[in]Transition is the gold standard in peer-reviewed video essay journals. It is a collaboration between MediaCommons and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies’ official publication, Journal of Cinema & Media Studies. It claims to be “the first peer-reviewed academic journal of videographic film and moving image studies”. Importantly and proudly (rightfully so), this online journal is fully open access: there are no fees to publish or read.

Discover all the issues of this journal online.

The Cine-Files is an online scholarly journal of cinema studies, founded by Tracy Cox-Stanton. The journal is produced within the cinema studies program at Savannah College of Art and Design. The journal includes solicited essays (often organized in a dossier on a specific topic), peer reviewed videos and occasional special feature articles, interviews and/or video essays.

Discover more about this journal on its website.

In their own words, NECSUS is an international, double blind peer-reviewed journal of media studies initiated by NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) and published by Amsterdam University Press. Its focus is on cinema, television, and new media studies: NECSUS publishes research either by European scholars or on European media for a global readership. In addition to written articles, NECSUS also has includes video essays.

Go to the NECSUS website for more reading and viewing.

The Spanish journal Tecmerin is actually a whole web platform created by the Madrid university (more precisely, by the Grupo de Investigación Tecmerin Universidad Carlos III de Madrid). It includes a Journal of Audiovisual Essays that mainly showcases audiovisual content created by members of the Tecmerin research group (Television-cinema: memory, representation and industry).

Discover the contents of this journal (in Spanish and/or English) on the Tecmerin website.

Hyperrhiz is an open access journal that is published twice per year. Its mission is to provide “a forum for experimental new media projects (both critical and creative) located outside or across current disciplinary boundaries”. The journal actively seeks out research that is non-traditional both in form and modus operandi, and in that spirit it has also published video essays.

Discover this exciting journal online.

Another journal that positions itself at the vanguard of video essayism is the Journal of Embodied Research. It calls itself “the first peer-reviewed, open access, academic journal to focus specifically on the innovation and dissemination of embodied knowledge through the medium of video”. JER is an open access publication and “aims to pioneer the scholarly video article as a new form supporting development of diverse embodied research projects”.

Discover more about this journal online.

Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism is a refereed publication “whose aim is to create a forum for the range of analysis, debate and discussion that only a journal devoted to a detailed film criticism can adequately provide”. This annual journal is a joint venture between the Universities of Warwick, Reading, and Oxford and is firmly committed to open access scholarship. They welcome written articles as well as audiovisual essays.

Watch, read or download this journal online.

16:9 filmtidsskrift is a Danish journal of film studies, published online. Most of its content is in Danish, but about five times a year they also feature an English language article, often penned by a renowned film scholar. The journal publishes articles and video essays that go through a blind peer review process.

Discover their English content here or go directly to their video essays and other media content.

CINERGIE is an online publication published twice a year. It has ties with the Bologna university, is scientifically accredited and embraces a double blind peer review. This open access journal “publishes articles in Italian and English that explore the multiple articulations of contemporary film and media cultures, promoting the discussion and the exchange between scholars from different disciplines”.

Watch and read this journal online.

Frames Cinema Journal is published online twice a year by the University of St Andrews, UK. Since 2012 this peer-reviewed academic journal “aims to provide a space for trailblazing research by scholars of film, media and screen studies”. Most of the content of the journal consists of (original) written scholarship, although they do accept video essays as well.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture is an open-access “publication forum for feminist scholars, writers, artists and activists who address visual culture at large”. It is an idealistic, intersectional journal that is propelled by the enthusiasm and dedication of its authors and editors alike, as you can tell from MAI’s manifesto.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Alphaville is a fully peer-reviewed online journal that accepts video essays. The journal is edited and published by staff, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork, Ireland.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts is a peer-reviewed publication that is published three times per year by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Its stated aim is to “promote knowledge, research and artworks in the field of the Arts” with a distinctive interest in artistic research and practised-based research.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Screenworks is an exclusively online publication of practice research in film and screen media. All the submitted video essays are subject to academic peer review.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Mediaesthetics is an exclusively online, bilingual (German / English) open access journal for film and media studies, published by a group of film scholars at Freie Universität Berlin.

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Film a doba is a Czech critical quarterly journal that discusses feature films, documentaries, animated and experimental titles. They also publish video essays (in Czech).

Read current and past issues of this journal online.

Music, Sound, and the Moving Image is the “first international scholarly journal devoted to the study of the interaction between music and sound with the entirety of moving image media – film, television, music video, advertising, computer games, mixed-media installation, digital art, live cinema, et alia.”

Read current and past issues of this journal online.