Professor Julia Knight is a professor of Moving Image at the University of Sunderland. She is also the Director of the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies (CRMCS) within the university's Creative and Cultural Practices Research Beacon. Before entering academia, she worked in the UK independent film and video sector, and her most recent research and publications have addressed the role of distribution and promotion in that sector. This research was funded by the AHRC and resulted in her co-authored (with Peter Thomas) book, Reaching Audiences: Distribution and Promotion of Alternative Moving Image (2011) and the online Film & Video Distribution Database, together with a series of journal articles, book chapters and conference papers.