Celebrating Cinema

Lukas Moodysson shares with Hugo his experiences of making Fucking Åmål , how a story close to his heart has taken on a life of its own and evolved into a queer classic. Reflecting on his journey as a filmmaker, the Swedish director discusses his career and the recurring themes at the core of his films: rebellion, loneliness, sincerity, and humor. Get your tickets for Fucking Åmål @ LAB111.

For a country known for wholeheartedly consuming cinema from abroad, the Netherlands has never been great at celebrating their own Dutch filmmakers and their films. With the re-release of George Sluizer's Spoorloos, one of the greatest Dutch films ever made, we explore what holds us back from recognizing the great directors of our small nation. Could the prevalence of lousy vacation romcoms in our...

Collectively known as The Ross Brothers, Bill and Turner Ross are utterly unique in their approach to filmmaking. In a conversation with our host Elliot Bloom, these American directors discuss how film can serve as a vehicle for social experiments, aiming to uncover deeper truths about ourselves and society. Their latest film, "Gasoline Rainbow," offers a bold exploration by giving five...

A film’s success often rests on the shoulders of its most bankable stars. But have stars once born to seduce the silver screen become influencers more than actors? Joined by actor Mike Gomez, we try get to the bottom of what exactly makes us fall in love with an actor. Among the giants whose shoulders many actors stand on today is none other than Marlon Brando, cinema’s OG pretty bad boy. The late...

Sean Price Williams, a stalwart in American indie cinematography, has boldly embarked on his directorial debut with The Sweet East. This exhilarating journey, starring the captivating Talia Ryder, serves as a critical love letter to the fractured landscape of America's East Coast. In a candid discussion for our Celebrating Cinema podcast , both Sean and Talia share, with our host Sophie, their...

Liberated from the arthouse cliches of cinema, Bertrand Bonello is a rare kind of director. Our host Hugo Emmerzael spoke with Bertrand about his daring approach to filmmaking, and why his films focus on translating our collective social anxieties. Find out how influences from Lynch to Jarmusch all unconsciously seep into this French director’s work, as well as what it's like working with Lea...

Baloji is a prolific francophone rapper, known for his visually striking and poetic style. So his turn to filmmaking only seemed like a natural evolution of his talents. Speaking with the Belgian-Congolese director, Elliot discusses Baloji's feature debut Augure, unpacking this incantatory drama about identity and grief. Inspired by the weight of his own name, which took on the loaded meaning...

Do AI portrayals in film predict a future of robotic overlords or simply offer a chance to innovate cinema? Artificial Intelligence in cinema goes way back. Spanning from Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis and robot Maria, to the iconic Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, our tech obsession runs deep in film. But why is it all so dystopian? What now seems to be a serious technological shift, we discuss how A....

Amidst the abundance of parodies, memes, and impersonations, there exists an undeniable uniqueness to the American actor Nicolas Cage. It’s easy to dismiss him as an over-the-top actor, yet beneath the surface lies a talent that positions him among the greatest actors of our time. With an unconventional, almost avant-garde approach to acting that defies the conventions of naturalism prevalent in m...

If you don’t know already, Molly Manning Walker’s feature debut How To Have Sex (2023) has taken the world by storm. This coming-of-age drama follows Tara (a mesmerizing performance by Mia Mckenna-Bruce) and her two best friends on a rites-of-passage holiday in Malia that slowly derails. Speaking with host Elliot, Molly shares how our stereotypical view of Gen-Z is limiting discussions on consent...

After a steamy winter featuring Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, the internet was sent into a frenzy over - a fairly mediocre - erotic murder drama, that had copious amounts of sex. Naturally, Laura Gommans, friend of the podcast, was left questioning what happened to all the sex scenes in cinema today. The 90s marked an era of iconic scenes of intimacy in films like Wild Things, Cruel Intentions, Eyes...

"Obviously Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl." (Cecilia, Virgin Suicides) Affectionately known as cinema's favorite 'Nepo Baby', Sofia Coppola has come a long way from her initial appearance in her father's iconic trilogy, The Godfather. Now standing as a unique auteur truly shaping the narrative of the 'girl era.' With pitch-perfect precision, Coppola translates the fabric of girlhood,...

