Bright Lights began life as a print publication in 1974, published and edited by Gary Morris. In 1995, the magazine went online exclusively as brightlightsfilm.com. The London Times called us a "superb film journal," and Green Cine Daily says, "Anyone who doesn't love Bright Lights doesn't love life." Bright Lights is one of the most widely read, quoted, and respected movie sites on the Web, mixing savvy pop reviews with in-depth analysis of current and classic, edgy and indie, international and experimental cinema - with wit and a political edge. We average between 180,000 and 250,000 unique visits per month.

Reviews are indexed in Internet Movie Database, Rotten Tomatoes, and Movie Review Query Engine. See books that mention Bright Lights Film Journal.

We are interested in short pieces (reviews of single movies, DVDs, books) and more substantial studies of directors and other key production figures (cinematographers and producers, for example), analyses of genres, studios and studio style, and topics like gender and minority contributions to film.

Much of our material comes from students and professors, but enthusiastic, educated, smartly written fan pieces are always welcome. Bright Lights is not an academic ghetto, and looks more for idiosyncratic style, and the ability to make ideas available to wide audiences, than bone-dry scholarly analysis. We are most interested in bringing ideas to a wide readership hungry for information but put off by standard, navel-gazing academic writing. If your submission is creaking under the weight of Lacanish, psychoanalytic, and other specialist hermetic jargon (e.g., words like "semiotic" and "transumption"), please head elsewhere. We greatly value wit and look for literary value in submissions.

Some sample paragraphs from back issues show the kind of writing we appreciate:

Submissions should be sent to brightlightswriters@gmail.com

We exist only as a Web page, so keep that in mind when you submit articles. We are in this for the pleasure not the profit, and since we don't make money off it, neither will you. (We take the phrase "free marketplace of ideas" literally.) We can publish articles of practically any length, though we discourage you from sending us your books or dissertations.

Though there are no financial benefits at this time, there are other ones, as follows:

Ideal length for straight reviews is 600-1800 words, for overviews, interviews, or more ambitious think pieces, 2000-3000 words is good. However, we can accept virtually any length if the subject merits it, though we will have a hissy fit if you send us your book or dissertation. E-mail submissions only, please.

We have no set taboos and prefer passionate, opinionated, even ranting pieces that are intelligently and engagingly written. Political, anti-capitalist, pro-sex tirades always welcome.

Typically, we have no particular theme, preferring a potpourri -- or maybe goulash is a better word -- made up of what your editor, our regular writers, and other contributors are thinking and writing about.

We always need overviews of international and minority cinemas, in-depth director interviews, discussions of the impact of multimedia on film, breakthrough technologies, animation, and studies of neglected or misinterpreted figures in film history.

Re: book and DVD submissions. If you have to have it back, please don't send it. And we vastly prefer DVDs that are not screener copies emblazoned with logos. Your chance of getting your DVD reviewed increases exponentially if you send us the commercial release complete with extras.

Please visit our side project: The Ivy Compton-Burnett Home Page. English novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) was one of the most innovative writers of the twentieth century.