The Screen Show

Past Lives director Celine Song on her new rom-com Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson as a professional matchmaker who falls into a love triangle with her broke ex and a wealthy finance guy.The Rings of Power actor Charlie Vickers and showrunner Tony Ayres discuss working on the Netflix adaptation of Jane Harper's The Survivors, a story about a small coastal town haunted by the tragedy of three deaths.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Tony NortonSound engineer, Ross RichardsonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

U.S. writer-director Jason Keller talks Stick, a new sports comedy starring Owen Wilson as a washed-up former golf pro and Peter Dager as his Gen Z protege.Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald on his doc One to One: John & Yoko... set in 1972 New York, the film explores John Lennon and Yoko Ono's world amid a turbulent era. White Lotus star Jason Isaacs on his latest role in The Salt Path, where he stars opposite Gillian Anderson in a sweet adaptation of the best-selling memoir about a couple who lose everything and start over on a 1000 km coastal trek.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Direct from Cannes, where it received a seven-and-a-half-minute standing ovation, Wes Anderson and Benicio Del Toro discuss The Phoenician Scheme.Adelaide's Phillipou Brothers on their latest South Australian horror for A24, Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their acclaimed feature debut Talk To Me.Artistic director of Sydney Film Festival Nashen Moodley is also fresh from the Cannes Film Festival. He speaks to us about the Palme d'Or-winning film It Was Just An Accident by Jafar Panahi, also set to screen at SFF.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettExecutive producer, Rhiannon BrownSound engineer, Ross Richardson

French director Gilles Lellouche on Beating Hearts, a genre-spanning romantic epic starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) that follows a written-in-the-stars infatuation tested by social boundaries.Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin discusses his multi-award winning Universal Language...in a surreal interzone between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of several characters intertwine in unexpected ways.2025 Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner The Blue Trail sees a remarkable woman try to evade a dystopian fate via a grand Amazonian quest. Ahead of Sydney Film Festival screenings, Jason sits down with Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

The newest chapter in the successful Final Destination horror franchise takes audiences back to the beginning of Death's twisted sense of justice. Jason meets directors Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky.Irish director Lorcan Finnegan on The Surfer, a psychological surf thriller starring Nicolas Cage which takes aim at Australian masculinity and localism on a W.A. beach.As it becomes available to stream on SBS on Demand, an excerpt from Jason's interview with Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari on her film Shayda, a work inspired by her childhood experiences in a women's shelter in Melbourne in the 1990s. (You can listen to the whole interview here.)Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

American film director Eli Craig discusses his horror Clown in a Cornfield...as teenagers start to go missing one by one in a Midwestern town, the local legend of Frendo the clown becomes all too real.Director Mehdi Idir on Monsieur Aznavour, a biopic about an iconic singer-songwriter who beat all odds to become one of France's best-loved entertainers.Andrew Ahn on his adaptation of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet, which re-imagines the original film's themes to explore LGBTQIA+ problems of a new kind in the 21st century.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Screening at the Fantastic Film Festival, A Grand Mockery is an exciting example of independent filmmaking. Shot on luminous Super 8, it follows Josie, a young man leading a life of passive mundanity in Brisbane. Jason meets directors Adam C. Briggs and Sam Dixon.Director David Noakes discusses How the West Was Lost, a documentary about the 1946 Aboriginal pastoral workers' strike in Western Australia's Pilbara region that has been digitally restored and is undergoing screenings in Melbourne and Sydney as part of Cinema Reborn's 2025 program.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Ross RichardsonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

As the German Film Festival  rolls out across the country, we meet two directors featured in this year's lineup...Acclaimed director Andres Veiel discusses his documentary Riefenstahl, a captivating insight into the private estate of Leni Riefenstahl and her complex relationship with the Nazi regime.Award-winning director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay's second feature, Hysteria, comes to Australia directly from the 2025 Berlinale...a suspenseful behind-the-scenes conspiracy thriller about a real-life 1993 arson incident on the set of a film production.Presenter: Jason Di RossoProducer: Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Ross RichardsonExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

