The Screen Show

Will Ferrell in a new golf comedy, or Octavia Spencer/Hannah Waddingham as best friends on the run in Ride or Die...which of these new releases deserves your time?Netflix's golf comedy The Hawk brings together comedy heavyweights Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon, alongside rising star Jimmy Tatro, in a sports satire about a faded champion attempting an improbable comeback.New action-comedy Ride or Die pairs Oscar winner Octavia Spencer with Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham as lifelong best friends whose relationship is thrown into chaos when one discovers the other is a secret international assassin.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey arrives amid enormous anticipation. Jason considers whether the mythic epic can live up to the hype.A tribute to Sam Neill, who died this week, as we revisit a beautiful highlight from our archives: Neill reflecting on his favourite film - a clue, it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.We speak with filmmaker Alain Gomis ahead of the Melbourne International Film Festival about Dao, his visually striking exploration of memory, history and identity; and MIFF Senior programmer Kate Jinx is in for a preview of this year's festival.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Angie GrantArts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

A beloved classic gets the makeover treatment, and a luxury getaway goes spectacularly off the rails. Jason and Wenlei review Little House on the Prairie and The Five Star Weekend.

Filipino-Australian director James J. Robinson discusses First Light, his acclaimed debut feature exploring faith, corruption and moral reckoning.Japanese-Australian filmmaker Natalie Erika James talks Saccharine, her unsettling new horror that turns diet culture into something truly nightmarish.

Nobody asked for a Legally Blonde prequel, but is Elle actually worth watching? TV critics Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso weigh up Prime Video's latest reboot, then head to a cursed New England island for Apple TV+'s horror-comedy Widow's Bay. One unnecessary spin-off, one surprise hit, or something else entirely?

Jason reviews The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, who also stars alongside Penélope Cruz, Seth Rogen and Edward Norton. The film follows a couple whose dinner invitation to their neighbours takes a wildly unexpected and life-changing turn.Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung Chiu-wai lead Silent Friend, the latest feature from On Body and Soul director Ildikó Enyedi. Spanning three eras, the film weaves together interconnected stories linked by a single tree.Following its international premiere at the prestigious Rotterdam Film Festival, The World Came Flooding In uses virtual reality  to transform flood-damaged homes into remarkable memory spaces, connecting the stories of people whose lives have been changed forever by water.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Alysse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

It's pressure-cooker television this week, from the final season of The Bear to the suburban crime chaos of Ms. X. Jason and Wenlei weigh in.

Jason reviews Supergirl, the new blockbuster directed by Sydney filmmaker Craig Gillespie and starring fellow Sydneysider Milly Alcock.What happens when one of the world's bestselling thriller writers teams up with one of Australia's biggest screen stars? Harlan Coben and Sam Worthington discuss Netflix's I Will Find You, a mystery driven by family secrets with Coben's trademark twists front and centre.Acclaimed French filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović discusses The Ice Tower, her dreamlike re-imagining of a Hans Christian Andersen tale, starring Marion Cotillard.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MelissArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso consider whether Stan's The Killings at Parish Station is what TV needs right now, and a pretty fresh take on the sports drama with The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.

Jason takes a look at Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg's return to his sci-fi beginnings.Director Adrian Chiarella and actors Mia Wasikowska and Joe Bird talk about the unsettling new Australian film Leviticus.South Korean horror master Yeon Sang‑ho is back with Colony, a zombie thriller that follows a rapidly mutating virus.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Allyse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...Alice and Steve and Coldwater.

We head to the Sydney Film Festival for a candid discussion with filmmakers on the highs and lows of low-budget production. Featuring voices from across this year's program, including Hyun Lee (French Girls), Anthony Frith (Mockbuster) and Christian Byers (Death of an Undertaker).Presented in partnership with UTS Creative Practice Research Group.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Carey Dell

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...Cape Fear and Not Suitable For Work.

Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu talk Tuner, a slick crime thriller also starring Dustin Hoffman, which follows a gifted piano tuner pulled into something darker.Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat on No Good Men, Afghanistan's (terrific) first rom-com, screening as part of Sydney Film Festival.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Carey DellArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...The Four Seasons Spider-Noir 

Twenty year old You Tube star turned A24 filmmaker Kane Parsons discusses Backrooms, his disorienting horror starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze's sublime road movie Dry Leaf is about to screen as part of this year's Sydney Film Festival. Shot on a 2010 flip phone, it follows a father searching across rural Georgia for his missing daughter. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Allyse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and The Boroughs.

