Podcasts about Sundance

Josh Fox is an independent filmmaker, playwright, and environmental activist best known for his Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning 2010 documentary, GASLAND. He is also the founder and artistic director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company working closely with actors, filmmakers, theater-makers, writers, activists, and artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, including activist communities in sustainable energy and design, creating work that addresses current national and global environmental, social and political crises. As a filmmaker, Fox’s work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, and premiered at both the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals. His debut documentary film, GASLAND, earned a Special Jury Prize at Sundance as well as an Oscar nomination and Emmy win. As a theatrical director, he has been praised by the New York Times as "one of the most adventurous impresarios of the New York avant-garde”. Fox has also contributed as a journalist to publications such as Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, NowThis, AJ+ and Huffington Post. Fox’s documentary work returns to HBO this summer 2026 with his latest film, THE WELCOME TABLE, which tells the story of climate refugees across six continents who were displaced from their homes by climate disasters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Black on Black Cinema tackles Chameleon Street (1989), Wendell B. Harris Jr.'s astonishing writer-director-star debut based on the true story of Detroit con artist William Douglas Street Jr., who successfully impersonated reporters, lawyers, an Ivy League exchange student, and even a surgeon, performing over 30 real hysterectomies without any medical training. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990, beating out Reservoir Dogs, and then inexplicably went without distribution for over a year, effectively burying Harris's career before it started.The concept is genuinely brilliant, a razor-sharp satire about race, class, and identity performance in America, anchored by a magnetic, one-of-a-kind lead performance from Harris himself. But the execution is a different story. The film is tonally unpredictable, structurally chaotic, and at times narratively difficult to follow, swinging wildly between avant-garde experimentation and straightforward biopic beats without clear rhythm. We break down what makes Chameleon Street a genuine one-of-a-kind vision worth seeking out, where the filmmaking gets in its own way, and why this would be ripe for a modern remake with better structure and focus.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

August concludes with a slew of reviews from Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. Once again they urge you all to go see the movie that Warner Bros. tried to destroy forever (Coyote vs. Acme) and remind you about a couple they saw from Sundance this year (Idiots, Buddy). They also have the tale of a boy trying to find out what those bruises are on his mom (If I Tell You). Rebel Wilson's directorial debut whose behind-the-scenes may be more interesting (The Deb). Three doctors stationed in Gaza want to get the truth out about the conflict with Israel (American Doctor). The Train to Busan director gives us more goopy fast zombies (Colony). Robert DeNiro tries to find his kidnapped grandson (The Whisper Man) and a group of college graduates find themselves in an existential crisis on a very long road (It Ends). The latest from Joe Swanberg has Dakota Fanning choosing between two men and herself and a young guy tries to find the woman who got away (Finding Emily). Finally, Ridley Scott takes us into the apocalypse for some reason (The Dog Stars). 3:44 - Coyote vs. Acme 22:58 - Idiots 30:44 – Buddy 35:35 - Ad Break 37:35 - If I Tell You 44:21 - The Deb 53:16 - American Doctor 1:07:51 – Ad Break 1:09:51 - Colony 1:21:55 - The Whisper Man 1:34:54 - It Ends 1:45:00 – Ad Break 1:47:00 - The Sun Never Sets 2:00:21 - Finding Emily 2:19:12 - The Dog Stars 2:38:50 – Preview of Next Week CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST OR BUY FROM MOVIEZYNG Be sure to check out Erik's Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library. (Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.) Erik's Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere. The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel discusses his debut feature film “Filipiñana.” Set at an upscale golf country club outside Manila, the film explores inequality, colonialism, structural violence and patriarchy. “Filipiñana” premiered at Sundance where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. It opens in New York at Film Forum on Friday.

Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel discusses his debut feature film “Filipiñana.” Set at an upscale golf country club outside Manila, the film explores inequality, colonialism, structural violence and patriarchy. “Filipiñana” premiered at Sundance where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. It opens in New York at Film Forum on Friday.

There is a superhero shot that never was in Macon Blair's “Idiots,” but nobody is saving the day. The camera is planted low, looking up at Dave Franco just before a practical diarrhea rig erupts from his shorts and completely browns out the lens. Somewhere between the Cocoa Krispies used to give the mess extra texture and Franco's dainty bird tattoo singing “who farted,” the movie finds its beautifully stupid wavelength.Franco and O'Shea Jackson Jr. play two spectacularly unqualified men hired to transport a wealthy, troubled teenage influencer (Mason Thames) to rehab. The job goes bad quickly and keeps finding new depths. Written and directed by Blair, the filmmaker and actor behind “I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore” and “The Toxic Avenger,” the dark road comedy also features Peter Dinklage, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, and Killer Mike. It is filthy, violent, oddly sweet, and packed with side characters who seem to have wandered in from their own movies.READ MORE: ‘The Shitheads' Review: O'Shea Jackson Jr. & Dave Franco Are Riotous Fun In A Chaotic Road Trip Movie [Sundance]The film took the long way to theaters. Blair first approached Franco nearly a decade ago, when both agreed the actor was too young for the part. Eight years later, Franco circled back, joined as a producer, and helped assemble the cast and financing. The movie finally premiered at Sundance as “The Shitheads,” where Independent Film Company acquired it before everyone had to confront the difficulty of marketing a movie with that title.

Our Summer of Sundance kicks off with Sundance himself, as we travel back to the end of the old west (and, later, to the garden spot of Bolivia) to visit a couple of robbers, their lady friend, and their not-very-important gang with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Did they use enough dynamite? Is Woodcock a little too loyal to his employer? What does it say about the old west when a call for a posse is hijacked by a bicycle salesman? Jason Snell with Dr. Drang, Shelly Brisbin, Philip Michaels and Dan Moren.

Our Summer of Sundance kicks off with Sundance himself, as we travel back to the end of the old west (and, later, to the garden spot of Bolivia) to visit a couple of robbers, their lady friend, and their not-very-important gang with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Did they use enough dynamite? Is Woodcock a little too loyal to his employer? What does it say about the old west when a call for a posse is hijacked by a bicycle salesman? Jason Snell with Dr. Drang, Shelly Brisbin, Philip Michaels and Dan Moren.

Janet Caperna is back in The Haute Seat, and nothing is off-limits as we strip down Bravo's hottest headlines, red-carpet fashion and some truly jaw-dropping reality-TV history. We kick off with Haute Topics and Janet's take on breaking the fourth wall. She explains why reality TV sometimes has to acknowledge fame, production and the comment section for the story to make sense—and gets candid about the dark side of being on television. After her first season, Janet says online hate crossed a terrifying line with death threats and racial slurs aimed at her husband and son. Then came the headline claiming the family had “fled to Switzerland,” when they were actually on a planned vacation in gorgeous Lake Lugano. Janet also spills on The Valley cast group chat, a recent star-packed dinner with Shannon Beador, Tom Schwartz, Lala Kent and Michelle Saniei, and why she thinks Bravo spin-offs and “Next Gen” shows can absolutely work. Next, Runway Rundown gets fashionable and feisty. We weigh in on Kristen Doute's bump-baring maternity look, debate Pamela Anderson's makeup-free red-carpet era, and revisit Scheana Shay's wedding gown—including Janet's firsthand memories as a bridesmaid and Pol's behind-the-scenes styling details. Then Janet faces her own reunion fashion: the backless look she wore after losing 70 pounds of baby weight, the Rachel Zoe/vintage Gucci comparison, and the secret to dressing for a reunion where you may be sitting on a couch for12-plus hours. She even teases her newest reunion look: a primary color, tasteful peekaboo skin and borrowed diamonds. The conversation gets even hotter when Janet talks marriage, why an open relationship would never work for her, and delivers one of the episode's wildest lines about Jason. Then it's Game Time: “Bravo's Biggest Capers,” where scams, scandals and reality-TV chaos collide. We quiz Janet on the White House crash heard around Bravo, Teresa Giudice's prison sentence, Scandoval, Anna Delvey and Ariana Maddox. But the biggest caper may be Janet's own story: she reveals she once partied with Elizabeth Holmes shortly before Holmes went to prison. What began with a mysterious “Lizzie” FaceTime at Sundance turned into a surreal night at a San Francisco jazz bar—and Janet says Holmes got “hammered.” That confession sends us straight into our own Anna Nicole Smith memories and the glory days of truly unfiltered reality television. Fashion, Bravo gossip, scandal, diamonds, death threats, Scandoval and Elizabeth Holmes at a jazz bar—Janet Caperna's Haute Seat is officially scorching. Subscribe to our audio: linktr.ee/undressedpod Follow Pol Atteu:  Instagram: @polatteu  Tiktok: @polatteu  Twitter: @polatteu  www.polatteu.com Follow Patrik Simpson:  Instagram: @patriksimpson  Tiktok: @patriksimpson www.patriksimpson.com Follow SnowWhite90210: Instagram: @snowwhite90210 Twitter: @SnowWhite9010 www.snowwhite90210.com Watch Gown and Out In Beverly Hills on Prime Video.  www.gownandoutinbeverlyhills.com #UndressedPodcast  Armenian Coffee Reading SnowWhite90210 SnowBubu is a Perfect gift! https://polatteu.com/shop/ols/products/snowbubu90210 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So much better than we expected! Natalie Grace in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) ★★★★ The first half of 2026 certainly made a statement in the horror genre. Reverberations will be felt across Hollywood as studios reassess what constitutes a blockbuster. The recent critical success of Sinners, Weapons, and The Substance appears to be bearing fruit. The results may have led to a diverse slate of offerings for 2026, and it is reflected in the wide array of horror offerings so far this year. If variety is your preference, then you have been in luck, so far. The unimaginable financial and critical success of Obsession and Backrooms, particularly given their low cost, have re-written the horror producer’s playbook, and will have a lasting impact for years to come. The Scariest Things evaluated what we’ve seen so far, and have come back with a report card of our favorites. The Mid Major – Large Indie Productions: It will be interesting to do an autopsy of 2026’s horror fare when we do our year end assessment. This year’s crop has been notably light on mid-major productions so far. The roaring successes we’ve seen thus far have been from the deep indie filmmakers. Backrooms, Undertone, Hokum, and Obsession. All original titles, and produced for less than $5 million. These are not the type of films you would typically predict would be box office hits. But, they outperformed any reasonable expectation, particularly startling for Backrooms and Obsession, which will have cinema economists trying to figure out the alchemy. The Major Studios: There were only a few major studio franchise sequels this year. All of them capable, but none of them superseding their source material. Scream 7 did very well at the box office, but it failed to make a big impression. Evil Dead Burn was a very violent, very intense outing that didn’t connect in the way its predecessors have. Scary Movie also did well on its $30 million budget, earning $210 million, its long layoff didn’t hurt its popularity, despite the derivative humor. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was a hit with critics (including our own Liz Williams) but it’s turn from zombies may have hurt it in the box office, as it probably will not make its budget back. The notable big comeback was Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, which gives horror fans hope that Universal has gotten their monsterverse back on track, and remembered how to deliver a vicious movie with a good story. The Festival Circuit: Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get out to as many film festivals this year as we would have liked, but we still managed to review a lot of great small indie horror films. Our traditional rotation of SXSW, Overlook, Portland Horror, and Popcorn Frights all provided very interesting films from emerging filmmakers. Even the bigger festival this year were heavy on small indie productions, and there were a lot of good offerings. We didn’t discuss all of them in our Podcast, but you can review a lot of the movies we saw with links on the images below. There is an emerging trend of release schedules for many of the best independent horror films, relative to the festival circuit. Open at SXSW (Or sometimes Sundance), get some buzz, go to Overlook to validate the buzz, and then release in the early summer. It can be a big momentum builder. Last year it was The Ugly Stepsister (Oscar Nom), and Good Boy that were the big beneficiaries of that combination. This year it was Obsession, Hokum, and Leviticus. Sometimes Panic Fest will factor into the equation, depending on when runs relative to Overlook. Popcorn Frights still brought a massive catalogue for viewing, but this year was more reliant on reperatory films. Some of my favorite films this year were horror adjacent, and all of their streaming content was small indie productions. Our favorite local festival, The Portland Horror Film Festival had an unusually large amount of feature films, and the best part was that almost all of the directors participated in the festival. We were fortunate to get interviews with all of them. Check out our Podcasts for the interviews. It was a diverse group of films, and not a dud among them. What is Still Coming in 2026? Probably the most intriguing film still due out is a new take on Resident Evil by Zach Cregger, the director of Barbarian and Weapons. This is a major tonal shift for Sony. No more Mia Jovovic or Paul W.S. Anderson. Video game translations are usually dubious, and the franchise squandered its potential. It became more superhero and less horror. However, Sony is gambling that with the right creator, it might revitalize the legacy, and Cregger may inject real scares into this franchise for the first time since the original. We shall see. The trailer looks great. Other Mommy, which arrives on October 9, has some incredibly disturbing visuals. Jessica Chastain stars, and Rob Savage (Host) directs. This uncanny-valley movie came late to my radar and is intriguing. Later this August, the Insidious franchise is issuing Insidious: Out of the Further. Lin Shaye returns, Leigh Whannell writes this, and it has a banger trailer. This franchise has maintained some of the scariest PG-13 fare, but the sequels have been a gradual decline in quality. We’ll see how this goes. Beware Boiúna might give us the Anaconda movie we wish we got earlier this year, and wipe the slate clean from the Jack Black/Paul Rudd disappointment. It’s R-rated, and features reliable scream queen Jessica Rothe, along with Logan Marshall-Green and Kiana Madeira in the Amazon. The trailer impressed me with the snake’s monstrousness. Another fascinating man-vs-nature survival tale is Whalefall, a terrifying concept in which a scuba diver is in jeopardy of being consumed by a sperm whale if the giant squid the whale has snagged doesn’t kill him first. Clayface will attempt to bridge the superhero and horror genres, which is no easy feat. Will it have enough horror for horror fans, and will it have enough fealty to the Batman universe to appeal to the comic book fans? Mike Flanagan wrote it, and it promises real R-rated body horror, so it could be very interesting. Lastly, Robert Eggers’ period piece Werwulf is getting the full Eggers treatment, in monochrome and as moody as you could possibly want. Hopefully it will get the stink of the Wolf Man out of our popcorn. Just give me a great transformation scene, please. Keep an eye out for It Ends, a festival darling from 2025 which is finally getting a limited release this year. It is a brilliant, if melancholy purgatory metaphor. If you enjoyed Backrooms, you should check this film out if you are lucky enough to have it showing in a theater near you. Of course, some smaller films will come out of the shadows and inevitably make our end-of-the-top-10 lists, but this is what we know so far. The Podcast: The Best Horror Movies at the 2026 Halfway Mark: Episode 214 Recommendations from the First Half of 2026: Here are all the movies that we have ranked ★★★ or better, so far in 2026. The End of Oak Street (2026) ★★★★★ 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) ★★★★ They Will Kill You (2026) ★★★★ Undertone (2026) ★★★★1/4 The Vampire Lestat (2026) Grind (2026) ★★★★ Ice Cream Man (2026) ★★★★ Send Help (2026) ★★★★1/2 Backrooms (2026) ★★★★ Obsession (2026) ★★★★ Evil Dead Burn (2026) ★★★ Big City Pizza (2026) ★★★★.5 Cat Cam (2026) ★★★1/2 Hokum (2026) ★★★★ Armageddon Road (2026) ★★★.5 Hungry (2026) ★★★ Break a Leg (2026) ★★★★1/2 Dracula: The Night Around Us (2026) ★★★★ Frogman Returns (2026) ★★★★ The Demonatrix (2026) ★★★ LandLord (2026) ★★★★ Leviticus (2026) ★★★★ Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) ★★★.5 The Yeti (2026) ★★★★ Sitra Achra (2026) ★★★★ Parasomnia (2026) ★★★1/2 Thrash (2026) ★★★.5 Goody Goody (2026) ★★★★ Iron Lung (2026) ★★★★ American Dollhouse ★★★★ Buffet Infinity ★★★1/2 Faces of Death (2026) ★★★1/2 Pretty Lethal (2026) ★★★★ Friday the 69th (2026) ★★★ Ugly Cry (2026) ★★★★ Quince (2026) ★★★★ Cold Storage (2026) ★★★1/2 A Safe Distance (2026) ★★★1/2 Bagworm (2026) ★★★1/2 Bodycam (2026) ★★★ Marama (2026) ★★★★1/2 The Peril at Pincer Point (2026) ★★★ Dead Media (2026) ★★★.5 Affection (2026) ★★★1/2

