The Film Comment Podcast

Fall 2022 Rep Report, with Gina Telaroli, Inney Prakash, and Steve Macfarlane

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Clint surveys the wealth of cinematic delights on offer this fall across repertory calendars, both in person in New York City and online. T...

The Future of Attention, with Kevin B. Lee

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Fut...

The Future of Attention with Hito Steyerl

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the Film Comment Podcast! I'm Devika Girish, the Co-Deputy Editor of Film Comment. Recently, I was at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerl...

The Future of Attention, with Julia Murat

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The F...

The Future of Attention, with Noa Levin and Giovanni Carmine

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The F...

The Future of Attention, with Kamal Aljafari

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Futur...

The Future of Attention, with Helena Wittmann

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Futur...

Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's podcast initially began as a sequel to our episode about Irma Vep from a few weeks ago, in which Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza joined u...

Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler on NYC's Underground Cinema

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we have a special treat for listeners: a conversation with avant-garde filmmaking legends Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, and programmer ...

Restoration and preservation with Ina Archer and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a recent Film Comment Letter interview, Academy Film Archive preservationist Mark Toscano said: “to me, restoration has a variable definition, be...

Cinematographer Hélène Louvart on Murina and more

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish talk to a cinematographer who’s worked with everyone from Agnès Varda to Wim Wender...

Movie Gifts with Nathan Lee and Gavin Smith

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week sees another episode of our Movie Gifts podcast. It’s like Secret Santa but for movies—each participant picks a title for another that t...

Top Gun and Nationalist Cinema with Blair McClendon and Ed Halter

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s podcast is spurred by something Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish wrote in her dispatch from Cannes a few weeks ago: “the undeni...

Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep with Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two episodes in, Olivier Assayas’s new, mind-bendingly metatextual HBO series, Irma Vep, has already proven to be catnip for cinephiles. An audaciou...

Léa Seydoux on Crimes of the Future and One Fine Morning

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Léa Seydoux had an enviable and prolific 2021 with standout turns in Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Ildikó ...

Cannes 2022 #11 with Dennis Lim, Jean-Michel Frodon, and Antoine Thirion

28 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. On today’s podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Giri...

Cannes 2022 #10: Albert Serra and Dennis Lim on Pacifiction

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 beginning to wind down, the last stretch has proved especially rich with standouts. One of these eleventh-hour highlights is Albert S...

Cannes 2022 #9 with Jonathan Romney and Jessica Kiang

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual...

Cannes 2022 #8 with Miriam Bale and Mark Asch

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. ...

Cannes 2022 #7 with Justin Chang

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film world’s grandest annual event. ...

Cannes 2022 Industry #2 with Arianna Bocco

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest a...

Cannes 2022 #5 with Jordan Cronk and Giovanni Marchini Camia

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual even...

Cannes 2022 #4 with Inney Prakash and Vadim Rizov

22 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 in full swing, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest annual even...

Cannes 2022 #3 with Jordan Cronk and Jessica Kiang

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest ann...

Cannes 2022 Industry Preview with Eugene Hernandez and Lizzie Francke

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry’s grandest ann...

Cannes 2022 Preview with Jonathan Romney and Jessica Kiang

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cannes 2022 is here—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we’ll be rep...

The Hong Show with Dennis Lim

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Everything you always wanted to know about Hong Sangsoo… but were afraid to ask! To celebrate Film at Lincoln Center’s two-part retrospective of t...

Forgotten Filmmakers of the French New Wave & Prismatic Ground

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's special two-parter episode spotlights a pair of upcoming must-see programs in New York City. In the first half, FC co-editors Devika Gir...

Céline Sciamma on Petite Maman

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After 2019’s Portrait of a Lady of Fire, we were eagerly awaiting Céline Sciamma’s next feature. Her new film, Petite Maman, is now finally in th...

In Conversation with Cate Blanchett

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, Film at Lincoln Center honors a luminary of the film industry with the Chaplin Award. This year’s recipient, the 47th, is an actres...

Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer on The Wobblies

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this week’s podcast, Film Comment co-deputy editor Clinton Krute sat down with filmmakers Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer, the duo behind the 1...

