Deflecting the attention from Hollywood, Stars in World Cinema fills an important gap in the study of film by bringing together Star Studies and World Cinema. A team of international scholars here bring their expertise and in-depth knowledge of world cultures and cinema to the study of stars and stardom from six continents, exploring their cultures, their local history and their global relevance. Chapters look at the role of acting, music, singing, painting and martial arts in the making of stars from Australia's indigenous population, Austria, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Japan, North and South Korea, Nigeria, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union, Spain, North and South America.
Since the very beginnings of cinema, actors and stars have been central to its history and have been one of the medium's defining characteristics. They have also been fundamental to the marketing of cinema and have played a major part in the reception of films in many cultures. Stars in World Cinema examines stardom and the circulation of stars across borders, analysing how local star systems or non-systems construct stardom around the world. Contributors put into practice their local knowledge of history, language and cultural systems, to consider issues of hybridity, boundary crossing, the mobility of stardom, and embodied spectatorship, in order to further the understanding of stars in light the of recent interest in reception theory.
Rooted in a multidisciplinary and polycentric approach, this book throws light on unexpected connections between stars and stardoms from different parts of the world, cutting across chronology, geographies and film history.

Andrea Bandhauer and Michelle Royer are Senior Lecturers at The University of Sydney (Australia).

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction Stars Studies and World Cinema
Andrea Bandhauer and Michelle Royer
Section 1 Film Icons and Star Systems
Chapter One I Love You When You're Angry: Amitabh Bachchan, Emotion and the Star in the Hindi Film
Rachel Dwyer
Chapter Two 'They have made Africa proud': The Nollywood star system in Nigeria and beyond
Lizelle Bisschoff,
Chapter Three The Star of the East: Umm Kulthum, Stardom, and the Egyptian Cinema
Ifdal Elsaket
Chapter Four Hara Setsuko: Japan's eternal virgin and reluctant star of the silver screen
Mats Karlsson
Section 2 Stardom Mobility and the Exotic
Chapter Five Carmen Miranda: from Brazilian film star to international "tropical Other" 
Lisa Shaw
Chapter Six 'America is home ... America is her oyster!' Dynamics of ethnic assimilation in Alida Valli's American star persona
Antonella Palmieri
Chapter Seven Spanish Stars, Distant Dreams: The Role of Voice in Shaping Perception
Anne L. Walsh
Chapter Eight Dancing with Hollywood: Re-Defining Transnational Chinese Stardom
Sabrina Q. Yu
Section 3 The Politics of Stardom
Chapter Nine I'm ready for my close-up Mr Ayatollah! The Ideology of Female Stardom in Iranian Cinema
Michelle Langford
Chapter Ten BEWARE FILM STAR! Towards a performance and cultural analysis of Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Soviet film star
Greg Dolgopolov and Ludmila Stern
Chapter Eleven Filmmaking on the Edge: Director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee
Leonid Petrov
Chapter Twelve Indigenous Icons and Teaching Balanda: From Walkabout to Ten Canoes; Art, Activism and David Gulpilil
Karen O'Brien
Section 4 Stars, Bodies and Performance
Chapter Thirteen Sharon's Noranian Turn: Stardom, Race, and Language in Philippine Cinema
Bliss Cua Lim
Chapter Fourteen Weak Masculinity and Male Stardom in Greek Cinema
Vrasidas Karalis
Chapter Fifteen Star Embodiment and the "Lived Experience" of Aging in Cinema: The Case of Amour (Michael Haneke 2012)
Michelle Royer
Chapter Sixteen 'I cannot live without performing': Romy Schneider on- and off-screen embodiments of the tragic
Andrea Bandhauer
List of Contributors