Rising horror auteur Curry Barker on his impressive twisted love-story Obsession, alongside actor Inde Navarrette.Australian director Zoe Pepper on Birthright, her biting take on the housing crisis and generational resentment.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Allyse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...Off Campus (Prime Video)Leonard and Hungry Paul (ABC iview)

French screen icon Isabelle Huppert unpacks obsession, money and power in her latest film The Richest Woman in the World.Remarkably Bright Creatures makes its way to Netflix as a film starring Sally Field. Shelby Van Pelt, author of the bestselling novel behind the film, and director Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing) discuss.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Allyse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming this week...Rivals Season 2 (Disney)Citadel Season 2 (Prime Video)Legends (Netflix)

German-Turkish director Fatih Akin, discusses  Amrum. Playing at the German Film Festival,  after first screening in Cannes' Premiere section where it earned critical attention, the film is a quietly devastating coming-of-age drama set in the final days of WWII.We're joined by Mortal Kombat II director Simon McQuoid and actors Karl Urban, Josh Lawson, and Jessica McNamee, to see what the martial arts fantasy sequel has in store.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

TV critic Wenlei Ma and Jason Di Rosso press play on what's lighting up streaming screens this week...The Other Bennet Sister (Binge)Man on Fire (Netflix)Kevin (Prime Video)

Aussie actor Patrick Brammall is in the studio reflecting on his big Hollywood role as Anne Hathaway's love interest in The Devil Wears Prada 2.Warwick Thornton joins us to talk Wolfram, his haunting new work that digs deep into country, memory and resistance.And another Aussie acting expat, Ronny Chieng, drops by to unpack his latest work in the new TV series The Miniature Wife.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Alysse SymonsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Amy Berg, director of It's Never Over: Jeff Buckley, on her portrait of an artist who looms large, and the challenge of telling a story shaped as much by absence as by legacy.Maryam Touzani on Calle Malaga, Morocco's official entry for the Academy Awards, an intimate exploration of place and memory set against the sun-drenched backdrop of Tangier.Director James Litchfield discusses Alphabet Lane, an atmospheric new Australian film that follows the quirky journey of a couple as they build a new life in the country.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney — aka The Kates — chat about Season 2 of Deadloch, the much‑loved Australian send‑up of the murder‑mystery genre. Master French filmmaker François Ozon on his interpretation of Albert Camus' 1942 existential classic The Stranger, and we revisit a conversation with Julia Loktev, director of the acclaimed documentary My Undesirable Friends, about chronicling dissent, friendship and resistance under Putin's Russia (listen to the whole thing here).Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Ariel Gross

Cate Blanchett on the joy of working with Jim Jarmusch again in Father Mother Sister Brother.Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis discusses cross generational trauma in her powerful new drama All That's Left Of You.Mike Figgis invites us behind the scenes of Francis Ford Coppola's 120 million dollar spectacular flop Megalopolis in his riveting documentary Megadoc.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Tony NortonSound, Tim SymondsArts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli on directing Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in his excellent new black comedy, The Drama.Hasan Hadi, writer-director of The President's Cake, discusses his acclaimed feature debut, which follows a young girl's quest to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein's birthday in 1990s Iraq.Baby Reindeer's Jessica Gunning is in town to discuss her latest role in the Enid Blyton blockbuster The Magic Faraway Tree.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound, Tim SymondsArts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

On the back of the Oscars, Jason chats with two Hollywood experts about the facts, figures and studio chess game playing out in Hollywood boardrooms — from the state of Netflix and its failed bid to acquire Warner Bros, to WB's big wins at this year's ceremony with One Battle After Another and Sinners.As My Father's Shadow launches at the Africa Film Festival, followed by screenings at ACMI and on streaming platform MUBI, we revisit a conversation with British‑Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr. He reflects on the father he barely knew in this Lagos‑set family drama, unfolding during a tumultuous period in Nigeria's political history.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonArts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

Jason together with Radio National Arts colleague Sky Kirkham unpack the Oscars, taking a look at the night's biggest wins, snubs, and cultural moments, including the dominance of One Battle After Another, which took out Best Picture and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, and acting wins for Michael B. Jordan in Sinners and Jessie Buckley for Hamnet, all while asking what this year's Oscars say about the industry right now.