Sometimes your work grows faster than your identity does. In 2012, I had spent years charging $4,500 for wedding photography when a dream client called me just 27 days before their Sundance wedding. When she asked what I would charge for the weekend, I heard myself say a number I'd never said before: $7,500. She said yes. Two weeks later, I booked my first $10,500 wedding. I didn't suddenly become twice as talented in six weeks. The work had been happening for years. My skill, eye, experience and judgment had already changed. My identity simply hadn't caught up. In this short episode of Play It Brave, we're looking at the version of you who names the price — and whether she's still pricing the work of a woman you've already outgrown. I'll also lead you through a simple rehearsal you can practice for the next 30 days so that when someone asks, "What do you charge?" you don't have to manufacture courage in real time. In this episode: why your identity can lag behind your actual level of mastery · the story behind my jump from $4,500 to $7,500 — and then $10,500 · how to recognize when you're pricing from an earlier version of yourself · what happens in your body when someone asks what you charge · why you don't need to justify your number before anyone has objected to it · a short exercise to rehearse saying your next price · why identity work isn't a substitute for mastery — but can help you finally own the mastery you've already earned. A question to take with you: has your price actually caught up to the person you've become? Your next number doesn't need to be a fantasy. It needs to be a number you have evidence underneath — and are ready to learn how to say. Ready to go deeper? If you know the strategy but something in you keeps pulling back when it's time to sell, be seen, raise your prices or step into the next version of your work — that's exactly the kind of pattern we can explore in a private Breakthrough. Book a free 30-minute clarity call.  

Mitch Marcus is a director and screenwriter for movies and television. He started out working on film crews on movies like 'Stand By Me" and "Field of Dreams".  In 1995, his film “A Boy Called Hate", about the youth culture of guns, received a prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.  He's worked as a director for hire on several feature length movies.  He's filmed two feature length documentaries. In television, he produced and directed non-fiction television for A&E, History, Travel, Discovery, Sundance and others - most recently Executive Producing the series, "The Unexplained with William Shatner”. He recently released a micro-budget feature called "I Don't Love You Anymore”. My featured song is “Hollywood”, from the album The PGS Experience by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link. —------------------------------------ The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries! Click here for Start Here Click here for All Episodes  Click here for Guest List  Click here for Guest Testimonials Click here for Pillars Click here for Robert's Project Grand Slam Click here to Subscribe  Click here to receive our Email Updates Click here to Rate and Review the podcast —---------------------------------------- CONNECT WITH MITCH:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0546153/ —----------------------------------- ROBERT'S NEWEST RELEASE:“THE BUZZ” - Ft. Darius de Haas (vocals) and Dave Eggar (Celo). Short, Sweet and Totally Different CLICK HERE FOR OFFICIAL VIDEO CLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS —-------------------------------------- Audio production: Jimmy RavenscroftKymera FilmsConnect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comFollow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.com    

Latest up from Spoken Label, featuring making his debut, is the grandnephew of Walt Disney, Tim Disney.Tim Disney is an artist and entrepreneur from Los Angeles. He has produced, written, or directed multiple award-winning feature films and documentaries which have appeared at Sundance, Telluride, SXSW and other festivals. He served as Chairman and CEO of VR pioneer Virtual World Entertainment, which was sold to Microsoft. Tim is an active investor in media and technology, and serves on multiple corporate boards, including Marginal Mediaworks and Dragonfly Therapeutics. In the not-for-profit sector, he is the founder of The Adamma Foundation and co-founder of World Connected. He served for twelve years as a Trustee of SCI-Arc and 29 years as a Trustee of CalArts, eight of them as Chairman of the Board. From 2021-2025 he served as Trustee and Board President of MOCA, and he currently serves as a member of the Global Leadership Council of The World Resources Institute among other projects.This Podcast we mostly talk about the graphic novel, he has co-created with JC Lacek and Vincent J. Dubourg, the A.R.C. The A.R.C is about a deadly virus and begins at the Concordia Centre in the heart of the Amazon, where a who's who of global elites from business, finance, fashion, entertainment, technology, and online activism have gathered for the Global Reinvestment For Tomorrow Conference (GRFT), promising to solve the problem of climate change once and for all. Very little problem-solving occurs before the GRFTers are infected with a lethal, highly contagious virus, dubbed Amazonian Recombinant Cytoneuropathy (A.R.C.). The A.R.C. virus has peculiar and unfortunate characteristics: it is wildly contagious but undetectable in its dormant phase; it is 100% lethal; and the kicker is ... it's activated by lying. This proves deeply problematic for a world drowning in an ocean of lies and misinformation. The GRFTers board their private jets and spread the virus worldwide. Chaos ensues. Most of The A.R.C. plays out on a supposedly "sustainable" cruise ship, The Veritas, where an unlikely band of passengers and crew members: a single mom and her teenage daughter, a born again preacher and his wife, the grizzled Norwegian ship captain, an underemployed photographer and her retired stockbroker father, a pack of libidinous business bros, an unscrupulous payday lending magnate and his Russian mail-order bride, and others, reckon with the spreading virus, survive a bloody attack, and together figure out what is driving the disease, and how to live alongside it. Some of them make it. Most of them don't.

Director Sara Dosa's latest film “Time and Water” follows Icelandic writer and poet Andri Magnason as he reflects on melting glaciers and his family's history. It premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim. Sara and Andri join Tiller on the show to discuss when Andri first captured Sara's imagination (5:30), how glaciers hold memories (11:30), the role of myth in the climate crisis (25:00), their collaborative writing process (33:00), and what frightened Andri most while making this film (40:00). Produced by: Jacob Miller Executive Producer: Tiller Russell Music by: James Carroll, Graham Tracey & Zydepunk Distributed by: Jake Brennan & Brady Sadler, Double Elvis Productions

Durante las vacaciones de verano, dos niñas de diez años se encuentran en un hospital y forman un vínculo inesperado. Ese lazo las lleva por un viaje agridulce de despedidas y de profundas revelaciones sobre la vida.Después de hacer carrera en los cortometrajes, incluyendo "Desires of the Flesh" que tuvo su estreno en Sundance el año 2019, la brasileña Rafaela Camelo escribe y dirige su primer largometraje, por el que ya recibió el premio a Mejor Director Debutante en los Gran Premio Otelo del cine brasileño.Esta coproducción brasileño-chilena cuenta con un reparto completamente femenino, con Laura Brandão, Serena, Larissa Mauro, Camila Márdila y Aline Marta Mala dando vida a la historia. También destaca la producción de Rebeca Gutiérrez Campos, la dirección de fotografía de Francisca Sáez Agurto y la música de Alekos Vuskovic.¿Por qué ver "La naturaleza de las cosas invisibles"? En primer lugar, por la hermosa y refrescante propuesta de Rafaela Camelo, quien logra dar el paso de los cortos a los largometrajes con una historia atractiva y emotiva para el público. También, por el tono sencillo, pero profundo de lo que se cuenta en pantalla, con temas universales que son representados con naturalidad por las actrices. Y por el contraste que se muestra entre la vida en la urbe y en los espacios rurales que llenan la pantalla.Estrenos y Razones, con Joel Poblete.Descubre más contenidos como este en Cooperativapodcast.cl

Hey, you! Be a buddy and take our listener survey! It'll help us keep the show great and maybe even...make it better?! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! - Producer Marissa and the MaxFilm Gang *** Ken Plume -- author, filmmaker, and longtime host of A Bit of a Chat with Ken Plume -- joins us to talk about the movie that everyone seems to be talking about. Is it a great Spider-Man movie, or the greatest Spider-Man movie? Then, we answer a Hotline call (yes, we still take those!) about forbidden films of our youths.  What's Good? Alonso - Friends with pools Drea - Texting other people in a group Zoom Ken - Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee Kevin - Summer tabs! Urgent tabs! ITIDIC Netflix Sued Over Loss of Hard Drive With Unreleased Nicolas Cage Film Sundance to Expand Competition as Fest's Debut in Boulder Grows Nearer Staff Picks Drea - Late Fame Alonso - Nights of Cabiria Ken - 1941 Kevin - Practical Magic Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinmaxfilm Follow us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, or LetterboxdWithKevin AveryDrea ClarkAlonso DuraldeProduced by Marissa FlaxbartSr. Producer Laura Swisher

From Butch and Sundance to Maverick and Goose, Woody and Buzz to Frodo and Sam, male friendships have long been at the heart of many of our favourite screen stories. But in recent years, stories about male friendship seem to have taken on new significance. They've become a way of exploring emotional vulnerability and what it means to be a man in an era shaped by debates around the manosphere, toxic masculinity and the male loneliness epidemic. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode revisit some of film and TV's most memorable male pairings, and ask how today's filmmakers are responding to what many describe as a crisis of masculinity. Ellen speaks to critic Matt Schimkowitz, staff writer at US website The AV Club, about how male friendships have featured in Hollywood movies, from classic comedy double acts like Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello, to the chaotic camaraderie of the Jackass movies. Mark speaks to writer-director Bruce Robinson, who mined his own very personal experiences of male friendship to create the cult 1987 film Withnail & I, about two out-of-work actors living in Camden Town at the end of the 1960s. And Mark also speaks to Jack Rooke, creator of the Channel 4 comedy-drama Big Boys, which found fresh emotional depth in the familiar male ‘odd-couple' dynamic. Drawing on Jack's own time at university in the early 2010s, the series concluded in 2025 with a highly-acclaimed episode sensitively exploring the long shadow cast by suicide. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

Two separate instances are putting Native authority related to religious freedom to the test. The Northern Arapaho Tribe demands the Christian ministry, Foundations Nations Church, leave the Wyoming reservation. The demand comes after video circulated on social media showed one of the church's pastors characterizing Native sacred practices — including the Sun Dance — as “idol worship” and “demonic.” Top tribal leadership calls the comments “despicable” and link them to past abuses of Native Americans at the hands of Christian church officials. The Foundations Church leaders say they'll fight the tribe's efforts to remove them. We'll hear about what's next in the dispute. At the same time, Native American inmates in a Nebraska state prison scored a victory in securing access to religious ceremonies. In a settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit, corrections officials lifted a temporary ban on accessing a place where Native men conducted ceremonies like sweats and smudges. They instituted the ban after finding contraband at the site. We'll hear about the legal principles behind the outcome. GUESTS Keenan Groesbeck (Northern Arapaho), chairman of the Northern Arapaho Business Council Jesse Crispin (Northern Arapaho), council member of the Northern Arapaho Business Council Andi Snowball (Muscogee and Winnebago), associate attorney with Big Fire Law and Policy Group LLP Carter Matt, staff attorney with ACLU Nebraska Break 1 Music: Northern Arapaho Fast Wolf Dance (song) Otto Hungary, White O. Goggles, Helen Crispin, Francis Goggles, Rose Moss (artist) Traditional Voices: Historic Recordings of Traditional Native American Music (album) Break 2 Music: Aia lā ‘o Pele [Mele Honoring Pele] (song) ‘Iolani Luahine (artist) Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style: Vol. 1 Hula Kuahu (album)

