Star is one of the most visible components in film. From the silent era to the digital age, stars have occupied a pivotal position in popular cinema, realizing cultural imaginaries and suggesting certain power dynamics in intriguing manners. This course approaches film stars of its own right, exploring the construction and contestation of fame in relation to spectatorship, race, ethnicity, gender, performance, and aging. The module is divided into two parts. By focusing on Hollywood and European cinemas, part one introduces the critical underpinnings of the invention and evolvement of stars in social, cultural and industrial terms. Part two probes stars in national and transnational contexts, engaging in a number of case studies of particular cinemas in Italy, Japan, India, and China. Specific and key questions like how the star image is manufactured and manipulated, how star texts make sense to audiences within and across borders, and how the star making process is changed by media technology and the increasingly hyper-connected global economy will also be examined. By so doing, students will be acquainted with knowledge and insight that allow them to ponder, understand, and evaluate film stars in critical and engaging ways.