Star Studies: A Critical Guide provides a lively introduction to the major approaches and key developments within this key area of film studies. It identifies a number of dominant themes, explains major theories, concepts and methodologies, and explores the diversity of approaches that have helped shape the international study of stars and stardom. Comparing the stars and star systems of Hollywood, Bollywood, China and many European countries, from the early-twentieth to the first decade of the twenty-first century, Martin Shingler considers the multiple functions of stars: as an elite workforce within the film industry, as actors and performers, as role models and cultural representatives, as icons and images, as transnational and national symbols, and as commodities. The scope of star studies is wide, historically and geographically, but this book helpfully focuses on salient features of the discipline, providing a cogent overview of star studies, while suggesting some useful avenues for further research. Published in the BFI Film Stars series, Star Studies provides an essential theoretical and historical companion to the individual star volumes in the series.