British actor Will Poulter, who has starred in The Bear, Black Mirror, The Revenant and Midsommar, talks about his latest film role in the gripping war thriller Warfare.Kriv Stenders and Richard Roxburgh on The Correspondent, the story of the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Australian journalist Peter Greste.Beloved actor and comedian Steve Coogan discusses The Penguin Lessons, a comedy-drama based on a true story that follows an Englishman's personal and political awakening after he adopts a penguin during a turbulent period in Argentine history.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Isabella TropianoExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Brisbane-born Hollywood star Jacob Elordi fronts Justin Kurzel's TV adaptation of Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.In Lost and Found, filmmaker Raoul Peck follows Ernest Cole's journey as the first Black freelance photographer in apartheid South Africa.Jason meets the directors of The Count of Monte Cristo in Paris, the new French adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' epic tale of romance and redemption.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tim JenkinsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A highlights edition looking at some films that dominated the 2025 Oscars...Jesse Eisenberg on A Real Pain, which he directed and stars in alongside Kieran Culkin (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), in a story that centres around a pair of mismatched cousins travelling through Poland in honour of their Jewish grandmother.American filmmaker Sean Baker discusses his film Anora, which took home five Oscars, including Best Film, for its portrayal of a feisty sex worker's unexpected Cinderella story.A Complete Unknown depicts the story of folk hero Bob Dylan's transition to electric music. Jason meets Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the film and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.These conversations were recorded before the film's respective Oscar wins and nominations.

Director Jonathan Ogilvie discusses his nostalgic coming-of-age film Head South, where it's the late 1970's and teenager Angus is discovering the underground post-punk music scene in Christchurch. From the archives, David Nichols, historian and lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, on Richard Lowenstein's 1986 film Dogs in Space, a story takes place during the late 70s to the early 80s in the underground music scene in Melbourne and the action that happens in and around a share household in the inner city.In The Cats of Gokugo Shrine, renowned Japanese documentarian Kazuhiro Soda takes us to the coastal town of Ushimado and a shrine where cats have taken up residence.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Matthew CrawfordExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Legendary Hollywood director Barry Levinson discusses working with Robert De Niro on gangster movie The Alto Knights.New Zealand filmmaker James Ashcroft on his nursing home set horror The Rule of Jenny Pen.Plus, This Life of Mine, a delicate chronicle of mental illness screening as part of this year's French Film Festival.Presenrer, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MellisExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Australian actor Daniel Henshall talks about his latest role, in Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho's Mickey 17, where he stars alongside Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Pattinson in a black comedy about the dangers of cloning and colonisation.As the latest season of Severance rolls out, a show about a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives, another Australian actor, Dichen Lachman, joins us from London.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MellisExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cult British director Mike Leigh reunites with actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets and Lies) in Hard Truths,  a challenging yet compassionate exploration of modern family life in London.Meet the filmmakers behind Sugarcane, nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars, it's a powerful portrayal of Native resilience and its exploration of the devastating legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Riley MellisExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Oscar nominated for Best International Feature, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a film shot in secret that centres on paranoia and political unrest in Tehran. Jason meets director Mohammad Rasoulof.A conversation with Oscar Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres about her role in I'm Still Here, a film that follows a mother whose life is shattered during Brazil's military dictatorship in 1971.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Carey DellExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Pamela Anderson and Gia Coppola on The Last Showgirl, a film about a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.British director Andrea Arnold on Bird, a surprising coming-of-age fable starring Nikiya Adams and Barry Keoghan.Actor Claes Bang discusses William Tell, where a once peaceful hunter leads his people in rebellion in 14th-century Switzerland.  (WILLIAM TELL will be available to rent or buy on all the usual digital platforms from March 10.)Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Brendan O'NeillExecutive Producer, Rhiannon Brown

Superstars Renee Zellweger, Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor discuss Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.Cannes Best Director winner Miguel Gomes on Grand Tour, a dream-like road movie through Asia about romantic obsession and colonial decadence.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Carey DellExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

The first terrorist attack to be broadcast live around the world happened in 1972, on September the 5th, at the Munich Olympics. A group of Palestinian gunmen took 11 members of the Israeli team hostage, and all of those ended up dead. In this episode, Jason speaks to Swiss-German director Tim Fehlbaum, and cast including an excellent Peter Saarsgard, about September 5, a film that takes us back to those events through the eyes of the sports journalists who brought the news to the world.Plus, a very different film, made by a couple of friends who are a kind of Swedish Hamish and Andy, comedy duo Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson. Their film, The Last Journey, is about Filip's ageing father Lars, a former French high school teacher who has become pessimistic about his life and his frail body. Filip decides his father needs an intervention, and with Fredrik in tow, they hire an old Renault and takes Lars south for a road trip to France, a country his father has always associated with summer holidays, family and freedom.

Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn discusses her film Babygirl, a sexual thriller with Nicole Kidman in the lead as a powerful CEO who embarks on an affair with her much younger intern.Academy Award winning director Pablo Larrain on Maria, where Angelina Jolie stars as the world's greatest opera singer, Maria Callas.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Matthew CrawfordExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Two major films this awards season focus on visionary artists...A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, depicts the story of folk hero Bob Dylan's transition to electric music. Jason interviews director James Mangold and actor Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the film. The Brutalist centres on a great modernist architect trying to rebuild his life after fleeing post-war Europe. Fresh from winning several Golden Globe Awards, director Brady Corbet joins us.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Lea Glob on her mesmerising doc Apolonia, Apolonia, which covers 13 years in the life of talented artist Apolonia Sokol.Producer Nadim Cheikhrouha discusses the inventive Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters, about a Tunisian woman whose two eldest daughters were radicalised by Islamic extremists.Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov's Oscar-nominated 20 Days in Mariupol is a raw, unflinching account of the Ukrainian siege through the courageous reporting of AP journalists. 

Meet the stars and director of new release Conclave, a film that takes us inside the Vatican after the death of a pope.Hollywood star Austin Butler discusses his role in Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders, where he plays the lead opposite Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer in a tender film about the golden age of biker culture.Academy Award winner Olivia Colman talks about her career, and her role in the film Wicked Little Letters, a poison pen mystery based on a true scandal.

French director Justine Triet on Anatomy of a Fall, which received five Oscar nominations and took home the Palme d'Or in 2023. The film is an electric courtroom drama, about a woman suspected of her husband's murder and the various moral dilemmas that arise.Hollywood director Todd Haynes on his drama May December. Starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and also nominated for an Oscar, it unpicks the story of a married couple whose tabloid romance once gripped the world.

Jesse Eisenberg discusses his film, A Real Pain, which he directed and stars in alongside Kieran Culkin, in a story that centres around mismatched cousins travelling through Poland in honour of their grandmother.Robert Eggers and Lily-Rose Depp on Nosferatu, a gothic tale that delves into the obsession between a tormented young woman and the vampire infatuated with her.U.S. filmmaker Sean Baker discusses his Palme d'Or winning film Anora, which follows a sex worker's unexpected Cinderella story.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, stars of Deadpool and Wolverine, discuss coming together in the latest in the Marvel superhero film franchise.Jason is joined by Australian director George Miller and producer Doug Mitchell to talk Mad Max: Furiosa, the latest instalment in the post-apocalyptic action adventure film franchise starring Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy.We meet director David Leitch and producer Kelly McCormick, the husband and wife filmmaker duo behind The Fall Guy, a rom-com about a stuntman, set in Sydney, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. 

Iranian film My Favourite Cake explores issues of freedom, second chances, and women's rights in a country with strict restrictions. Travel-banned directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha join us from Tehran, where they are awaiting trial for themes they've brought to the surface in this film.Taiwanese superstar Eddie Peng on his role in Guan Hu's Black Dog, about a troubled loner who returns to his hometown and bonds with a wild dog, a film that took home the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cate Blanchett and Nikki Amuka-Bird on Rumours, Guy Maddin's black comedy that follows the leaders of seven wealthy democracies who get lost in the woods while drafting a statement on a global crisis.+ Piece by Piece is directed by our guest Morgan Neville in his animated directorial debut. It follows the life and career of American musician Pharrell Williams, who stars in the film through the lens of Lego animation.As a near-complete career survey of Malaysia-born Taiwan-based  Tsai Ming-liang screens at GOMA, Jason meets the great filmmaker. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Isabella TropianoExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Viggo Mortensen on The Dead Don't Hurt, a spin on the Western and the actor-director's second film behind the camera.Winner of the APSA Young Cinema Award, and nominated for Best Film and Best Screenplay, Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora discusses Happyend, his debut fiction feature set in a near-future Tokyo as a catastrophic earthquake looms.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Hollywood director Jon M. Chu on Wicked, the musical fantasy phenomenon starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, that puts a new spin on the Wizard of Oz's meanest character.NYC-based filmmaker Caroline Lindy on her debut Your Monster, a charming, genre-defying indie musical.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Danish actor Connie Nielson on starring in the big blockbuster of the week, Ridley Scott's sumptuous swords and sandals melodrama, Gladiator II.Director James Bradley on Welcome to Babel, a documentary about Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen's plans to create an epic work depicting his homeland's tumultuous recent history.As it launches on SBS on Demand, we revisit some of Jason's interview with the director of Flee, a three-time Oscar-nominated documentary about the hidden past of a man fleeing his home country.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