“I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive".” ― Hayao Miyazaki It's hard to find someone who doesn't love Hayao Miyazaki's films. Regardless of age, there is something profound to be gained from watching any of this Japanese animator's masterpieces. In this celebration of Miyazaki and the wonders he has created, we delve deep into the nostalgic yet fictional universe of S...

“Hope is political. If you have hope then you have confidence you can change things” After 60 years of filmmaking, British filmmaker and icon Ken Loach offers what may well be his most urgent message yet, calling for solidarity and the power that hope can instil in his latest film The Old Oak (2023). Speaking with our host Elliot, Ken reveals how he never runs out of stories to tell when it comes...

Movies have always been a way to understand the world around us, and so, confronted with the brutal horrors of both Hamas’s attacks on October 7th and Israel’s disproportionate slaughtering of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, we question if cinema can try to make sense of such atrocities. For this episode of Celebrating Cinema, we focus on Gillo Pontecorvo’s seminal classic The Battle...

For this edition of Future Frames, you can hear from our rising filmmakers who we’ll be screening at Volk’s Hotel Sunday Shorts on 10th Dec. You can buy tickets here . Bram Ruiter is a filmmaker of a different kind. He has a unique ability to extract the poetry of the mundane, experimenting as much as he can within the realms of the moving-image. Not tied to traditional narrative structures, Bram’...

For this edition of Future Frames, you can hear from our rising filmmakers who we’ll be screening at Volk’s Hotel Sunday Shorts on 10th Dec. You can buy tickets here . Rafik Opti is a filmmaker fascinated by playing with reality & the beauty they can find with their camera out on the streets. Candidly chatting with friend & host Kiriko, Rafik shares how the influences of joyous films like...

Passages (2023) by Ira Sachs sets the tone for the cold change in seasons  - a people’s favourite that has got us all up in our feels. In conversation with Sophie, writer-director Ira Sachs candidly shares how his personal experiences of living in Paris & the mesmerising Franz Rogowski helped shape such a poignant film. From obsessively watching 3 films a day to falling in love with the works...

"What's the first rule of Fight Club?" -- "We do not talk about Mank." Refusing to be called an auteur, David Fincher has certainly crafted his own style to become the master of the psychological thriller. But what exactly makes a Fincher classic? From his deftly choreographed camera movements, to his relentless number of takes and a fixation of grim colour schemes - we dive deep into world of the...

Widely regarded as one of the most influential directors of our time, Martin Scorsese has made some of the most exciting cinema classics of the past 50 years. Moving through Scorsese's filmography, we reflect on how his own existential inquiries on faith, redemption, obsession and cinema itself lie at the heart of his kinetic films. Why does he return time and time again to the same narrative of t...

A rare cultural moment in cinema, the release and aftermath of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie certainly had us all talking. Sharing our experiences of watching the candy-colored ‘battle of the sexes’, we question why Barbie was set different standards compared to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and where big studio movies can go from here. Did we place too much expectation on what might feel like a frivolo...

Set against the rise of Russia's authoritarian regime, filmmaker Marusya Syroechkovskaya paints an homage to both a silenced generation and her lover and best friend Kimi. How to Save a Dead Friend (2022), is a whirlwind of emotions capturing a unique intimacy of an anxious youth, a relationship tellingly universal that brings hope still in death. Speaking with Hugo, Marusya reveals the toils...

With the latest installment of the Mission Impossible franchise in cinemas now, we pose the question if Tom Cruise, the enigmatic star of classics like Top Gun (1986), Magnolia (1999), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and so many others, is singlehandedly trying to save a dying breed of visceral (action) cinema. Is Cruise the last of the genuine movie stars? How do his on and offscreen antics relate to his p...

With an oeuvre-spanning exhibition in Eye Filmmuseum, and multiple classics like Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Aguirre, Wrath Of God (1972) returning to the big screens of LAB111, we sit down to discuss the ‘ecstatic truths’ and brilliant fictions of German film auteur par excellence: Werner Herzog. Show Notes & Films Mentioned

With the multidisciplinary film program Witch Way Now: Recasting A Feminist Icon heading into its second month of film screenings, talks, workshops, and performances at LAB111 and Paradiso, we invite Witch Way Now co-curator Helena Castro to discuss in-depth the depiction of the witch and witchcraft in cinema. Is the witch a feminist icon? How has the image and interpretation of the witch changed...