Now Accepting Proposals for 2026 Conference!

2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

About the Conference

The Society’s annual conference provides a forum for scholars and teachers of film and media studies to present and hear new research; to provide a supportive environment for networking, mentoring, and collaboration among scholars otherwise separated by distance, language, or disciplinary boundaries; and to promote the field of cinema and media studies among its practitioners, to other disciplines, and to the public at large, in part through public recognition of award-worthy achievements and other significant milestones within the field.

The submission period for 2026 conference proposals will begin Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

The deadline for all conference proposals (pre-constituted panels, open call papers, workshops, roundtables) is Friday, August 29, 2025, 5:00 PM US Central Time.

Submit a Proposal

Please click the SSO Login button, and provide your cmstudies.org username and password to access the portal. The SSO login links your SCMS membership profile to the conference submission portal. When logging in for the first time, you may be asked to grant access to your profile. Please select "full_profile" and proceed to log in. 

Forgot your password? Please click here to receive a password reset link to the email address associated with your account. If you do not receive a link in your inbox or spam folder, the email address associated with your membership account may be incorrect or expired. Please contact the Office for assistance. In order to avoid duplicate accounts, we kindly ask that you do not create a new account unless requested to do so by the Office. 

If you are not an SCMS member please create an account here. All new membership and account requests must be approved by SCMS staff. Please allow up to 24 hours (Monday-Friday) for this process to be complete.

Waiver Requests

A waiver of the conference registration fee and/or SCMS membership requirement may be granted in exceptional circumstances for media practitioners and artists or renowned scholars from other disciplines whose contributions would illuminate the panel or workshop topic. If requesting a waiver for any panel, workshop, or roundtable participant, a waiver form must be submitted online by the conference submission deadline. Waivers can be requested by the intended recipient or by the session chair on their behalf. For the 2026 Conference, the deadline is Friday, August 29, 2025 at 5:00 PM CT. More information and the Guest/Contributor waiver request form can be found here on the SCMS website.

Character Limits

Please note the following character limits (includes spaces) in the submission portal:

          Titles: 120 characters
          Abstracts and Panel Summaries: 2500 characters
          Bios: 500 characters
          Seminar Leader Qualifications: 1500 characters
          Roundtable Speaker Topics: 50 characters

Three bibliography sources are required, max limit of five sources. No character limit on source fields.