In this week's episode, Mala reports on her experience at the premiere of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez. Famously known as the father of Chicano cinema, Valdez gave Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Esai Morales their start. The story of Valdez is finally getting the documentary treatment it deserves. This episode, we're taking you inside the Sundance-winning documentary. Mala interviews the people who lived Valdez's legacy, like Dolores Huerta, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Esai Morales. She also talks to Eduardo Arenas of Chicano Batman who scored the film, producer Everett Katigbak, and Director David Alvarado. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In partnership with RENDR Festival and supported by the National Talent Academy for VFX, we are delighted to present this very special speaker series. Recorded live at RENDR 2026 in Banana Block, Belfast, we spoke with Belfast-born stand up, director, animator, and Associate Creative Director at BUCK, Jennifer Zheng. Her BAFTA-nominated short film Tough – exploring the complexities of her and her mother's cultural identities – has screened at over 80 international festivals, including Sundance and SXSW, and received 17 awards. Alongside her directorial work, Zheng has collaborated with global clients such as Netflix, Google DeepMind, Headspace, and The White Stripes. Listen now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon, or subscribe to Film Ireland wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.filmireland.net/podcast-director-designer-animator-jennifer-zhengThis series of talks was recorded in The Spinners Mill Studio, a podcast and DJ studio based in Banana Block offering tailored solutions for DJ sessions, small-scale events and podcasting from concept to final distribution. Follow them on Insta / Facebook / TikTokJennifer ZhengJen learned to draw the normal way: by drawing the same boiled egg for a month because her dad told her 'Da Vinci started that way' – he didn't*. After eggs, she drew exclusively Hollywood A-lister headshots with the grid method: Her Angelina Jolie was spectacular. Now Jen has found a career where drawing the same thing over and over isn't considered crazy: animation.She grew up Chinese in the rolling concrete flats of Belfast, Northern Ireland where it was so white she would sometimes forget that she was Asian ... so the other girls at school would complain that their fake tan kept rubbing off, and she'd say back 'I dunno what's wrong with you girls, because mine never comes off.' The prejudices she experienced growing up taught her the importance of empathy, which is a theme that permeates her work. Her short film Tough on her and her mother's conflicting cultural identities was nominated for a BAFTA, won 17 awards, and screened at over 80 international film festivals including Sundance and SXSW. She is currently Associate Creative Director at BUCK and has worked with clients like The White Stripes, Netflix, Headspace & Google Deepmind. Notably, she's led the design of genitals & illustrations for OMGYes, co-wrote & creative directed a short for GitHub starring Phil Wang, and recently directed the animated portion of David Wilson's music video for Mabel ‘Look At My Body pt.II' – a psychedelic feminist retelling of the original sin. On the side, she is an award-winning stand-up comedian, Playgrounds In Motion London host, erotica zine publisher, and t-shirt tiedyer.*Da Vinci never repeatedly drew eggs, this seems to be a China-specific conspiracy.Website / InstagramRENDR FestivalThis is a unique event celebrating creative craft and artistry in a fully immersive two-day festival exploring the space between Creativity and Technology. Ignite your imagination with inspiring speakers from the worlds of Film, Gaming, Animation, Immersive, and more! Learn from the best, with 30+ creatives from the likes of Netflix, Pixar, Walt Disney Studios, and Epic Games among others.Witness creative uses of new technology, explore the gallery of digital art, chow down at the food village or play in the arcade. You will be transported to the future, and provide you with unforgettable and inspirational nights.National Talent Academy for Visual EffectsAs the newest of the Academies, the National Talent Academy for VFX provides support and opportunities for anyone interested in a career in VFX. Launched in 2024, the National Talent Academy for VFX is an initiative of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, managed by Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet. Their mission is to transform aspiring VFX artists into industry-ready professionals while providing ongoing upskilling opportunities for current talent.Over the years, the podcast has featured acclaimed guests such as Phyllida Lloyd, Lenny Abrahamson, M. Night Shyamalan, John Boorman, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Aisha Tyler, Colm Meaney, Paul Reiser, Niamh Algar, David Freyne, Ciarán Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John Crowley, Niamh Algar, Gene Stupnitsky, and Terence Davies, alongside many of the most influential voices working in film and television today.So make sure to subscribe and listen back! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The True Fiction Project, actor Rishi Jaiswal walks us through his unlikely leap from aerospace engineering to a national Broadway tour, his lead role in The Revolution's Wife, and the deeply personal story behind his new short film, The Last Waltz. This movie is about a South Asian family confronting their trans daughter's identity and the silence that follows. We also talk about dance, Sundance, and the strange coincidences that shaped this casting. Tune in to hear the trailer of The Last Waltz, highlighting the moment a father finally faces the daughter he can barely name.What You'll Learn in This Episode: ✅ How Rishi Jaiswal traded aerospace engineering for a career on stage and screen, starting with So You Think You Can Dance and a national tour of Life of Pi on Broadway.✅ Why he sent a freedom fighter poem about Gaza to land his role in Revolution's Wife, and how that bold risk paid off during the casting process.✅ How growing up around a family dance studio and Bollywood culture shaped the way Rishi approaches every character he plays on screen and stage.✅ Why The Last Waltz speaks directly to the South Asian community about learning to accept a trans child, even without fully understanding her journey first.Subscribe to Reenita's Storytelling Den on Substack for free at https://substack.com/@reenitahora and to her YouTube channel to watch the video version of this episode! https://www.youtube.com/@reenymalCheck out her website to stay up-to-date on events, book releases and more! https://reenita.com/TIMESTAMPS:  00:00 Rishi Jaiswal shares how he became involved in Revolution's Wife03:25 How a Gaza freedom fighter poem helped Rishi land his role in Reenita's script05:14 Discussion of the Revolution's Wife script07:56 The Sundance Film Festival encounter that unexpectedly brought Nosheen into the cast as Padma11:35 From aerospace engineering to a family dance studio, tracing Rishi's winding path into the arts15:10 Rishi introduces The Last Waltz, his own short film about a trans daughter and her parents22:38 Watch the exclusive trailer for The Last Waltz ahead of its debut at the LA Shorts FestivalKEY TAKEAWAYS: 