Ahead of this weekend's Academy Awards, an Oscars preview on this edition of The Screen Show, as we revisit conversations with the filmmakers behind some of this year's stand-out nominees and likely winners — including One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, which features Australia's Rose Byrne in the running for Best Actress. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tim SymondsArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Homegrown star Simon Baker is in the studio to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his role in Scarpetta, a new crime thriller based on Patricia Cornwell's iconic forensic-pathology novels, that brings the dark world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta to life.Plus, a chat with Sydney Cinematheque curator Ruby Arrowsmith-Todd about the upcoming retrospective dedicated to the early films of Nicole Kidman.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ariel GrossArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

This week on The Screen Show, we're joined by Óliver Laxe, director of Sirāt, the acclaimed Cannes‑lauded drama following a father's search for his missing daughter across the Moroccan desert, and we also hear from Hollywood star Amanda Seyfried about taking on the role of Ann Lee — the visionary 18th‑century founder of the Shakers — in The Testament of Ann Lee, a performance widely praised as one of the finest of her career, along with director Mona Fastvold. And we revisit an interview with the legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman in light of the sad news of his passing.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MelissArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Sophie Hyde, the acclaimed South Australian filmmaker behind queer family drama Jimpa, opens up about shaping the film's semi‑autobiographical heart. Set against the canals of Amsterdam and starring Olivia Colman, John Lithgow, and Hyde's own child, Aud Mason‑Hyde, the film traces the complexities of identity, family, and reinvention. Meanwhile, director Jordan Giusti discusses Floodland, his evocative documentary capturing the resilience and vibrancy of the Lismore community as it rebuilds in the wake of devastating floods.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Three documentaries about individuals doing extraordinary things, including the new Elvis documentary EPIC... director Baz Luhrmann is in the studio to discuss. Plus, Mr Nobody Against Putin, the Oscar-nominated film about a dissident Russian high school teacher, and Albert Serra on his stunning San Sebastian winner Afternoons of Solitude, about a contemporary bullfighter.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Angie GrantArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Laura Dern and Will Arnett delve into their divorce rom‑com Is This Thing On? - a film inspired by the true story of a man who finds solace, clarity and creativity at an open‑mic comedy night in the middle of a break‑up.Daisy Ridley reflects on her journey through the Star Wars universe, and discusses her role in We Bury The Dead, a zombie adventure shot against the striking landscapes of Western Australia.Documentarian Elizabeth Lo discusses Mistress Dispeller, her gripping film about a woman in China who hires a professional “mistress dispeller” to salvage a marriage under extraordinary circumstances. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MelissArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

In this star‑studded episode, Ethan Hawke talks Blue Moon, Richard Linklater's acclaimed biographical drama that premiered at Berlin and earned a Silver Bear for Andrew Scott, plus Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Hawke himself. Chris Pratt and Mercy director Timur Bekmambetov unpack their high‑stakes sci‑fi thriller, where Pratt is in the lead as a detective battling an unforgiving AI justice system. Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi discusses It Was Just an Accident, which took home the Palme d'Or at Cannes and is now an Oscar contender...a politically charged thriller born from his own lived resistance, and Adelaide born Hollywood actor Teresa Palmer in the studio and in conversation about her life, career, and latest role in the Australian film Addition, a charming, numbers‑driven rom-com based on Toni Jordan's bestseller.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Carey DellArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Hollywood director Josh Safdie on Marty Supreme, a film that follows a young man, played by Timothée Chalamet (who has already taken home a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice award for the role), who has a dream to be a professional table tennis player, and will do whatever it takes in pursuit of greatness.Kleber Mendonça Filho on his Golden-Globe winner The Secret Agent, a political thriller set in 1970's Brazil that captures the atmosphere of paranoia and the moral decay that shadowed the country under authoritarian rule.Plus, African-Australian film, Pasa Faho, the feature debut from Igbo-Australian filmmaker Kalu Oji. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell are in the studio to talk Hamnet, the new film based on O'Farrell's bestselling novel...a love story meets family drama, about the heartbreak that shaped Shakespeare's greatest work. Plus, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, depicts the story of folk hero Bob Dylan's transition to electric music. We re-visit Jason's interview with cult actor Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the film. 

A panel discussion of talented international directors with films in competition at the Melbourne International Film Festival discuss their journeys, including American filmmaker Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night), whose second feature The Rivals of Amziah King, starring Matthew McConaughey, premiered at SXSW this year; Chie Hayakawa (Plan 75) from Japan, whose second feature, Renoir, premiered in Competition at Cannes; and James J. Robinson, a Filipino/Australian artist based in Los Angeles whose feature debut, First Light, had its World Premiere at MIFF.

Parks and Rec actor Nick Offerman discusses his role in Sovereign, a crime thriller inspired by real events in which he plays an anti-government extremist; and, Brooklyn-based indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry on Pavements, a hybrid work about one of the most influential bands of the '90s.

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson talk Song Sung Blue, a heartfelt musical drama about love and second chances inspired by the real-life story of a couple who form a Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning & Thunder.We also speak with Joachim Trier about his latest film, Sentimental Value, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The Norwegian drama starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning, explores a famed filmmaker's strained relationship with his two adult daughters.Plus, we revisit a conversation with creators Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco of Platonic, the Apple  TV comedy starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne that explores midlife friendship.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Harvey O'SullivanArts editor, Rhiannon Brown