including political economy, transnationalism, as well as methods taken from cultural sociology and anthropology.

The research findings will be released in books and articles by team members (Professor Dina Iordanova, Professor Stuart Cunningham, Dr Ruby Cheung and Dr Ragan Rhyne). Other output to include an edited volume and an interactive website.