How can building an audience in advance help your stories reach the people who make movies? And how can you prove there's demand for your book or screenplay before you've written it? Brooks Elms shares his advice after more than 20 years as a WGA screenwriter. In the intro, what doesn't work for book marketing and what does [Amy Chan SubStack; Unsingle; Rephonic]; Goodreads giveaway for Bones of the Deep; FutureVision XPrize. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to see the opportunity in AI when others only see the threat How to test a story with samples, and what a 16-second movie can do Building the trailer before you write the screenplay Letting your audience finance the film once they have validated the idea Why Hollywood still wants existing IP, and what makes them pay attention Feeling safe enough to write the truth, and finding a concrete path forward You can find Brooks on LinkedIn or email him at brooks@brookselms.com. Transcript of the interview with Brooks Elms Jo: Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. So welcome to the show, Brooks. Brooks: Thank you. It's awesome to be here. Jo: Fantastic. So first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into screenwriting. Brooks: I started filmmaking first. A buddy came up to me in high school and said, “Hey, we're making a karate movie, do you want to help us?” I was like, “Oh my God, yes, that sounds amazing.” So next thing I know, I had this karate outfit on, and we were just making this completely ridiculous and totally fun movie, and it was amazing. It was so fun. Then it went to a whole other level when we shared it with a friend, this guy Jay Sharon, and he watched the movie and he laughed so hard he literally fell out of his chair. I was like, “Oh my God,” the fun I had making it could actually transfer to somebody else. I was hooked. So from there I went to NYU film school, and then made a few independent feature films which were good but not great in terms of how they were received. They were great for me in terms of enjoyment, but I knew I needed to iterate faster at that point. So then I was like, “Well, it's expensive and it takes a long time to make a movie,” at least back then. So I pivoted to screenwriting, and pumped out two, three scripts a year, got signed at UTA, got writing assignments, and basically launched a screenwriting career. Then I still tried to get some stuff going, but it's hard when movies are so expensive. It's not hard, it's just that it takes a lot of precision in the marketing, and a lot of conversations to find the right matches to finance something, and you're either interested in doing that or you're not. I just was like, “Well, I'll just mostly write screenplays.” Then I started teaching at UCLA Extension and then coaching after that, along with writing. Then all the way up to the future. What's great about moving forward is that with AI, shot-making is becoming very close to cinematic quality. You can actually match cinematic quality in moments in some genres, but probably by next year. Right now you could actually do a really good horror movie all AI for 10, 20,000 bucks, depending on how much you're doing yourself or getting other people to do. So the economics are going to absolutely explode. So I'm sitting on dozens of scripts that didn't get through the Hollywood packaging bottleneck because they're too expensive, and I now have this giant slate that's ready to go, and I'm just absolutely thrilled. It's been a lifelong dream for me. Jo: Oh, so much to come back on there. Where to start? I do want to talk about what you just said there, sitting on dozens of scripts and now seeing the opportunity. I actually wrote down in my journal about a year ago, I see what's coming with AI, and I think that the best thing I can do is create as much original IP as possible, so that I can make the most of the opportunity ahead. So let's just get into the AI, because a lot of people feel it's a super bad thing. Talk about the opportunities and the attitude that you've got [around AI], and that you've seen others have around this, for what is ahead in a positive way. Brooks: It's fascinating to see how people respond to AI. I wonder, when the printing press rolled around, if there was some sort of backlash. Books must be handwritten. They can't be mass-produced. Here's one of my theories. At a deep psychological level, it's so profoundly powerful that I think the default setting is, “Oh, crap.” When I was a kid, some things were hard, and that power imbalance, when something big, new and powerful comes along: I'm going to get screwed, and so this is somehow a bad thing. I think that's the base psychological thing going on with most of the noise. Obviously there are some legit problems, in terms of copyright infringement from learning models, or from some of the environmental situation. So I'm not saying it's all rainbows and butterflies, but I think 90% of the noise around it comes from a fear of change. Here's the other one—a fear of, “Oh, yikes, I'm going to get taken advantage of somehow by either robots, or the corporations are going to use the robots against me,” or something like that. I have real empathy for me when I feel that way a little bit, but I don't feel it much, and for other people that do feel it. The other thing is, you know what it is? I think they fear their own empowerment even more. I had a therapist who was really good. He said, people aren't so much afraid of failing as they are afraid of succeeding. Because if we fail, we're stuck in act one and we don't go anywhere. The fear is answering the call and going to act two, when everything effing changes in the new world. So I think people are afraid of how goddamn powerful they're going to be when they can have a team of AI agents helping them do everything they want in business or life or whatever. I think it's the same thing with the internet. People are like, “Oh, I don't like social media, blah, blah, blah.” And I get it. There's a lot of noise and a lot of crap. Yet we have access to billions of people, and the algorithms in social media right now I think are level three out of 10. They're just going to get better and better. Even as it is now, if I do a post about something and it gets ignored, that's on me. The algorithms are trying to match me to my people. So if I'm not unique enough and authentic enough and aware enough of how virality works, that's on me, and it's a learnable skill that I can embrace and then change and then get better at. So I think people then resist that change. They resist the empowerment of learning the art of virality, or learning the art of some sort of social media stuff or whatever. The last thing I'll say about this rant is, I don't want to act like I'm the guru on the hill that has all the answers. I refuse calls all the time. I'm scared about all sorts of things. I'm certainly not perfect. I feel frustrated when I'm trying to put my big ideas into action and I can't get this technology thing to work or that one, and I throw tantrums. I'm trying to come at it from a real human perspective, but by and large, I've got stars in my eyes. I'm like, “This is amazing. This is going to be so powerful.” For so many people, you just have to be ready to embrace it and just go along for the ride, because there's going to be some big-ass changes. There already are, and that's going to accelerate. Jo: You mentioned there learning the art of whatever it is. One of the things is, I've spent 20 years, and so have you, learning our craft and our art, and now it can be done very easily. I'm generating video, as you mentioned, which is a craft I haven't spent 20 years on, but now I can generate. So things have definitely changed in that way. Just coming to the screenwriting side. Probably about a decade ago now, I did my first screenwriting course. I've written screenplays. Then I looked at the game you have to play and, like you said, the conversations you have to have, the events you have to go and network at, all the things that you have to do to put a screenplay in front of the right person at the right time. I was like, “I cannot do that. It's just not going to happen. I can't do that along with everything else.” So I put it aside, but now I feel maybe it's time to bring it back because things are changing. So can you maybe talk about, if someone has a screenplay now that they've written, or some IP like a book that they have now— What would you recommend people do in terms of wanting to get that [IP] in front of somebody, or doing something with it themselves? Brooks: It's such a good question. By the way, not even a screenplay—you could do the same things with a novel. Let me try to be succinct here, which is a good challenge for me. A simple way to look at it is, you're giving samples. Let's say it's a lemonade stand, and you give out a little shot of your… maybe you have cayenne pepper lemonade, some sort of fun lemonade. If you give out a sample and people are into it, they're going to come back and they're going to tell friends. If you give a sample of the lemonade and they're not into it, then you go back to the kitchen and you mix up a different flavour. So that's some basic business, but the internet allows us to do that at scale. So what I like to encourage people to do when I coach them is come up with the minimum viable material. It can be a 10-second clip. There's a writer in my community who made a really beautiful 16-second movie. It's one shot. I love it so much. It's two wine glasses. There's a lipstick smudge on one of the wine glasses. They're half full, and it's just that shot. It's sitting there, and all of a sudden you hear this thundering, thumping down these stairs, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Then you see out of the corner of the frame one person runs by, and then the other person behind her runs by and goes, “Wait.” That's it. That's the whole movie. It's 16 seconds. He did that with his phone. So there's so much going on. There's a couple of basic elements, but he just did it with his phone, and you can evoke enormous emotional impact on people through social media, whether it's just words. You guys have a big advantage as novelists because you're so good with words. Whether it's a little bit longer, like sudden fiction, that's a couple of pages or whatever. Even just copywriters are really in a good position for the future because they're super potent with two words or three words or 10 words. Then novelists are probably really advantageous because it doesn't cost anything to just put some words out on the internet. The point is, if you put something out, it's a signal, and you're talking about billions of people who could find that signal. If you do it and then you look at the response, and then you try again, you look at the response, we can do this iteration infinitely for free. So you can do it already. You've been able to do it for 10, 15, 20 years, just with words. But now you're going to basically be able to do that with movies or clips or trailers. So the thing that I'm leading in my community of writers is having people build trailers in advance, or clips. When a book or a movie is done, how the heck do we get people to see it? One way is a trailer or some sort of behind-the-scenes material. You can just do that stuff now before even writing the screenplay. I saw that you were doing this project, a trailer for this competition. And then you mentioned, “Oh, I've got to write the screenplay.” Not really. You have to develop the story enough to know what you're referring to, and then it's about studying the craft of either trailer construction, or whatever the clips are, or viral clips. They all have a structure, and then you just test it. If you enjoy that testing process, which I find absolutely thrilling, it feels like the filmmaking version of a stand-up comedian. If I did stand-up, I say a joke, they laugh or they don't laugh. It's really beautiful feedback from the universe. Nerve-wracking, right? But we can do that now as storytellers. We put a story out there in any format, and the audience responds. Just like you have to read any room, you have to learn how to read the engagement on social media. What do likes mean? What do shares mean? What do comments mean? How do you deal with trolls? All that is just part of the new art. Once you get good at it, holy smokes, that's the key to the kingdom. You can build audiences in advance, and for movies you could even have them finance your movie in advance, if you've built an email list of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people because you kept putting out all these viral clips around your story, novel, or screenplay. Then you go, “Okay, now 30,000 people are on my email list and I tell them about me and my perspective and my world. We're going to make this darn thing with AI for 20,000 bucks. You guys have got to pony up some money. Put in a dollar, five, 10, or you get the VIP $500 experience.” It's like crowdfunding, but much more sophisticated, because most crowdfunding was like begging friends and family to donate to your crazy dream. What I'm talking about is going to the audience directly, developing enough of the story, then going to the audience second, and then only when they validate the idea, to the extent that you're happy with. You could do a crazy idea that's going to have a small audience, and you don't have to have a blockbuster audience. You get to pick the audience size that you want, and then put the samples out there and see if you have a relevant audience size for this next project. Once the audience tells you, “Yes, we want this,” then you go make it. So you're ultimately reducing risk to almost zero. It takes time and you have to learn how to do this stuff, but it's thrilling to me because we just have the capacity to test the material and listen to the audience upfront. The last thing I'll say, and I've rambled a lot, I'm sorry. When I made a movie in 1994, a feature film right out of NYU, it took me three years to find out what the audience thought about that movie. I had to make the damn thing, and then I ran out of money, and that took me years to edit it, and I finally got it, blah, blah, blah. And again, I loved it. I loved every facet of it, and it was fine, but it was super inefficient. Today, I could take those same elements, create an AI trailer this weekend, put it in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and they could tell me right away, “This sucks,” or, “This is interesting,” or, “Holy smokes, this is amazing. I want this.” If it's not, “Holy smokes, this is amazing, I want it,” I can go ahead and re-edit the whole damn trailer, and just keep reiterating at almost no cost. Then once the demand is there, I can take that demand and that audience and go to Hollywood, and that's when they're going to want to work with me. Then it doesn't take a million conversations and finding the needle in the haystack, because Hollywood sees the numbers and they go, “Oh, you're the people we do want to do business with. You've proven demand. We want to do business with you.” Jo: Yes, it's so interesting. I can hear people listening and they're like, “Easier said than done, getting an email list of 40,000 people.” And in fact— It's exactly the same as building up a career as an independent author. This is as a filmmaker, as a visual person, and the industry is visual, so doing a visual trailer is the obvious thing. And as you say, the tools I use just to do this one, I use Midjourney, and I've used Seedance as the main video model. It does take a while, but it is pretty fast now, if you have a visual image of what you want in your head, which obviously you're a visual person as well. But is it… Brooks: Hold on. I want to push back on that a little bit, because I think it's really important. So yes, that's true, but underneath that, my friend, it's a relationship. It's the relationship, and the media is secondary. You have been prolific in connecting with your audience, and that's why I think a lot of people like you, because you share and they get to know you in that sort of cadence. I saw you in another podcast, you mentioned Seth Godin, who just said, “Hey, I want to be the type of person that has this relationship with my audience. I'm going to share some of my thoughts every day.” He happened to do it with words, with his background in marketing, but you could do the same thing with still images. You could do the same thing with a five-second movie clip once a week. It's the relationship you want with your fans. I'm not saying you snap your fingers and you have 50,000 people on your email list. What I'm saying is, what else are you doing? If we're artists and our impulse is to create and share, and if you do it in this way, if I can create and share and inspire trust in this relationship with a stranger because they like my genre thing and they like the way they felt when they experienced my media, words, images, movies, it doesn't matter. They just like the feeling, and they go, “Ooh, I want more of that feeling. How do I get more of that? Oh, this person has this email list or community.” If I can do it with one, then I can scale it out. So getting the first one, or the first 5 or 10 samples, that is a whole process. But then once you do that, scaling up is more of a mechanical thing. It's not even that hard, especially when you can do paid ads. So you can scale up very quickly if you have the sauce. If you don't have the sauce, it doesn't matter who you're related to, you've got to get the sauce right. Jo: Yes, and again, it's so parallel to the indie author community. I've just got to ask you, in the olden days, an author might write a screenplay, or a screenwriter write a screenplay, and then they would send it. They'd find an agent. They'd pitch an agent, and I guess then they'd hope that someone would turn that into a movie. So is that just dead now? Is it realistically that you need to get yourself out there, build the audience in the same way that it often is for authors? Brooks: So, no. I've got two screenplay deals going right now. So here's how it's going to work. Think about Broadway, or the theatre district in Britain. It's like West End or East End or whatever… Jo: The West End. Brooks: Sorry for my American ignorance. West End, okay. So every town on the planet has a stage, but there's only one Broadway, there's only one West End, right? And every town has its own festival, but there are a few significant tastemakers. There's Cannes, there's Sundance, there's Toronto. Hollywood is always going to be a tastemaker in our lifetime, for sure. What they don't have anymore, what they enjoyed for the first 100 years of the industry, is that they had a stranglehold on basically the equipment, the financing, and the audience, and that's all going away. Do you want to hear a fun story about the birth of cinema? Do you know why Hollywood started in Hollywood? Jo: No. Brooks: So Thomas Edison invented the camera, or the type of model camera that they were using in, I don't know, 1910 or something around there. They didn't want to pay his patent. They didn't want to pay the patent to make these movies, so they went all the way across the country, a bunch of outlaws, and they set up shop in California because he couldn't enforce his patent that they were basically stealing. And reason number two, LA enjoys amazing weather almost all year round. The weather here is either nice or really nice. You have mountains, you have beach, you have desert, you have all these different locales. So when it was really important to be on location, LA was the perfect place. Anyway, that is all going away. For many decades, more people could make movies. In the early '90s, Robert Rodriguez made a movie for 9,000 bucks. There was a book in the '80s that I bought that I loved, it was Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices. This guy, Rick Schmidt, I think his name was. There were the independent filmmakers really in the '60s and the '70s. So the cost has been going down and down and down, and now it's less than ever. Once social media came along, now you have access to the audience, so why do you even need Hollywood? That being said, there are tons of people. There are 400,000 people already working in the movie and the TV industry here. And they're voracious. We have a voracious demand. Humans need stories. We need big stories, long stories. We need stories, and Hollywood is so good at giving them stories. And so they have a need for these things, and they're still spending a lot of money on those budgets. So yes, there's still a demand for turning books and optioning them and turning them into movies. Books are great. Any sort of existing IP is great because there are marketing efficiencies there. People already know that stuff, know the vibe of it, and so it's easier to market than something that's totally creative and new. When you're spending that much money, you want those marketing efficiencies. They're really important. So the point being, the power is shifting away from Hollywood. Hollywood will still be a tastemaker, but you and me can reach anybody on the planet now. Almost. Billions of people. If it's making a movie, right now you could make a movie that most people wouldn't realise is an AI movie. If it was a horror film, I know a handful of people that could make a feature-length horror film right now with AI and 99% of the audience couldn't tell, if it was professionally written. Jo: I think the point here though is, I'm an author, the people listening are authors, and we don't want to make movies. We want to license our IP to people who want to make movies. Brooks: Yes. Great. Okay, good. So then you could, if you wanted, build an audience. Hollywood loves when something's already proven, so that's that IP thing, right? So if you just have a great book, then it's all about the sales. You guys have Dragons' Den, we have Shark Tank here. And what's amazing about that show is these are people or entrepreneurs pitching an idea, and there's an amazing rhythm that happens. They say, “We've got this great idea. It's this sort of company.” And the sharks, or the dragons, will listen. And there's a huge turning point when they reveal sales. They're either really excited about the idea and then they go, “Well, how are the sales?” And the person goes, “Well, we don't have any sales yet.” And they go, “Uh,” and they're not interested. Or they might even be like, “Eh, it doesn't seem like a good idea.” And they're like, “Well, how are the sales?” And they're like, “Oh, well, we've sold through the roof.” And then all of a sudden they perk up. So it's all about the sales. So step one is writing something that you want. Step two is making sure other people in your target audience are also loving it as much as you do. Step three is proving in some way at scale that there's real demand for it. So you could do that with trailers, you could do that with clips, you can do that as an indie publisher. There's all sorts of things that you can do. Humans are much more persuaded by concrete data than they are by just vibes. So if you can bring Hollywood concrete data of any type, like viral videos, like audience, like obviously bestsellers. Awards mean something, but not quite as much as sales. Then you're going to get Hollywood's attention because that reduces risk for them. So even now, when Hollywood's definitely shrinking and contracting, there's still very significant money being spent because it's a huge demand. If you ever walk around a studio lot, those things are opulent places. It's stunning. Like, how are they paying for all this stuff? These lots are enormous. It's because humanity is voracious for stories, and movies are one premium type of storytelling. The demand for stories is steady if not going up. It's just that we have a wider variety of types of stories that we can do, whether we're an indie author. So anyway, did I answer the question? You get me too excited with these questions, Jo. It's a problem. Jo: Yes. I think there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of ways in, but the parallels with being an indie author I think are quite clear. One of the things I found interesting about your profile and what you do is that you help clients who are already accomplished but not quite breaking through, and that sounds like a lot of mid-list indie authors, probably a lot of mid-list screenwriters, mid-list filmmakers. This is a hard place to be because, on the one hand, we are grateful for what we have achieved and what we can do, and yet wanting more, wanting that big Hollywood deal or the Netflix deal, or wanting the massive bestseller or whatever. So if someone wants to get to that next level, what are some of the ways that they can perhaps try and get there? Brooks: It's a great question. Coaching is a really wonderful way to learn anything of this sort of complexity and challenge, especially if it's a hyper-competitive business. We need two things, I think, to write a great novel or screenplay or both. A, we need to feel profoundly safe in our space. If we can't really feel deeply authentic about the things that are embarrassing, or that we feel shame about, or just our shadows, or anything that we don't feel completely comfortable saying and sharing in public usually. We need to be able to touch those things, and be articulate about those things, and that's one part of it. Then we need a concrete path forward. Maybe you're thinking about some tragedy that you had in childhood, and how you dealt with it and how difficult that was. So you need to be able to be real precise in those observations about what it felt like, and how you tried to compensate for it, and that didn't work and it made it worse. Whatever your observations are about your life journey, you need to be really specific and really deeply felt. A good coaching relationship allows you to be in that space, to be really honest with yourself and authentic. g Aood coach will push you back and say, “You know what? That sounds interesting, but maybe not quite as true to you deeply.” So that's one piece of it. Then there's a concrete path forward. You need to have the emotional access to that truth, and then you need to know what to do with that truth in a step-by-step way. Because most people, the ones that you're talking about, they're accomplished in something else. What happens is when we first start writing, and maybe this happens with novelists, but for sure it happens to screenwriters, you just start typing words. But you haven't really thought through the theme, the concept, the structure, the character, all the deeper questions that really matter. The milestones, like a North Star: winning a major award, or getting a publisher. That's the direction that we're heading towards, and then you set it and forget it, but you want to keep checking it every week, every month or whatever. But you want it very specific. “I would like to sell a book, or sell a book to Hollywood, or write a screenplay, or get a producer attached to a screenplay.” Whatever the milestone is, make it really specific, really concrete, and then reverse engineer. This is what I do on the concrete path. I reverse engineer every step to get there, starting with a really tiny one we can do today, and I make sure they feel really safe, and then we just walk through. Then what happens is, if you do that, if you feel safe, if you're showing up authentically and you have a process that's repeatable, not just willy-nilly, it's got to be something that's proven to work. It wasn't an accident I wrote 45 scripts. I've got a whole system. But by the way, the first five scripts took me forever. The last movie that I made took me three years to write that script. I can write a better script with those same elements in three months now, because I know I have a concrete path. So if you want to do something new, whether it's playing the piano or getting six-pack abs or writing a screenplay, work with somebody who's got a system that's already proven, and make sure you relate to them, and then just follow the system. Then when the doubts come up, and they will, that's where the feeling safe is really important. Because, oh, I want the six-pack abs, but I don't feel like going to the gym. I want the extra donut. If I'm working with a really good trainer, they go, “Dude, do you want the six-pack abs or not?” And then you go back and forth, and I go, “Okay, now I can make peace with myself and say I can take one tiny bite of the donut and then still do my workout,” and then I'm moving towards that North Star. Does that make sense? Jo: Yes. I think, like many independents, I resist anything that is systematised. I'm a discovery writer, and I follow the muse, and all of that kind of thing. I think I would say something in a similar vein, which is sustainable creativity for the long term, because your 45 scripts are also years of work, and my books are years of work, and we get better at what we do. So my system, I do have a system really, because— My system is that I do the work, and I write my stories, and I get them out there, and I do the marketing. So even if it's not as systematised as such, it's still a process that I have repeated over and over again. Brooks: That's fascinating to me. Would you consider yourself a pantser? You're like, “I've got an idea,” and you just start writing? Jo: I don't use the word pantser. I guess I call it discovery writing, which is… Brooks: That's a better term. Jo: Yes. What I'm writing for this prize, for example, I know the characters, I know now what's happening. When I had the idea, it was very much a vision and a theme, and the competition has a theme: a positive future with AI and technology. But the things that came around that, I then started playing with ideas around the treatment. I haven't written the screenplay yet. I don't do a plot, or I don't follow Save the Cat or any of that kind of thing. When I write a novel, I just explore and I never write in order. Then at some point I stop and then I have to think about the structure and putting it all together, so the edits are quite big. But my fun is in that discovery, really. Brooks: Oh, that's awesome. Okay, so let me ask, that's really fascinating. And by the way, that doesn't, to me, negate the system that I use. The one that I use is ultimately… the thing is, these questions, the audience is wanting your unique answers to. You don't necessarily need to do it in a certain order. I think that's actually really cool that you write out of order and you have a few elements in mind. All that stuff sounds awesome. The only thing that then makes me curious is, how's your pace? Are you actually completing novels at a pace that feels good, or do you feel like you go too fast, too slow? Jo: I do one or two a year at the moment. Well, two a year, really. But I would say I'm not as successful as I'd like to be, so I'm not saying that my system is the best. I'm saying I want to be better. It's just that my fun is this sort of creative chaos, which I then try and control later. One of the things I really like about screenplays and treatments and doing this kind of thing for film is that it is much more structured, I think, than a 70,000-word novel. You can go in all kinds of directions, whereas with screenwriting you do have to be more disciplined really. Brooks: Yes, so this is going to be fun probably, to hear my view for your audience, and the differences as I see them. For starters, you're talking about what, 10, 20, 30 hours reading a novel sometimes, or maybe less, whereas a movie's a 90-minute experience, right? So that's different. Or if it's a TV series, you might see an hour and then an hour. So that's a very different experience. What happens is when it's condensed like that, you're loading up layers. So every scene is stacked with exposition beneath the drama, and done in a certain way. So specifically, movies are only what you can see and only what you hear. Whereas novels, if you can think it, you can write it, it can be in there. So you don't need to have a plot, but if you want to sell your book to Hollywood, it helps. So I was very resistant about structure. I went to NYU film school, where we really just made short films. It was funny, I had friends that were in the dramatic writing department, and I was like, “You guys are wasting your money. You're just learning to write scripts. We learn to write the scripts and make the movies.” What I hadn't realised is it's a different skill set to hold somebody's attention across an hour-long play, or a 90-minute movie, than it is to make a movie that holds their attention for two minutes or five minutes. I found out years later when I made a feature that was like a lot of shorts patched together, and people were not… They liked it, but they didn't love it. I was like, “Well, what's going on?” And so then I learned to really love Save the Cat in particular. It completely changed me. What happened was, I got a big old slice of humble pie. I had made my second feature, and I put everything I had into it, and it had loose structural beginning, middle, end, blah, blah, blah. But I was still, “Eh, Hollywood BS. What do they know? It's all fake.” So I was very anti-Hollywood structure. Then I was like, now I've got two independent films out there, people saw them, liked them, whatever, but it wasn't getting me consistent work. It wasn't really advancing my career in the way that I wanted. And I was like, “Well, maybe there is something to the Save the Cat.” So I went to the Save the Cat workshop with Blake when he was still alive, and he was delightful, a really awesome guy. He's got this kind of cutesy style, for people that don't know. For context, Blake Snyder was a working Hollywood screenwriter, and he had this system called Save the Cat, which actually has some really interesting ideas. He's got this very light, breezy sort of style. A lot of people don't like him and some people really love him, and everything in between. But I took his weekend seminar, and it completely changed me, because at that point, like I said, I took three years to write a script. Then once he had a process and he had a way of thinking about craft that was just much more screenwriter-friendly, I was like, “Oh my God.” It was so much easier, because I was just focused on the right thing at the right time. So it just sped everything up. After that, I was banging out two to three scripts a year, and better and better quality. So for me, because I went from winging it and wrote five scripts in 13 years, and then wrote two to three scripts every year, I became a huge proponent of system and process. Then my own system really came from that, but it's modular. I have a nine-step system, but you don't necessarily have to go in that order, other than the last three steps, but I won't get into the details. Sometimes you kind of jump from two to three and then back to two and then back and forth. So I love that you get the feel for those elements, and then you just felt your way through. But writing screenplay pages doesn't make sense until you really understand concept, you get a deep sense of beginning, middle, end, character arcs, and these other threads. There are just way better tools for those jobs than screenplay format, because it's a really weird format. It's got these weird slug lines at the top that are all in caps, because a screenplay is a blueprint for somebody else to make the movie. It's not an end-user document like a novel. I don't let my clients even go to that format because it just gets them focused on the wrong things. What they really need to know is, what is your perspective about this theme? What happened in your life that you're fascinated with, that you'd even want to write about this? And tell me what your real life lessons are. So we go into… again, I go back to relationship. What's your relationship to the universe? And what's your relationship to your best friends, or where you got your heart broken, or whatever you want to write about. And then we get that clarity, and then I show you how to express it in terms of developing a screenplay. It's really long-form storytelling, and then the structure just makes it build on itself. But with the structure, because you're talking about so much money and people involved to make it, at least traditionally, what ended up happening was narrative structure that was not so much rigid. Because here's the thing, you can look at 50, 100 years of European cinema and you can look at Hollywood cinema, and Hollywood laps them. When I taught at UCLA Extension, I had lots of foreign students. Let's say there'd be two or three students… if there were 12 people in the class, two or three people would be from America, and everybody else would be from other countries. I would go around, I'd be like, “What movies and TV shows have you been watching?” Almost in every single country, they watch half from their own country, half from Hollywood. So Hollywood storytelling works, that's just the data, and they're dominant. The reason it works is what Aristotle was saying thousands of years ago.. There's a way of thinking about beginning, middle, end that just deeply speaks to the psyche, and you can ignore it if you want. I think Godard said, “You need beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order,” right? Which is great. Just the way we experience life, there's a beginning, a middle, an end to this podcast interview. There's a beginning, middle, end to the day, a beginning, middle, end to me eating lunch. So if you don't lean into the beginning, middle, end psychological aspect of your story, you're going to bore your reader. But to your point, you don't necessarily have to sort that out in the beginning. It's more efficient probably if you do, but you don't have to. Go into it wherever the muse tells you to go, and then at some point, like you do, then you go, “Okay, now I go back and I edit.” If you're saying there's another level, you have another gear in you, then yes, I'd be curious to slowly go through how you're making those decisions. Because what's happening probably is there are ways you're holding back a little bit. There's maybe something you're afraid of being vulnerable about. That's usually where me or other writers are holding themselves back, and we can take a look at that. There are different ways I show writers to do it. Then you can go, “Oh, I was doing it here, and now I can do it there.” And it could be with process, or just a certain creative choice. With story, it's clear and compelling. Those are the simple things. So, is this clear enough? Is it compelling enough? And there are almost always ways to up-level on any facet, whether it's one sentence, or a sentence that describes the whole concept of the book, or a chapter. Each one of those can be looked at with that lens and we can just say, “Hey, this is 70%, 80%,” whatever, and then we say, “Well, how do we get a little bit more?” And then when you do that enough, it piles up. Then especially if you bring in an audience and people are flipping out for your work, they'll tell you. Jo: Yes, I love a challenge, so thank you for everything you've shared today. So where can people find you and everything you do online? Brooks: Well, one way you can find me—if anything I said seemed helpful for you, if you have questions about Hollywood or you have a screenplay in your heart—you can just email me, brooks@brookselms.com. You could look me up on LinkedIn. I'm at Brooks Elms. I also have a Skool community called Screenwriter Marketing, but it's really for any sort of storyteller, and it talks about my favourite way to engage an audience and get through it. So anybody can jump into that if you like my vibe. If you really think anything I've said, or the way I said it, seems like it could be helpful for you, just reach out. Let me know what you're up to, and maybe there's a way I can help you. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Brooks. That was great. Brooks: You're welcome. It was a total pleasure. It was lots of fun, and I really appreciate you.The post How To Prove The Demand For Your Stories And Get The Attention Of Hollywood With Brooks Elms first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Host Marina Franklin chats with Emmy-nominated composer Kathryn Bostic & filmmaker Sharaé Nikai. Dive into their stories, career wisdom, and the power of community and vote for Kathryn for the World Soundtrack Awards.  Kathryn Bostic - Award winning, Emmy nominated (The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat; Amy Tan-Unintended Memoir; Toni Morrison-The Pieces I Am) composer and singer-songwriter Kathryn Bostic is known for her original work on film,TV, Broadway and symphonic music. On Broadway, Bostic worked with iconic playwright August Wilson, creating the score for "Gem of the Ocean." She also created the score for the Broadway production "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" featuring world renowned actor and comedian Robin Williams. She is a recipient of many awards and fellowships including the prestigious BMI "Streaming Media Award"; Hollywood Music in Media Award for "Best Score TV Streamed Movie"; Society of Composers and Lyricists "Outstanding Music for Independent Feature Film"; African American Film Critics Award for "Best Music in Film"; Sundance Time Warner Fellowship; Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring; and Sundance Documentary Film Scoring. Bostic served as Vice President for the Alliance of Women Film Composers. She is a member of Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Recording Academy, and Bostic is the first African American female composer in the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Her end title song "High Above the Water" for the award winning film "Toni Morrison- The Pieces I Am" was Oscar shortlisted. Her work on Sarah's Oil: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is up for the world sound track public choice award. You can vote for Kathryn at worldsoundtrackaward.com . Sharaé Nikai - Against industry odds, Jersey City native Sharaé Nikai wrote, produced, co-directed and starred in her very first feature film, "The Other, Gold." It is a heartfelt dramedy that follows a TV writer living in Little Tokyo as she navigates grief, isolation and the rekindling of a former BFF-ship. Out of 13,016 submissions, TOG was invited to world premiere as one of only 10 films in Tribeca's US Narrative Competition. This acclaim led to Nikai being in consideration for the 2025 Oscars, Spirit Awards and Emmys in the Outstanding Television Movie, Directing & Lead Actress categories. It also makes her the first Black female quadruple threat (sole writer/producer, director & star) to qualify for the Academy Awards with no studio or major production company backing. As a producer, Sharaé secured an exclusive Mental Health Awareness partnership for "The Other, Gold" at FOX-owned Tubi and sponsorship for its launch by Women in Film (WIF) and The Entertainment Community Fund. In March 2026, "The Other, Gold" was released worldwide in celebration of Women's History Month exclusively on Apple TV. In addition to TOG, Nikai appears in numerous ad campaigns, films and TV series including Grey's Anatomy and opposite Alison Brie in Sundance's "Horse Girl" (The DuPlass Bros/Netflix). Currently, she is the 2026 international voice of Nordstrom Rack all while developing her dramedy driven TV/film slate. In her spare time, Sharaé takes serious pride in the accent mark over her "e" and is the reigning (read: self-proclaimed) trap karaoke queen. Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf. Writer for HBO's 'Divorce' and the new Tracy Morgan show on Paramount Plus: 'Crutch      

