About
What is AGE-C?
AGE-C: Ageing and Gender in European Cinema is a research initiative funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. It brings together scholars from Goethe University Frankfurt, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris, Università degli Studi di Udine, Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, and King’s College London to explore how contemporary European cinema represents old age — particularly in relation to gender. AGE-C webtool is part of that initiative. It is designed to help researchers, students, film industry practitioners, policy makers and cultural institutions interact with and analyze a curated dataset of European films that portray ageing on screen and behind the scenes.
What the Dataset Contains
The AGE-C dataset includes over 6,000 films released between 2014 and 2023 across nine European countries. It focuses on how ageing and gender are represented in contemporary European cinema and includes detailed information about characters, cast and crew, production context, and award recognition. Countries covered in the dataset: The dataset includes films released in the following nine European countries:
- Croatia
- France
- Germany
- Hungary
- Italy
- Romania
- Slovenia
- Spain
- United Kingdom
In Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia, the focus is on characters and documentary subjects aged 50 and above. In France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, the threshold is 55 and above.
The dataset captures:
- Fiction, documentary, and animation films
- Leading and supporting characters and documentary subjects aged 50 and above
- Detailed metadata on actors, directors and documentary subjects
- Film-level information on production countries, release types, and genres
- Recognition through national and European film awards
- Over 170 thematic tags reflecting concepts from gerontology, gender studies, and narrative theory
- Character-specific attributes like age group, gender, sexuality, ethnic origin, class, profession, and ability
- This makes it possible to examine trends in how ageing is represented across different countries, genres, and institutional contexts.
Where to Learn More
For full definitions of filters and tags, and details on how the dataset was created, visit the Glossary page.
You can also download the full dataset for further analysis via the MediaRep repository.
A methodological overview and academic publications resulting from the AGE-C project will be made available on the project Website.
Get in Touch
We welcome feedback, collaboration ideas, and questions.
Contact the AGE-C team at gepper@tfm.uni-frankfurt.de