The Art of the Real 2022 with Chris Boeckmann and Leo Goldsmith

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We look forward to the Art of the Real festival every year, and 2022 is no exception. In fact, a spotlight on the work of French filmmaker Alice Diop ...

Cinema and the State with Nadav Lapid and Jamsheed Akrami

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Ahed’s Knee, the rawest, most autobiographical entry in Nadav Lapid’s blistering filmography (The Kindergarten Teacher; Synonyms), the direct...

Ukrainian Cinema with Anastasiya Osipova and Lukas Brasiskis

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ongoing horrors of war in Ukraine have raised questions for art communities around the world: How can we meaningfully respond to this crisis? How ...

Points of View, with Reid Davenport and Joe Hunting

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A common term in nonfiction filmmaking and criticism, “point of view” connotes a number of different meanings: a perspective on the world, a camer...

Diary Films with Gina Telaroli and John Klacsmann

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The work and legacy of the late Jonas Mekas have been on our minds even more than usual, with a recent retrospective of his films at Film at Lincoln C...

Berlinale 2022 with Jessica Kiang and Edo Choi

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Against all odds, the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival returned to cinemas this year after last year’s virtual edition. For this week’s pod...

Steven Soderbergh on KIMI

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Film Comment co-editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish sit down with Steven Soderbergh, whose latest film, KIMI, premiered on HBO Max last...

Sundance 2022 #4 with Abby Sun and Violet Lucca

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For the last week and a half, your intrepid Film Comment crew has been watching, writing, and podcasting round the clock from this year’s virtual Su...

Sundance 2022 #3 with Alissa Wilkinson and Violet Lucca

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Sundance Film Festival is once again in full swing, which of course means that your intrepid Film Comment crew are watching, writing, and podcasti...

Sundance 2022 #2, with Eugene Hernandez and Kim Yutani

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Sundance Film Festival is once again in full swing, which of course means that your intrepid Film Comment crew are watching, writing, and podcas...

Sundance 2022 #1, with Cassie da Costa and Abby Sun

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Sundance Film Festival is once again in full swing, which of course means that your intrepid Film Comment crew are watching, writing, and podcasti...

Music Documentaries with Geeta Dayal and Ashley Clark

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode is inspired by the recent release of The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s eight-hour docuseries about the making of the band’...

New Year, New Releases with A.S. Hamrah and Simran Hans

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the holidays behind us and a new and exciting year of cinema on the horizon, FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute caught up on some major r...

The Best Films of 2021

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Drumroll, please! Film Comment’s highly anticipated Best Films of 2021 list, voted on by nearly a 100 critics and colleagues the world over, is fina...

Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton on Memoria

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The arrival of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria has been one of the film events of the year. Six years after 2015’s Cemetery of Splendour, the ...

The Mind Games of David Fincher, with Kent Jones and Adam Nayman

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week's conversation focuses on David Fincher—a director whose decade-spanning body of gritty Americana—from the grim moral drama of Se7en to ...

2021 Amos Vogel Lecture by Albert Serra

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

2021 marks the birth centenary of Amos Vogel, the pioneering film programmer, author, and co-founder of the New York Film Festival. As part of its cen...

Amos Vogel and Subversive Cinema, with Richard Peña, Tom Waibel, and Edo Choi

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This year marks the centenary of Amos Vogel, a programmer, writer, and educator very dear to Film Comment—he was one of the founders of the New York...

Halloween Hangover with Violet Lucca and Maddie Whittle

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, as Halloween approaches, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute are forced to confront one of their greatest fear...

Wendell B. Harris on Chameleon Street

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This Friday, a new restoration of the 1989 indie classic Chameleon Street opens at BAM. Wendell B. Harris’s utterly unique satire follows a real-lif...

NYFF 2021: Silvan Zürcher & Alexandre Koberidze in Conversation

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In an NYFF lineup with a record number of new and emerging filmmakers, Alexandre Koberidze’s What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? and Ramon and S...

NYFF 2021: The Velvet Underground & the New York Avant-Garde, ft. Todd Haynes, Amy Taubin, & others

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two films in this year’s NYFF lineup take us back to the ‘60s heyday of the New York avant-garde: in the Main Slate, Todd Haynes’s The Velvet Un...