In this episode of the Film Ireland podcast, we are delighted to welcome producer Jack Tarling of Shudder Films.In this discussion, Jack talks about his career producing acclaimed independent cinema, from God's Own Country and Kneecap to his latest feature, Learning to Breathe Underwater, which recently had its world premiere at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the audience award at this year's Galway Film Fleadh.Listen now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon, or subscribe to Film Ireland wherever you get your podcasts and/or watch the original recording here. https://www.filmireland.net/podcast-producer-jack-tarling-kneecap-learning-to-breathe-underwaterThe World Premiere of Learning to Breathe Underwater took place at the 60th Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the film screened again on 10th July at the Galway Film Fleadh, winning the festival's audience award. Starring Rory Kinnear, Maria Bakalova and Ezra Carlisle, Learning to Breathe Underwater follows eight-year-old Leo, who lives with his dad and a giant shark, which crashed through the roof of their home. Yes, you read that correctly. The shark is Leo's best friend, to whom he can confide all his secrets. He can't really talk to his dad; he must be missing mum, who's been gone five years now. Then Anya the au pair bursts into their lives, and their world suddenly changes. It's more cheerful and Leo discovers that the metal shark doesn't have to be his only friend. The film is directed by Rebekah Fortune from a script by Richard Barbin. The project is produced by Jack Tarling of the UK's Shudder Films and Patrick O'Neill of Ireland's Wildcard, co-produced by KeyFilm in the Netherlands, One Wave Films in Wales and made in association with Eiru Films in the west of Ireland. Learning to Breathe Under Water was filmed in Galway last year and is proudly supported by Screen Ireland, BFI Global Screen Fund, Ffilm Cymru, WRAP Fund, Netherlands Film Fund, Finite Films, Bankside Films and Three Point Capital. Bankside Films handle international sales.Jack TarlingJack has produced five feature films and many short films through his company Shudder Films. Kneecap, featuring rap trio Kneecap alongside Michael Fassbender, premiered at Sundance 2024 and sold to Sony Pictures Classics. It was shortlisted for two Academy Awards, nominated for six BAFTAs (winning Best Debut), and won seven British Independent Film Awards.God's Own Country, which won prizes in 2017 at Sundance, Berlin, Edinburgh, Galway and many other festivals, won four BIFAs, including Best Film, received a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film, and was the highest-grossing UK debut of the year. Await Further Instructions was a Critics' Pick in The New York Times and sold to Netflix.Currently in post-production for 2026 releases, Jack has produced:Learning to Breathe Under Water, directed by Rebekah Fortune and starring Ezra Carlisle, Rory Kinnear and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, is financed by Screen Ireland, UK Global Screen Fund, Ffilm Cymru and the Netherlands Film Fund, and sold by Bankside.Daughter of Eden, written and directed by Fateme Ahmadi, starring Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Hiam Abbas, Amir El Masry and Lindsay Duncan, is financed by BFI, BBC Film, Screen Ireland and Civic Studios.Jack has also line produced several other feature films for the BFI, BBC Films and others, including two which premiered at Venice, and he previously worked in development at Ridley Scott's production company, Scott Free. In 2019/2020, he worked to produce an unannounced US-set interactive feature film for Sony Interactive Entertainment.Jack has produced short-form content for Disney/Hulu, executive produced a slate of ten short films for Northern Film + Media, and produced the short film Assessment, which was shortlisted for a BAFTA in 2010.Over the years, the podcast has featured acclaimed guests such as Phyllida Lloyd, Lenny Abrahamson, M. Night Shyamalan, John Boorman, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Aisha Tyler, Colm Meaney, Paul Reiser, Niamh Algar, David Freyne, Ciarán Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John Crowley, Niamh Algar, Gene Stupnitsky, and Terence Davies, alongside many of the most influential voices working in film and television today.So make sure to subscribe and listen back! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a week where Hollywood studios have cleared the deck in the wake of The Odyssey, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy still have a bunch of reviews for you. They revisit one of the year's best protest documentaries from Sundance (Everybody to Kenmure Street). Steve talks about seeing the musical on stage that was filmed for cinema (Hadestown: The Musical). Yorgos Lanthimos' co-writer crafts another quirky, unpleasant family (Rosebush Pruning) and Nicolas Winding Refn delivers a tale of fathers, daughters and a serial killer (Her Private Hell). Kevin Hart joins a Gen-Z bachelor party weekend (72 Hours) while Jake Johnson plays pickleball to save his family club (The Dink). Reacher's Alan Ritchson seeks revenge of both the deadly and silent type (Motor City). Finally, Sundance isn't the only revisitation this week. As part of “Review Catch-Up” Erik took a second look at Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Did another viewing change his opinion at all? 1:14 - Review Catch-Up 17:31 - Everybody to Kenmure Street 26:49 - Hadestown: The Musical 34:32 - Rosebush Pruning 46:45 - Her Private Hell 57:53 - 72 Hours 1:12:22 - The Dink 1:25:02 - Motor City CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST OR BUY FROM MOVIEZYNG Be sure to check out Erik's Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library. (Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.) Erik's Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere. The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations. USE COUPON “MOVIEMADNESS” TO GET 10% OFF ALL DUBBY PRODUCTS SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Movie of the Year: 2006Little Miss Sunshine (feat. Don Shanahan from Every Movie Has a Lesson!)Little Miss Sunshine Podcast: The Hoovers Hit the BracketThe Little Miss Sunshine podcast episode has arrived, and the Taste Buds are packing into the VW bus. This week, Movie of the Year puts one of 2006's biggest indie success stories through the tournament. Ryan, Mike, and Greg welcome film critic Don Shanahan to help judge the Hoover family's run at the crown. Together, the panel digs into the family dynamics, the unforgettable ending, the film's surprising philosophical streak, and the husband-and-wife directing team behind it all. Additionally, the crew squares off in a round of Trivia and builds a fashion-themed Rushmore. Can a sunny yellow bus carry this movie deep into the 2006 bracket? Push, hop in, and find out.About the FilmLittle Miss Sunshine follows the Hoover family on an 800-mile road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. Seven-year-old Olive has qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, and the whole dysfunctional clan piles into a failing Volkswagen bus to get her there. The passenger list includes a failed motivational speaker, a suicidal Proust scholar, a Nietzsche-obsessed teen who refuses to speak, a heroin-snorting grandpa, and one very determined mom. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from Michael Arndt's screenplay, the film premiered at Sundance in January 2006. It became a box office sensation, grossing over $101 million on an $8 million budget. Moreover, it earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor, and Arndt took home Best Original Screenplay. RogerEbert.com called it a gentle family satire in the tradition of the countercultural comedies of the 1970s. Now the film faces its toughest challenge yet: the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket.Guest Panelist: Don ShanahanThe Taste Buds welcome film critic Don Shanahan to the panel. Don is a Chicago-based, Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and the founder of the long-running review site Every Movie Has a Lesson. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief and Content Supervisor of the film department at Film Obsessive. Furthermore, Don co-hosts the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast on the Ruminations Radio Network. A school teacher by day, he writes his reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. Don is a director and co-founder of the Chicago Indie Critics and a voting member of the Critics Choice Association and the Online Film Critics Society. Consequently, few guests arrive better equipped to grade a movie about winners, losers, and everything in between.The Hoover Family at the Heart of the Little Miss Sunshine PodcastEvery great road movie needs great passengers, and this one has six. The panel starts with the family itself. Richard preaches his nine-step winning program while his own career collapses. Sheryl holds everyone together with fried chicken and sheer will. Frank arrives fresh from a suicide attempt, and Dwayne has taken a vow of silence until he becomes a fighter pilot. Meanwhile, Grandpa coaches Olive's pageant routine with methods no pageant has ever approved. The Little Miss Sunshine podcast crew debates what makes this dysfunction feel so real. Notably, the film establishes the entire family in one legendary twenty-minute dinner scene. The Taste Buds and Don break down how each Hoover carries a private definition of failure. Ultimately, the group asks the big question: is this the best movie family of 2006?Breaking Down the Ending on the Little Miss Sunshine 2006 PodcastYou know the scene. Olive takes the stage at the pageant, "Super Freak" drops, and the movie explodes. The panel dedicates a full segment to one of the most famous endings of the decade. By contrast with the polished pageant contestants, Olive's routine is pure chaos, and the family's response is pure love. The Hoovers stop trying to win and start dancing. Don and the Taste Buds debate whether the finale earns its catharsis or leans on shock value. In addition, the crew discusses how the ending flips the film's winners-and-losers thesis on its head. Does the dance number seal the film's bracket run, or does it divide the panel? The episode holds nothing back.Nietzsche, Proust, and the Philosophy of LosingFew crowd-pleasers smuggle in this much philosophy. Dwayne worships Nietzsche and wears his contempt for conformity on his sleeve, or at least on his t-shirt. Frank, meanwhile, claims the title of preeminent Proust scholar in America. The panel unpacks why Michael Arndt built his comedy on these two thinkers. Frank's hospital-parking-lot speech about suffering becomes the film's secret thesis: the years of struggle are the years that make us. However, the movie never turns into a lecture. Instead, it hides its ideas inside gas station stops and highway breakdowns. The crew debates whether the philosophy holds up or simply decorates the road trip. Specifically, they ask what Nietzsche would think of a nine-step program for winning.The Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie FarisHusband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris spent decades directing music videos before this debut feature. Their work with bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. sharpened an eye for visual storytelling on tight budgets. As a result, Little Miss Sunshine looks sun-bleached, precise, and effortlessly funny. The panel examines how the duo directs comedy through reaction shots rather than punchlines. The famous bus-pushing sequence becomes a masterclass in physical comedy and ensemble blocking. Additionally, the group traces the pair's later career through Ruby Sparks and Battle of the Sexes. Why did two music video veterans wait so long for a second film? The panel has theories, and some of them are even kind.TriviaNo Movie of the Year episode is complete without Trivia. The Taste Buds and Don test each other on all things Little Miss Sunshine. Production history, casting near-misses, pageant facts, and VW bus mechanics are all fair game. The film's six-year development saga and its record-setting Sundance sale provide plenty of ammunition. Who takes the crown this week? Listen and find out.Rushmore: FashionThis week's Rushmore segment tackles fashion. Each panelist carves their personal Mount Rushmore of movie fashion into the mountainside. Little Miss Sunshine gives the category a strong starting point. Olive's oversized glasses and red cowboy boots, Dwayne's brutal statement tees, and Richard's aggressively beige wardrobe all deserve consideration. Nevertheless, the panel ranges across all of film history for their picks. Expect passionate defenses, questionable taste, and at least one choice that starts an argument.Why Little Miss Sunshine Still MattersTwenty years later, Little Miss Sunshine remains the gold standard for the crowd-pleasing indie. It proved a tiny comedy could outgross blockbusters and crash the Best Picture race. Furthermore, its skepticism about hustle culture and toxic winning has only grown more relevant. Richard's nine steps sound like half the internet in 2026. The film also launched Abigail Breslin, revived Alan Arkin, and showed the world Steve Carell could break hearts. Above all, it argues that losing together beats winning alone. That message keeps the Little Miss Sunshine podcast conversation alive two decades after the bus first rolled. For more from the season, check out the Movie of the Year 2006 intro episode and the 2006 Mixtape.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Movie of the Year 2006: Intro Part 1Movies of 2006: Bracket Reveal and Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story2006 Mixtape Part IAll Movie of the Year EpisodesFAQ: Little Miss Sunshine Podcast and FilmWhat is the Little Miss Sunshine podcast episode about?The Taste Buds and guest critic Don Shanahan judge Little Miss Sunshine in the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. Topics include the Hoover family, the ending, the film's philosophy, and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.What is Little Miss Sunshine about?A dysfunctional family drives a broken-down VW bus from New Mexico to California so young Olive can compete in a beauty pageant. Along the way, every member confronts their own definition of failure.Who directed Little Miss Sunshine?Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed the film. The married duo made their feature debut after a celebrated career in music videos.Who wrote Little Miss...

