Taking a quote from Atom Egoyan and Ian Balfour’s seminal text Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film, in this article, I discussed subtitling, audio-visual translation and audio-description as vehicles providing greater access to moving image culture.

“One-inch barrier” is of course a reference to Bong Joon-ho’s celebrated words on winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020, implying that subtitles provide a gateway to access a whole other world of cinematic possibilities - other places, cultures, communities, experiences, ideas and imagination and thus the process of subtitling is in itself a tool for inclusion and diversity in cinema.

The article ultimately posits the notion that at a time of reflection on the wider film industry, thinking about accessibility in film presents an opportunity to embrace more diverse cinema and provide wider cinematic experiences to more diverse audiences.