Few topics in the study of film produce controversy like authorship. Critics, historians and theoreticians have debated the most important film authors, argued vociferously about the nature of film authorship, and even questioned whether films have authors at all. Film Authorship evaluates these debates in a rigorous and accessible manner. Generously illustrated, it analyses the historical development and theoretical underpinnings of the concepts of film authorship and the auteur. It then examines recent theories of film authorship and proposes a reconceptualisation of film authorship that grounds it firmly in empirical analyses of film production.