Gemma Chan has been acting for 20 years, and right now she is having the year of her life. In this chat with Josh, Gemma talks about her karaoke night out with Jennifer Garner on the set of Five Star Weekend, and why the central theme of sisterhood hits close to home. She talks candidly about always putting a brave face on things, why asking for help doesn't come naturally, and the impact Crazy Rich Asians had on Asian actors in Hollywood. Then there is Josephine. A film she has been attached to since 2019, which premiered at Sundance this year, and which is already generating early Oscar buzz. She talks about why she knew from the first page of the script she had to be part of it, and what it was like filming such raw and personal scenes alongside Channing Tatum. Plus she joins the group chat to answer your questions, including the one everyone wants to know: will there ever be a Crazy Rich Asians sequel?! Download SAILY in your app store and use code greatchat at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase! For further details go to https://saily.com/greatchat

Support the show: http://www.newcountry963.com/hawkeyeinthemorningSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this very special festival podcast, recorded on location at Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) earlier this year, writer and academic Naemi Victoria sits down with writer-director Olive Nwosu to discuss her latest film, Lady, which screened in the festival's Panorama section.Olive is also joined by members of the film's cast: Agu Chinenye Esthyraph (Fanta), Precious Agu Eke (Lolo), Fadesaye Olateru-Olagbegi (Lekpa), and Eva Ibiam (Cinderella). Together, they reflect on the making of the film, their performances, and bringing the world of Lady to the screen.Lady had its European premiere on 18th February 2026 at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), where it screened as part of the Panorama programme.Listen now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon, or subscribe to Film Ireland wherever you get your podcasts.https://www.filmireland.net/podcast-filmmaker-olive-nwosu-cast-of-lady-at-berlinaleAbout LadyIn the restless night of Lagos, one of the city's few female cab drivers, Lady, survives by staying tough and focused. She dreams of escape, saving her earnings for a new life far from the chaos of this Nigerian metropolis. But when her long-lost childhood friend, Pinky – now a sex worker – returns with a burst of colour and trouble, Lady is pulled reluctantly into her orbit. Soon, she is driving a crew of glamorous, reckless, fun-loving women through the underbelly of Lagos nightlife. What begins as judgement develops into unexpected sisterhood: wild, tender and disarming. As Lady becomes entangled in their world, the nights grow more dangerous, and the city presses harder against old wounds that she has never confronted. Forced to face the trauma she has long outrun, Lady cracks open – learning to feel, to belong, to see herself through new eyes. When everything reaches breaking point, Lady must make a choice that will change her life's direction forever.Olive NwosuBorn in Lagos, Nigeria, Olive Nwosu is an award-winning screenwriter and director living in London. Olive graduated with an MFA in Filmmaking from Columbia University School of the Arts, where she received a BAFTA Pigott 2020 Scholarship and was named 2020 Alex Sichel Fellow for a Female Filmmaker demonstrating promise. Olive won the Zaki Gordon Memorial Award for Excellence in Screenwriting and the James Ponsoldt Award for Best Director in her graduating year. She has written and directed two short films. Troublemaker, 2019, played at film festivals around the world and was acquired by Dedza Films and Kino Lorber. It is the first Igbo-language film on the Criterion Channel.Egúngún (Masquerade), 2021, was financed by the British Film Institute and British Council as part of their More Films For Freedom Programme. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, screened at Sundance 2022, won Best Short Film at Hamptons International Film Festival and Aspen ShortsFest, amongst others. The film was nominated for the Best British Short Film at the 2021 British Independent Film Awards and is now available on the Criterion Channel.Olive is a 2022 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow, a 2022 TIFF Filmmaker Lab Fellow, the first recipient of the TIFF Share Her Journey Fellowship in honour of Viola Desmond, and one of four ‘African Promises' directors selected by the Institute Francais. In 2023, she received the Sundance NHK Award, presented each year to one filmmaker on the basis of his/her past work (feature film, short film, television drama, music video or commercial) and the script for their next feature film project.She is currently in development on feature projects with Film4, the BBC and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Her work is informed by the intersectional nature of her life across multiple continents and identities. Her mission is to tell urgent, cinematic, African-centred stories.Over the years, the podcast has featured acclaimed guests such as Phyllida Lloyd, Lenny Abrahamson, M. Night Shyamalan, John Boorman, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Aisha Tyler, Colm Meaney, Paul Reiser, Niamh Algar, David Freyne, Ciarán Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John Crowley, Niamh Algar, Gene Stupnitsky, and Terence Davies, alongside many of the most influential voices working in film and television today.So make sure to subscribe and listen back! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Director Will Niava's film, JAZZ INFERNAL (2025), is showing on July 23rd at the Future of Film Showcase in Toronto. If you're reading this before the date and can go, what are you waiting for? Buy tickets!It's that incredible, one of the best films I've seen all year. It won a Short Film Jury Award at Sundance last year and very deservedly so. Will is an Ivorian-Ghanaian film director and screenwriter based in Montreal, Quebec. And think about that sentence for a moment: there's few like it in the English language that conjures up that many cultural influences in 13 words. And the best way to describe Will's films is that he brings all of those together into pure artistry.If the interview feels short, blame me. The Future of Film press person asked, will 20 minutes be fine, and I stupidly said yes and regretted the decision fifteen seconds into the interview.On your next film, Will, I won't make that mistake again, trust me.In this episode, Will and I talk about:how he describes his award-winning Sundance film;its evolution from a lighthearted comedy to a love letter for his father;if the prestigious awards it earned changes his mind about making a short;how he got started in filmmaking;the concept of taste versus talent;what's next for him.Will's Indie Film/Filmmaker Highlight: PARADISE (2025) dir. by Jérémy Comte; MY FATHER'S SHADOW (2025) dir. by Akinola Davies Jr; Harley Francis; Zion Saffer; Samuel CaronMemorable Quotes:"[My wife told me] you have to talk about your grief. And my grief felt personal."" This is what a short film has done for me, so I can never recommend against it."Links:Follow Will On InstagramBuy Tickets For JAZZ INFERNAL at The Future Of Film Showcase

After finally having a mystery that has plagued Devon solved, The Say Reporters are back in the studio to for a  state of the union episode where we deliver discussion on various topics near and dear to our hearts.The future of Daylight Savings Time and the Sunshine Protection act some sneaks its way into the first slot, then Sejohn takes the conversation to the movies to discuss the differences between satire and the newly minted bit of Say Vocabulary “Fratire” with his deeper exploration into the horror cinema of the 1990's through the Leslie Nielsen lense with a particular focus on Dracula Dead and Loving It and RepossessedDevon uses this as a spring board to discuss his interaction with modern cinema with viewings of the Live-Action “Moana” remake and David Wain's latest film and Sundance darling “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass”Then it is off to the realm of the small screen where Sejohn has continued his odyssey through the realm of adult animation from the 2000's with a stop at Superjail and Devon expounds upon the start of his journey to rewatch The Adventures of Pete & Pete with the Shorts and Specials from the early days of Nickelodeon. The final stop is video games where Sejohn has rejoined his in progress trek through Batman: The Telltale Series and Devon has just embarked on the master quest Adventure 2 of Diddy King Racing and both agree that when Nintendo meets Monopoly the winner is the player. Things are returning back to normal at the Say Report and we couldn't be happier as we embark upon this final stretch of road to episode 500! 