As a new doc releases at the British Film Festival exploring the classic films and iconic pairing of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, the legendary, Academy Award winning James Ivory joins us.Documentary filmmakers Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker on Slice of Life, a road movie serving insights into how former Pizza Hut buildings around the U.S. have been repurposed.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Director Jason Reitman and cast, including Gabriel Labelle, Rachel Sennott, and Dylan O'Brien, discuss Saturday Night, a film that captures the behind-the-scenes energy of SNL, and the impact the long-running sketch show had on American culture when it arrived on TV screens in the 1970s. Shari Sebbens stars in The Moogai, where she plays a young mother who becomes increasingly unstable due to a malevolent spirit she believes is trying to take her children. Ahead of the screenings at the Adelaide Film Festival, director Sarra Tsorakidis discusses Ink Wash, a film that follows a painter grappling with a break-up as she approaches her 40th birthday.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Alice Springs based filmmaker Dylan River on his binge-able new TV series Thou Shalt Not Steal, one of the best things we've made in this country in the streaming era. It's a love story, a road trip, a coming of age fable and a political critique, told from a black perspective, the perspective of a 17 year old, illiterate but streetwise juvenile delinquent named Robyn.A discussion about Lee, a biographical film starring Kate Winslet, about Lee Miller, the extraordinary woman who gave the world some of the most indelible, shocking photographic images of World War 2. We're joined by one of the film's producers, Kate Soloman, and Miller's son, Antony Penrose.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Academy Award winning animator Adam Elliot is back with Memoir of a Snail, a bittersweet memoir of a melancholic misfit who learns how to find confidence amid the clutter of her everyday life.Starring real-life mother-daughter duo Greta Scaachi and Leila George, He Ain't Heavy is an impressive debut feature about a young woman who sets out to rescue her drug-addicted brother. Director David Vincent Smith joins us.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern discuss new Netflix film Lonely Planet, an unexpected romance set at a writers' retreat in Morocco.Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi on The Apprentice,  a film that depicts Trump's early years as a property developer in New York City in the 70s and 80s.British actor Himesh Patel discusses  The Franchise, a comedy satire from Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes that zooms in on the cast and crew working on a superhero  movie.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

British actor Gemma Arterton talks about her role in The Critic, a period drama in which she plays a struggling actress lured into a blackmail scheme by a powerful theatre critic played by Ian McKellen.Husband and wife directors Karrie Crouse and Will Joines on Hold Your Breath, an eerie horror set amongst the severe dust storms of 1930's Oklahoma.Another husband and wife duo, Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan, are behind new film Ghostlight, a drama that follows a construction worker who joins a local theatre production of Romeo and Juliet.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

One of the greatest directors of all time, Francis Ford Coppola, in conversation about his sci-fi Roman epic Megalopolis.Director Megan Park and actor Maisy Stella on sweet coming of age comedy-drama My Old Ass.Producer Bianca Stigter discusses Occupied City...Steve McQueen's excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city of Amsterdam.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Director Paola Cortellesi discusses There's Still Tomorrow,  a neorealist inspired comedy-drama about an abused wife in post-second world war Rome...the highest grossing film of 2023 in Italy.The Oscar winning director behind Toy Story, Josh Cooley, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura on Transformers One, the animated blockbuster starring Chris Hemsworth & Bryan Tyree Henry as sworn enemies.We meet the cast from La Maison, an addictive new French TV series about an iconic family fashion house thrown into scandal.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Hollywood star James McAvoy on the best thriller of the year so far, Speak No Evil, where he plays the lead villain in a film that's a convincing portrayal of an Anglo-American culture clash.Australian actor Hugo Weaving discusses his new role as the villain in the latest season of UK spy hit Slow Horses, where he stars opposite Gary Oldman. Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Russell StapletonExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Director Josh Margolin on Thelma, an action comedy about a 93-year-old who gets duped by a phone scammer and sets out on a quest across the city to reclaim what is hers.The life of French painter Pierre Bonnard and his wife Marthe de Méligny is explored over five decades in Bonnard: Pierre and Martha. Jason meets actor Cecile de France and director Martin Provost in Paris.Ahead of an Australian tour Iranian-British actor and comedian Omid Djalili discusses his career, which has seen him work alongside Hollywood greats including Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Ridley Scott and Brad Pitt.Presenter, Jason Di RossoProducer, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Rising Australian star Charlie Vickers discusses his career and playing the villain Sauron in The Rings of Power, prequel to The Lord of the Rings.French actor Léa Drucker on Last Summer, a film by veteran director Catherine Breillet that explores the taboos of a stepmother–stepson relationship.(This interview was recorded in Paris, where Jason was a guest of Unifrance, the French government agency that organises an international press event for film journalists from around the world every year.)