NYFF 2021: Joanna Hogg and Honor Swinton Byrne on The Souvenir Part II

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're reporting from the 59th New York Film Festival. One of the most anticipated films in this year's lineup is The Souvenir Part II—Joan...

NYFF 2021: Currents, with Chloe Lizotte and Ela Bittencourt

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Established in 2020—and picking up where the late, lamented Projections section left off—Currents is the New York Film Festival's home for films w...

Toronto 2021 with Adam Nayman and José Teodoro

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we enter the thick of fall festival season, it seems that every week brings with it a full slate of amazing new films from all over the world. This...

Terence Davies on Benediction and more

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week Film Comment is reporting from the Toronto International Film Festival, both virtually and in-person. One of the most anticipated films at t...

Spike Lee’s Documentaries with Amy Taubin and Ina Archer

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a 2007 Film Comment essay, Amy Taubin wrote in praise of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, a documentary about the Hurricane Katrina disaster an...

Smaller Festivals with Jordan Cronk

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The summer and fall festival seasons bring a flurry of buzzy premieres at glamorous locales: Cannes, Venice, New York, Toronto. But as most film criti...

Sex Work in Cinema

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s podcast we’re talking about a long-running preoccupation of cinema: sex work. From Taxi Driver to Pretty Woman, sex workers have freque...

Ira Deutchman on Searching for Mr. Rugoff

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s podcast features a conversation with Ira Deutchman, the director of the new documentary, Searching for Mr. Rugoff. The film explores the...

Summer 2021 Rep Report, with Abby Sun and Steve MacFarlane

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the dog days of summer loom, we’ve been pining for the crisp, air-conditioned darkness of the cinema. Fortunately, as theaters across the country...

Cannes #2, with Miriam Bale and Jonathan Romney

21 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a Cannes-less 2020, we were glad to welcome back cinema’s grandest event this year. Film Comment followed the much-awaited 2021 edition’s su...

Cannes 2021 # 1, with Miriam Bale and Jonathan Romney

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a Cannes-less 2020, we were glad to welcome back cinema’s grandest event. Film Comment followed the festival’s stellar lineup with the help ...

Happy Birthday, America! with A. S. Hamrah

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the good old U. S. of A. celebrated yet another year around the sun, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited critic A.S. Hamr...

James Benning’s Ten Skies with Erika Balsom

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the introduction to her new book on James Benning’s 2004 film, Ten Skies, critic and scholar Erika Balsom writes: “there are films that present...

New Red Order

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A couple weeks ago, I (Devika) visited the Artists Space gallery in downtown Manhattan to check out the ongoing exhibit, "Feel at Home Here," by New R...

Movie Doubles with K. Austin Collins and Mayukh Sen

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we sat down with critics K. Austin Collins and Mayukh Sen—to talk about one of the most enduring motifs in movie history: the double.  ...

NYFF58 Redux with Dan Sullivan and Steve Macfarlane

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Last year’s hybrid New York Film Festival was an oasis amid the movie desert of the pandemic, but we sorely missed seeing the selections in the dark...

Homework, with Nellie Killian and Ina Archer

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week on the podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute went to school with two learned FC veterans: Nellie Killian, curator an...

At Home, Palestinian Cinema Edition with Kaleem Hawa

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In an essay on the militant films of the Palestine Film Unit for The New York Review of Books, the critic Kaleem Hawa writes that, “Palestinian cine...

Barry Jenkins on The Underground Railroad

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s podcast, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish speak to Barry Jenkins, Oscar-winning director of Moonlight and If Beal...

The Maverick Movies of Melvin Van Peebles

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week on the podcast, we went long on an American filmmaker like no other: Melvin Van Peebles. Known for groundbreaking classics like Watermelon M...

Roy Andersson’s About Endlessness

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“The people are all pale as mushrooms, blending in with the ashen cityscapes, sterile white rooms, and drab, half-empty restaurants. Stuck in meticu...

New Directors/New Films 2021 Critics’ Preview

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This last year has been a drought for movie-lovers by most standards. But if you’re looking for silver linings, you could do worse than noting that ...

Trans Cinema Roundtable

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“A film that centers on a transgender person or storyline enters the culture like any other movie. The difference lies in the discourse around it.”...