My guest, Hazel McKibbin, directs films that make top festivals. She edits films that make top festivals. And she makes commercials for brands at the Met Gala. And yet:Here's Hazel taking on a project about masculinity called LAST MAN UP (2026). Last episode, I praised writer and actor Robert R. Palmer for offering Hazel the opportunity to direct his project, so she deserves equal credit for taking it on. I could see a lesser director -- a lesser person -- saying no, but as she talks about in the episode, she saw it as an opportunity to expand her skillset.To say I wish there were more directors like Hazel is a bit of a non-descriptive statement: of course. What I mean by that is let's celebrate risk takers who leave their comfort zone of the material they are used to and take on somebody's project, or do something different.And if you're as talented as Hazel is, it'll work out beautifully.Hazel and I talk about:how she describes the film;why she decided to take on a story like this with a background in films "with a feminist lens";the reaction of other people when she took on this project;her entry into filmmaking and if starting out as an editor helps;the conversations she has with a director as an editor and vice versa now that she's directed several films;the increase in projects she's directed that were written by actors;what her wishes are for short films;why film school and why Columbia?her amazing Sundance experience;what's next for her.Hazel's Indie Film/Filmmaker Highlight: AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966) dir. by Robert Bresson; Joanna HoggMemorable Quotes:"It's a story about what it means to be the man of the house."" If you just leave it to an editor, and they fix it before they give it to you, I feel like you're missing an opportunity to to learn as a director.""I think actors as writers, they are so good at dialogue."" One of the things that especially I tell my students, [short films are] unity of time, place, and action."" Between commercials and narrative, there's not a lot of crossover."" I submitted it because you submit your first film to Sundance, you just do."Links:Follow Hazel On InstagramWatch DOUBLESPEAK (2021)

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski take you through another week of physical media. Criterion has you covered from Mike Mills to Nagisa Ôshima. Butch and Sundance make na early appearance alongside Barbara Stanwyck. Giancarlo Giannini tries to solve some giallo murders, Ray Harryhausen takes you to an island of monsters or you can travel to one with Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. Ray Liotta is a bad cop after Kurt Russell's wife and Michael Douglas is an ordinary guy looking to bring some sense to society. Or is he? We certainly know where he would end up in Gary Ross' wondrous debut fantasy. It's all part of a show with films that may be even more relevant today than when they premiered.1:47 - Criterion (Cruel Story of Youth (4K), I'll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills (4K))16:31 - Kino (The Maverick Queen)22:12 - Celluloid Dreams (The Black Belly of the Tarantula)27:52 - Sony (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (4K), Anyone But You (4K))45:35 - Shout (Unlawful Entry (4K), Pleasantville (4K))1:09:01 - Arrow (Falling Down (4K))1:25:04 – New Blu-ray AnnouncementsCLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST OR BUY FROM MOVIEZYNGBe sure to check outErik's Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten TomatoesCritics' Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, ILChicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streamingPhysical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)Erik's Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.USE COUPON “MOVIEMADNESS” TO GET 10% OFF ALL DUBBY PRODUCTSSIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Mark shares his expertise on the importance of choosing the right deck sealer, highlighting the differences between solids and carriers, and the benefits of using mineral oil as a carrier. He also discusses the unique features of Sundance Coatings' products, including their high solids rating and water-repelling properties. With a passion for creating beautiful and low-maintenance outdoor spaces, Mark is on a mission to educate homeowners on the importance of choosing the right products for their decks. From the challenges of working with organic oils to the benefits of a rich, deep wood look, Mark covers it all. He also shares his personal experience with deck sealers, from his own restoration company to his family's history of creating beautiful log homes. With a wealth of knowledge and a passion for his craft, Mark is the perfect guide for anyone looking to upgrade their outdoor space. Don't miss this informative and engaging conversation, where Mark shares his insights and expertise on choosing the right deck sealer for your needs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark shares his expertise on the importance of choosing the right deck sealer, highlighting the differences between solids and carriers, and the benefits of using mineral oil as a carrier. He also discusses the unique features of Sundance Coatings' products, including their high solids rating and water-repelling properties. With a passion for creating beautiful and low-maintenance outdoor spaces, Mark is on a mission to educate homeowners on the importance of choosing the right products for their decks. From the challenges of working with organic oils to the benefits of a rich, deep wood look, Mark covers it all. He also shares his personal experience with deck sealers, from his own restoration company to his family's history of creating beautiful log homes. With a wealth of knowledge and a passion for his craft, Mark is the perfect guide for anyone looking to upgrade their outdoor space. Don't miss this informative and engaging conversation, where Mark shares his insights and expertise on choosing the right deck sealer for your needs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**Exploring the Depths of Horror and Identity** This episode of the podcast delves into the world of horror films but it's not just about scares and thrills. The conversation with the writer and director of the critically acclaimed film Leviticus, Adrian Chiarella, takes a deep dive into the themes of identity, faith, and fear. From the film's origins in the writer's personal experiences to its exploration of conversion practices and the impact on the LGBTQ+ community, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of horror and social commentary. Adrian Chiarella shares the story behind Leviticus, from its early days as a script to its premiere at Sundance and subsequent release. He discusses the film's themes of identity, faith, and fear. How they relate to his own experiences growing up as a gay man. The conversation also touches on the importance of representation in horror films and the impact of the film's release on the LGBTQ+ community. One of the standout aspects of Leviticus is its unique blend of horror and coming-of-age themes. The film's use of a supernatural entity to explore the fears and anxieties of adolescence is both terrifying and thought-provoking. Adrian Chiarella's direction and the performances of the cast bring the story to life in a way that's both haunting and relatable. If you're interested in horror films that push the boundaries of the genre and explore complex themes, this episode is a must-listen. Join us as we discuss the making of Leviticus and the impact it's had on audiences around the world. Listen to the full episode to hear more about the film's origins, its themes, and the experiences of the cast and crew.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this Thursday bonus episode we are going to play the interview from episode 366 from March 2025 featuring writer Director Jane Schoenbrun who talks about getting into sundance with their first feature, leading to their 2nd feature being bought by A24. I thought this was a good match for episode with Georgia Bernstein on Monday because both Jane and Georgia got their first features into Sundance and had amazing outcomes from playing the festival. After that we play another round of You're the expert, enjoy! Don't forget to support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/mmihpodcast Leave us a Review on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-movies-is-hard-the-struggles-of-indie-filmmaking/id1006416952 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This season, a new queer horror has entered the Villa! We've had our eye on Leviticus (2026) ever since it started making waves at Sundance earlier this year, and now that it's summer, we're ready for a trip to Australia. This flick may not have quite fit the requirements for our pride lineup this year, but we still knew we wanted to cover it sooner rather than later — and with its electric romance, supernatural spooks, and Biblical references, there's a lot to talk about. Starring Talk to Me's Joe Bird, relative newcomer Stacy Clausen, and comeback queen Mia Wasikowska, writer-director Adrian Chiarella's story has CLEAR references to films like It Follows and Teeth while trying to forge a path of its own. References:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/leviticus-review-conversion-therapy-horror-1236480516/YouTube: Michael Johnston (Obsession) Hosts Leviticus Q&A | Director Adrian Chiarella & Cast InterviewYouTube: LEVITICUS Interview with Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella and Lead Joe Birdhttps://sarata.com/bible/verses/about/frogs.htmlhttps://johnmckeel.com/bible-study/top-five-snakes-in-the-bible/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2016%3A7-22&version=KJV

After an unexpected break, Karen Peterson (@KarenMPeterson) and Derek Miranda (@DerekMiranda85) are back! This week, they are sitting down to talk Sundance hit THE INVITE. As always, featured reviews are done in two parts, a NON-SPOILER review with letter grade and brief discussion, followed by a more in depth SPOILER review. PLOT SUMMARY: Joe and Angela's marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down? Directed by: Olivia Wilde Written by: William McCormack, Rashida Jones (based on the film Setimental by Cesc Gay) Starring: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton *Image and clip from THE INVITE courtesy of A24.   @TheWatchAndTalk (Twitter/Instagram) Letterboxd.com/TheWatchandTalk Facebook.com/TheWatchAndTalk www.TheWatchAndTalk.com TheWatchAndTalk@gmail.com Support the show! www.Patreon.com/TheWatchAndTalk

This week we welcome writer/director Georgia Bernstein on the show to talk about making her first feature Night Nurse, why she decided to make an erotic thriller at a retirement home and how she got the film into Sundance and After that we play another round of the GAME, enjoy! Don't forget to support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/mmihpodcast Leave us a Review on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-movies-is-hard-the-struggles-of-indie-filmmaking/id1006416952 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"The movie was beautiful... the characters were gorgeous... the ending isn't a cliché..." These were just some of the reactions from Australian audiences after a screening of the Macedonian film DJ Ahmet, directed by Georgi M. Unkovski, at Nova Cinema, Melbourne's leading independent cinema. - "Филмот е прекрасен, ликовите се величенствени, крајот на филмот не е клише... ", се дел од одговорите на анкетата направена меѓу австралиската публика, во врска со филмот “Диџеј Ахмет” на Георги М. Унковски, по една од проекциите во водечкото кино за независен филм "Нова" во Мелбурн.ПРОЧИТАЈТЕ ПОВЕЌЕ - ПРОЧИТАЈТЕ ПОВЕЌЕ

Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Amber Sealey joins us to discuss the new marriage dramedy from Olivia Wilde, which premiered at Sundance and is now opening across the country. Costarring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz, it provokes laughs, anger, rug envy, and that perennial question: are the straights okay? Then we discuss our favorite films that are set in a single location! What's Good Alonso - Christian Marclay's The Clock returns to LACMA; Spain in World Cup quarterfinals Drea - Emily Wilson's translation of THE ODYSSEY Amber - potpourri basket of hippie gum; Skylight Books opening an Eagle Rock location Kevin - young love drama before Shrek at Cinespia ITIDICAlamo Drafthouse to Begin Screening Unsold Festival DarlingsUniversal Opts to Skip “Influencer Screenings” for THE ODYSSEY Staff Picks Alonso - Splitsville Drea - Widow's Bay (because An Unmarried Woman and The Heartbreak Kid aren't streaming)  Amber - Such Brave Girls Kevin - The Invitation Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinmaxfilm Follow us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, or LetterboxdWithKevin AveryDrea ClarkAlonso DuraldeProduced by Marissa FlaxbartSr. Producer Laura Swisher

Live-action Hentai Alien Psychosexual Thriller is….a choice.Watch Skip Plus is BACK! WillDaBeast is back from his Vegas Birthday jaunt, and the Boyz review their first streamer: the Shudder/AMC+ exclusive Touch Me. The Addison Heimann directed psychosexual thriller debuted January 2025 at Sundance. With its attractive cast (Olivia Taylor Dudley, a fiery Jordan Garvaris, a studly and nude Lou Taylor Pucci) and impressive cinematography, could the film's abuse and trauma mixed with Adult Swim humor and weirdo non-sequitors and tentacle sex (yes….Hentai-esque tentacle sex) have been too much for distributors? There may actually be a reason this was dumped on streaming.HIDE YOUR WIVES AND BOYFRIENDS AND CHECK OUT OUR SPOILER FREE REVIEW!(Come back for the SPOILER'D / movie breakdown episode streets Sunday!)- - - - - - - - - -WE ARE WATCH SKIP PLUS!FOLLOW/LIKE/SUBSCRIBE/REVIEW/LOVEEmail us: WatchSkipPlus@gmail.comBe kind. Be open. Be vulnerable. That's where the art is.───────────────────────────────SOCIAL MEDIA: FB: https://www.facebook.com/watchskippluspodIG: https://www.instagram.com/watchskipplus/X: https://twitter.com/watchskipplusCHECK OUT THESE PODCASTS! 

