Sheldon Hall, 1964-

Biography

Sheldon Hall is an Emeritus Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, where he taught for 27 years. Graduating from the University of Warwick with a degree in Film and Literature, he became a freelance journalist and lecturer, serving as film critic for the major regional newspaper The Northern Echo from 1986 to 1997 before becoming a full-time academic. Hall has an MA and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. He is the author of Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It – The Making of the Epic Film (2005; 2nd edn, 2014) and Armchair Cinema: A History of Feature Films on British Television, 1929–1981 (2024); co-author (with Steve Neale) of Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History (2010); and co-editor of Widescreen Worldwide (2010) and Film Critics and British Film Culture: New Shots in the Dark (2025). In addition, he has contributed chapters and articles on British and American film history to numerous books and journals. His research interests include Hollywood and British cinema; film criticism, textual analysis and film aesthetics; widescreen cinema; film distribution and exhibition; and films on television.