At Home, Oscars Edition with A.S. Hamrah and Blair McClendon

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's episode, editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish were joined two excellent writers, both first-timers on the Film Comment Podcast: A. S...

Raoul Peck on Exterminate All the Brutes

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For years, Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck has been crafting eloquent correctives to Eurocentric and capitalist histories through acclaimed films like Lu...

Adam Curtis's Can't Get You Out of My Head

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks ago, the British documentarian Adam Curtis debuted his newest mega-project online: a six-episode, eight-hour BBC series titled, Can’t Ge...

The Return of Movie Gifts with K. Austin Collins and Adam Nayman

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's episode, we bring back a beloved Film Comment Podcast format of yore: Movie Gifts. It’s like Secret Santa but for movies—each parti...

Virtual Festivals with Abby Sun and Jessica Kiang

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In case you missed the exciting news: we just relaunched the Film Comment Podcast last week after a yearlong hiatus. We’re glad to be back, and in t...

Berlinale 2021 Wrap

10 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome back to the Film Comment Podcast. After a months-long hiatus prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are thrilled to kick off the return of Film...

At Home #16: Devika Girish and Clinton Krute

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a while since we did a new episode in our Film Comment Podcast: at Home series. Let me assure you that’s not because we’ve stopped ...

At Home #15 - Ashley Clark and Eric Hynes

13 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In more normal times, this week’s podcast might have been a Rep Report, reviewing some of the riches screening in New York’s art-house theaters. I...

At Home #14 - Critics David Bordwell and Imogen Sara Smith

08 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We’re always happy to welcome two outstanding scholars to the Film Comment Podcast, and you’ve probably already read their criticism or heard them...

At Home #13 - The Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund’s Nellie Killian and Ed Halter

07 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An inspiring development during the pandemic has been watching people pull together to help one another and especially those hit hardest. One such eff...

At Home #12 - Critic Jonathan Romney

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We begin another week with The Film Comment Podcast at Home, keeping ourselves distracted and hopefully our listeners too. One big way the crisis is a...

True/False Film Fest 2020

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Right now, movie theaters are temporarily closed, and we’ll have to wait a while before we can all sit together again and look up at the big screen....

At Home #11 - Critic Ela Bittencourt

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Staying at home is a global phenomenon in these difficult times, as we all find ourselves with a lot more indoors time and anxiety on our hands. For o...

At Home #10 - Synonyms’s Nadav Lapid

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For our latest daily edition of the podcast, we reached out again to a filmmaker for a report from another corner of the world. Nadav Lapid is the dir...

At Home #9 - New York Times Critic Manohla Dargis

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In an article in The New York Times, the critic Manohla Dargis wrote about what we’re missing right now: “There is nothing like watching a movie, ...

At Home #8 - Film at Lincoln Center and NYFF’s Eugene Hernandez

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On the past few episodes we’ve posed the same essential question to critics, a filmmaker, and a curator: what’s the view from where you’re sitti...

At Home #7 - Nick Pinkerton on Buñuel, Godzilla, baseball, and more

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last weekend, the box office report for new releases looked very different: it was glaringly empty. As with so much of the world, the pandemic has lef...

At Home #6 - MoMA’s Rajendra Roy

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, the New Directors/New Films festival introduces audiences to fresh and adventurous cinema from around the world. It’s presented by Film ...

At Home #5 - Sandi Tan on Mauvais sang

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the past week we’ve been doing a special daily edition of the podcast where we talk about what we’ve been watching at home. It’s a new week ...

At Home #4 - Jean Arthur

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In case you’re just joining us, this is another edition of the Film Comment Podcast at Home. Every day we’re talking about what we’re watching. ...

At Home #3 - Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today we continue our special homebound version of the podcast, as we all do our best to stay connected and stay sane. As before, we’re talking abou...

At Home #2 - Vertigo and The Green Fog

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“NO NEW ‘MOVIES’ TIL INFLUENZA ENDS“ read the October 10, 1918, headline in The New York Times, during the global flu pandemic one century ago...

At Home #1 - Věra Chytilová’s Daisies and more

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You don’t need us to tell you that we’re living in extraordinary times, and consequently, many of us are spending our time indoors these days. And...

Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s Bacurau

13 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bacurau is the new film from Brazilian filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, and it has a pulp thriller premise with a radical hear...