Professor Mattias Frey is Professor of Film, Media and Culture at the University of Kent. His approach to film and media culture attends coequally to institutions as to human agency and cooperation, concentrating on what were once considered periphery phenomena: criticism, distribution, marketing and promotion, regulation and other cultural intermediaries.

In his recent and ongoing research, Professor Frey has taken a critical media industries approach to film (esp. distribution, regulation, exhibition); film and media audiences; promotional media and cultural intermediation (esp. film marketing, criticism); and digital culture (e.g. algorithmic recommender systems).

Professor Frey received his academic training in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Berlin as well as at Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor and doctoral degrees and taught in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. In 2008 he joined the University of Kent. In addition to his research and teaching, he has served as the Director of Internationalisation for the Faculty of Humanities, Director of Learning and Teaching for the School of Arts, Director of Internationalisation for the School of Arts, Director of Recruitment and Marketing for the School of Arts, Head of the Film department, Acting Associate Dean for Research and Innovation for the Faculty of Humanities, Managing Director of the Centre for Film and Media Research and in a variety of other roles.

Professor Frey’s most recent monograph is Netflix Recommends: Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste. It will appear in June 2021 with the University of California Press.