The Mixing Room: conversations about cinema

Demonic oppression was the story of this year's UK horror film showcase – along with female survivorship, identity differences and the dangers of the internet. Hardy survivors Kim Newman, Anton Bitel and Virginie Selavy explore our latest demons in this roundtable post-mortem. Under discussion: Demonic conspiracies and satanic possession in

To make Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, director Steve Sullivan conducted a decades-spanning quest to uncover and understand the man behind Frank Sidebottom, the cult comic figure with the papier-maché head. On Sight & Sound's website, he tells Leigh Singer all about it, and shares some of the material he uncovered: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/being-frank-chris-sievey-story-frank-sidebottom-steve-sullivan-making-of-archive

Tara Brown, Keith Jarrett and Ben Walters talk through all the fun in the 2018 BFI Flare! Film Festival, from queering the South Bank and LGBTQ+ bingo cards to mainstream incursions, gay miserabilism and the marvellous indescribability of Good Manners.

What does Steve McQueen's new heist thriller Widows – Sight & Sound's November 2018 cover film and gala opener of this year's London Film Festival – tell us about race and class? Philip Concannon, Nick James, Isabel Stevens and Kelli Weston discuss this, Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-ke's new crime drama Ash Is Purest White, plus three more picks from this year's festival: Sudabeh Mortezai's Joy, Andrew Bujalski's Support the Girls and Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey into Night. Read about our November issue: bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/november-2018-issue See all our London Film Festival 2018 online coverage: bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/london-film-festival-2018

Gaspar Noé's closing-night Climax set the tone for a horror bonanza that went big on spiked drinks, ghosts, nuns and dollhouses. We locked Anton Bitel, Kim Newman and Virginie Selavy in a room to chew it over.

A look back at the best of last year's FrightFest with Anton Bitel, Kim Newman and Virginie Selavy.

Kelli Weston hosts a conversation with Sophie Brown, Simran Hans and Ben Nicholson to discuss some of the picks of this year's Sheffield documentary festival: • RaMell Ross's Hale County This Morning, This Evening • Bing Liu's Minding the Gap • Khalik Allah's Black Mother • Nathaniel Dorsky's Arboretum Cycle and Scott Barley's Sleep Has Her House • Sandi Tan's Shirkers • and Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside's América