Movie of the Year: 2006The Puffy ChairThe Puffy Chair Podcast Hits the RoadThe Puffy Chair podcast episode sends the Taste Buds on a road trip through the Duplass brothers' scrappy 2006 breakout. Ryan, Mike, and Greg buckle up to decide whether this mumblecore landmark deserves a deep run in the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. Moreover, they bring serious backup this week. Critic and author Keith Phipps joins the panel to help unpack a movie made for the price of a used car. Together, the group digs into fragile relationships, DIY filmmaking, and one very symbolic recliner. Can a $15,000 indie outmuscle the blockbusters of 2006? Press play and ride along.About the FilmThe Puffy Chair follows Josh, a struggling New York booking agent played by Mark Duplass. Josh wins an eBay auction for a burgundy recliner that matches the one his dad owned years ago. Consequently, he plans a road trip to deliver the chair as a birthday gift. His girlfriend Emily, played by Katie Aselton, comes along for the ride. His free-spirited brother Rhett, played by Rhett Wilkins, joins them on the way. Naturally, the trip tests every relationship in the van.Jay Duplass directed the film, which he created with his brother Mark. The brothers shot it for roughly $15,000 borrowed from their parents, and the cast earned $100 a day. The movie premiered at Sundance in January 2005 and later won the Audience Award at South by Southwest. Roadside Attractions and Netflix released it theatrically on June 2, 2006. As a result, it qualifies for our 2006 bracket, and it arrives with real critical pedigree. Check the full credits at IMDb and the reviews roundup at Metacritic. New to the season? Start with our Movie of the Year 2006 introduction.Guest Panelist: Keith PhippsKeith Phipps brings nearly three decades of film criticism to the panel this week. He joined The A.V. Club in 1997 and became its editor in 2004, helping build it into a cultural institution. Later, he co-founded the beloved film site The Dissolve and served as editorial director for film and TV at Uproxx. His byline has appeared in Rolling Stone, Slate, GQ, Vulture, and The New York Times, among many others. Currently, he writes The Reveal, a film newsletter he created with longtime collaborator Scott Tobias. He also co-hosts The Next Picture Show, a biweekly podcast in the Filmspotting family that pairs classic films with modern successors. Additionally, Phipps wrote the acclaimed book Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career, an NPR Books We Love selection. Few guests know indie film history better, so the Taste Buds put him straight to work.Josh and Emily (and Rhett)Every road movie needs passengers, and this one packs the van with tension. The panel starts with Josh and Emily, a couple fluent in baby talk but allergic to honest conversation. Their relationship anchors the film, and the podcast crew debates whether Josh ranks among 2006's most frustrating boyfriends. Emily wants commitment and emotional validation. Josh wants to deliver a chair and dodge every hard question along the way. Meanwhile, Rhett climbs aboard and scrambles the whole dynamic. His impulsive romanticism works as comic relief, yet it also lights the fuse under Josh and Emily's slow-motion breakup. Keith Phipps helps the Taste Buds weigh how the improvised performances make these fights feel painfully real. Ultimately, the group asks a simple question. Do we root for this couple, or do we root for the exits?Filmmaking Style on The Puffy Chair 2006 PodcastStyle takes center stage in the second discussion topic. The Duplass brothers shot with handheld cameras, natural light, and a whole lot of improvisation. Critics soon filed the film under mumblecore, a label built on low budgets, naturalistic dialogue, and twentysomething malaise. However, the panel debates whether that label helps or flattens the movie. The Puffy Chair podcast crew also examines the famous snap zooms, the cramped framing, and the brothers' choice to cast their actual parents. Furthermore, Phipps places the film within the mid-2000s indie boom that he covered firsthand as a critic. The $15,000 budget becomes a character in itself. Does the rough look create intimacy, or does it simply look cheap? Notably, the panel connects this DIY approach to the music of the era covered in our 2006 Mixtape Part I.The ChairWhat about the recliner itself? The chair works as the film's MacGuffin, its symbol, and arguably its best supporting player. Josh buys it because it resembles the chair from his childhood living room. Therefore, the purchase says less about his dad and more about Josh's own nostalgia. The panel unpacks what the chair represents: arrested development, misplaced sentimentality, and the gap between a grand gesture and genuine care. Along the journey, the chair suffers indignities that mirror the crumbling relationships around it. By contrast, the film's quietest moments reveal what an honest gift might have looked like. The Taste Buds and Keith Phipps debate whether the chair earns its title billing. No spoilers here, though. The chair's final fate stays a surprise for listeners.Genre BlastThe episode also features a Genre Blast segment, a PopFilter favorite. The Taste Buds zoom out from the film and blast through its genre lineage. Is The Puffy Chair a road movie, a romantic comedy, a breakup drama, or the founding text of mumblecore? Each label carries its own history, and the panel traces them all. Specifically, the crew connects the film to decades of American road pictures and indie relationship stories. Keith Phipps adds critical context from his years covering the movement's rise and fall. Listen to the full episode to hear where the genre conversation lands.Why The Puffy Chair Still MattersTwenty years later, this tiny film casts a surprisingly long shadow. The Duplass brothers parlayed it into a remarkable career spanning Cyrus, Safety Not Guaranteed, Togetherness, and Room 104. Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton became one of indie film's great creative couples. Meanwhile, the movie's distribution deal made history of its own. Netflix co-released it theatrically in 2006, an early experiment that hinted at the streaming future to come. The mumblecore movement it helped launch reshaped American independent film and influenced a generation of DIY creators. Above all, The Puffy Chair podcast conversation proves the film still sparks real debate. Its questions about commitment, communication, and growing up have not aged a day. The AFI Catalog preserves the film's place in the historical record. Our bracket will decide its place in 2006.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Movie of the Year: 2006 Intro Part 1Movies of 2006 Bracket Reveal and Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story2006 Mixtape Part IAll Movie of the Year EpisodesFAQ: The Puffy Chair Podcast and FilmWhat is The Puffy Chair podcast episode about?The Puffy Chair podcast episode features the Taste Buds and guest Keith Phipps evaluating the Duplass brothers' 2006 film for the Movie of the Year bracket. Topics include the Josh and Emily relationship, the film's mumblecore style, the symbolism of the chair, and a Genre Blast segment.What is The Puffy Chair about?The film follows Josh, who wins an eBay auction for a recliner matching his dad's old chair. He road-trips to deliver it as a birthday gift, joined by his girlfriend Emily and his brother Rhett. Consequently, the journey exposes every crack in their relationships.Who directed The Puffy Chair?Jay Duplass directed the film, which he made with his brother Mark Duplass, who wrote, produced, and starred. Many sources credit the brothers as a filmmaking team, and the movie launched their careers.Who stars in The Puffy Chair?Mark Duplass stars as Josh, Katie Aselton plays Emily, and Rhett Wilkins plays Rhett. Notably, the Duplass brothers' real parents appear as Josh's parents.Is The Puffy Chair a mumblecore movie?Yes, critics widely consider it a founding film of the mumblecore movement. Its low budget, improvised dialogue, and naturalistic performances defined the style. However, the Duplass brothers have expressed mixed feelings about the label, a tension the episode explores.How much did The Puffy Chair cost to make?The

A Plains Cree witness heads into the Saskatchewan boreal forest before sunrise during a Sundance ceremony. Voices answer his calls from deep within the trees. The responses keep getting closer. Wood knocks begin echoing through the darkness. A powerful wet-dog odor fills the air. Something is moving just out of sight.Later, a lifelong outdoorsman shares decades of encounters stretching from Oregon to Alaska. His experiences include a terrifying nighttime encounter with a red-haired Sasquatch near Salem, massive rocks thrown into a campsite, and a remarkable sighting of a Sasquatch feeding on clams along the Alaskan coast.These accounts come from people who spent their lives in remote wilderness areas and know exactly what belongs in the woods.Locations featured in this episode include Waterhen Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, the Little North Fork area near Salem, Oregon, and remote coastal regions of Alaska.

Olivia Wilde, the director and star of "The Invite," joins IndieWire's Chris O'Falt for an in depth discussion of her thorny and hilarious relationship drama. Drawing on lessons from her cameo on "The Studio," Wilde and co-stars Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton embarked on a fascinating rehearsal process that informed everything from script rewrites to cinematography. She breaks down the process in detail, and how it lead to the biggest sale out of Sundance this year. Watch this interview on our YouTube page - https://youtu.be/0b8wsIzm9Ac Read our interview with Production Designer Jade Healy about building that apartment - https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/the-invite-apartment-production-design-interview-1235202367/ Subscribe to Top Of The Line - IndieWire's new newsletter about the craft of film and TV - https://cloud.email.indiewire.com/signup/ Listen to the Screen Talk Podcast. Every Friday IndieWire editors Anne Thompson & Ryan Lattanzio break down insider news from Hollywood and debate the latest films and series - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/indiewire-screen-talk/id893977298 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a future TV powerhouse makes a heartfelt indie film about friendship, dating, and chosen family? This week to end PRIDE month, Jackie and Danielle revisit The Broken Hearts Club (2000) and discover a movie packed with familiar faces, big ideas, and plenty to unpack.In this episode of No More Late Fees, the hosts dive into Greg Berlanti's directorial debut starring Timothy Olyphant, Zach Braff, Billy Porter, Dean Cain, Justin Theroux, Nia Long, and John Mahoney. Along the way, they discuss the film's portrayal of LGBTQ+ friendships, debate whether the story would have worked better as a television series, and explore why such a talented cast couldn't quite elevate every storyline.Jackie and Danielle break down the movie's ensemble of memorable characters, share behind-the-scenes trivia about its 13-day filming schedule and Sundance premiere, and examine how the film was received by critics at the time. They also discuss Greg Berlanti's impressive career trajectory, from Dawson's Creek and Everwood to the Arrowverse and beyond.Expect plenty of nostalgic tangents, character analysis, hot takes on the film's structure, observations about early 2000s Hollywood, and a few laughs as the hosts try to make sense of one of the most stacked indie casts of the era. Plus, they reveal their final Ratings Rewind scores and decide whether The Broken Hearts Club still holds up more than two decades later.If you enjoy nostalgic movie deep dives, be sure to subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share your thoughts on The Broken Hearts Club. We'd love to hear whether this cult favorite worked for you.·Season 6 Episode 8—No More Late Fees ⁠https://nomorelatefeespodcast.com⁠909-601-NMLF (6653)—Follow Us on Social:Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/nomorelatefees TikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@nomorelatefees Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/nomorelatefeesYoutubehttps://www.youtube.com/@nomorelatefees Twitterhttps://x.com/NoMoreLateFees —CONQUERing⁠⁠myconquering.com⁠⁠10% Off Code: JACKIE10—DescriptCreator Plan 50% off 2 monthshttps://descript.cello.so/zp4OQqeIMdq

Gas prices are dropping — the national average just fell below $4 for the first time since March, and we break down what Utah drivers are paying at the pump. Plus, West Fest is back with beefed-up safety protocols after last year's shooting, a bee-filled trailer crashes in Yellowstone National Park, and why you might be seeing more black bears this summer. We also debate whether parents should stop tracking their adult kids' locations, check in on GLP-1 news and hear why teens eager to work are struggling to land summer jobs. Then, UDOT's express lane crackdown, price concerns swirling around the new Sundance, and would the NFL ever come to Utah?   Follow KSL Brightside on social media! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KSLBrightside Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KSLBrightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KSL_Brightside TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ksl.brightside

Matt and Jordan review HBO’s Sundance acquisition Miss You Love You. And while Jordan finds it to be a handsome, moving, and well-acted "filmed play", Matt finds too modest and predictable. For Rec Seg, Matt revisits the grueling, ice-cold dread of corporate culture with a 2019 workplace thriller, while Jordan counters with a classic 1982 Sidney Lumet thriller packed with more twists, turns -- and smooches! Finally, Jordan takes the reins as Dungeon Master for a game called On a Wing and a Prayer. Chapters / Timecodes (Timecodes/chapters may not be precise with ads.) Intro (00:00:00–00:7:27) Miss You Love You (00:7:28–00:26:54) Rec Seg!: (00:26:55–00:43:49) Personalized Recs (00:43:50–01:04:34) Game: On a Wing and a Prayer (01:04:35–01:23:04) Wrap-Up & Credits (01:23:05–01:35:02) Show Notes Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/ Matt's appearances on our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show, discussing Shogun Assassin and The Mandalorian and Grogu. https://www.filmspotting.net/nextpictureshow Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/ Feedback: Email us at feedback@filmspottingSVU.com Follow Matt on Blue Sky: @mattsinger.bsky.social Follow Jordan on Blue Sky: @jhoffman.bsky.social Follow the Show: https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Jordan review Netflix's massive true crime tabloid horror hit, The Crash, a direct-to-streaming look at the tragic Mackenzie Sherilla case. Jordan walks away feeling like he needs a shower for his soul, while Matt thanks his lucky stars that social media didn't exist when he was a youngster. For Rec Seg, Matt challenges the "drek" of the true crime genre by recommending an Oscar-nominated Netflix doc and Jordan counters with a 2018 indie drama that offers a nuanced take on the endless scroll. Listener requests yield recommendations for a 1945 "hardcore British" romance and 2012 Sundance indie featuring an ex-con who hangs out with a robot. Finally, Producer Sam steps in to host a true crime-inspired game called If You Can't Do the Time, Don't Watch the True Crime (on Amazon Prime). Plus, dabbing, dad jokes, and brief thoughts on box office phenomenons Backrooms and Obsession, and Masters of the Universe. (Ep. #175)Chapters / Timecodes (Timecodes/chapters may not be precise with ads.) Backrooms, Obsession, Masters of the Universe (00:00:00–00:7:45) The Crash (00:7:46–00:24:14) Rec Seg!: Good True Crime, Online Teens (00:24:15–00:40:11) Personalized Recs: British Romance, Sundance Dramedy (00:40:11–01:05:31) Game: If You Can’t Do The Time… (01:05:32–01:20:34) New to Streaming / Credits (01:20:35–01:29:18) Show Notes Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/ Matt's appearances on our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show, discussing Shogun Assassin and The Mandalorian and Grogu. https://www.filmspotting.net/nextpictureshow Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/ Feedback: Email us at feedback@filmspottingSVU.com Follow Matt on Blue Sky: @mattsinger.bsky.social Follow Jordan on Blue Sky: @jhoffman.bsky.social Follow the Show: https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.