Edinburgh Film Podcast

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by MSc Film Studies student Lauren Thompson to discuss one of the most critically acclaimed and influential films of all time. Andrei Tarkovsky’s fourth feature Mirror ( 1975) weaves together moments in the life of dying poet in a bold, non-linear style. It’s a deeply personal cinematic poem about memory, history and family, and 20...

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone explores the little-known early films of one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, German director Douglas Sirk. Sirk is synonymous with one particular genre. His most famous films, such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956) and Imitation of Life (1959) are glossy, luxurious Tech...

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by two students on the MSc Film Studies programme, Eve Kurt-Elli and Aaron Bowler, to discuss Adolescence (2025), one of the most talked-about and critically acclaimed TV shows of the year so far. A four-part Netflix Limited Series directed by Philip Barantini, Adolescence is co-written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and stars G...

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone discusses the art of film posters in the company of Tony Nourmand.  Tony is a world-renowned expert in film posters and the author of several books on the subject. In the 1990s, he was a consultant for London auction house Christie’s and was heavily involved in the explosion of the film poster market both in the UK and internationally....

To tie-in with the 2025 Academy Awards, this episode of the podcast discusses one of the frontrunners for Best Picture, Director, Actor as well as Supporting Actor and Actress. James Mangold’s  A Complete Unknown  chronicles the very early years in the career of the great singer songwriter Bob Dylan and stars Timothée Chalamet in the lead role. Joining host Dr Pasquale Iannone to talk ab...

This episode of the podcast celebrates the work of the great Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, with a special focus on one of her lesser known films, the 1986 musical Golden Eighties . Our guide to all things Akerman is Marion Schmid. Marion is Professor of French Literature and Film at the University of Edinburgh and the author of several books and articles on Akerman, including a 2010 monograph...

On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by John Bleasdale. John is a writer and film critic whose work has appeared in Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Variety, The Economist and many other outlets. He’s also a prolific podcaster, with series such as Writers on Film, Cinema Italia and The James Bond Book Club . John talks to Pasquale about his latest book The Magic Hours (2024), a fasc...

On the 60th anniversary of its release, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Film Studies PhD student Sam Warnock to discuss Japanese writer-director Kobayashi Masaki 's extraordinary ghost story anthology Kwaidan (1964) . Shot entirely on studio sets in sumptuous widescreen and lavish, saturated colour, Kwaidan adapts ghost stories by author Lafcadio Hearn and is undoubtedly one of the most visu...

This is the second of two episodes focusing on Film Phenomenologies, a new collection of essays from Edinburgh University Press edited by Dr Kelli Fuery (Chapman University). Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr David Sorfa (University of Edinburgh) to discuss their essays, both of which explore recent star biopics from phenomenologic...

This is the first of two episodes in which host Dr Pasquale Iannone and guests discuss Film Phenomenologies , a ground-breaking collection of essays from Edinburgh University Press which explores work by filmmakers such as Céline Sciamma, Agnès Varda, Bill Viola, Alex Garland and Barry Jenkins through a phenomenological lens. In this first episode, Pasquale is joined by the collection's editor Dr...

In this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone previews the 32nd French Film Festival UK in the company of its co-founder and director Richard Mowe. Pasquale and Richard look back at the festival's beginnings in the early 1990s before exploring the 2024 programme which includes a diverse range of titles from France, Belgium, Switzerland and beyond. New titles mentioned include Toni (Nathan Ambrosi...

In this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone previews the 2024 Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival in the company of ESFF founder and director Marian A. Aréchaga and programming assistant Gustavo Herrera Taboada. Pasquale, Marian and Gustavo discuss the background to ESFF and explore some highlights from the programme, including opening night film, futuristic thriller Artificial Justice and music documen...

In this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone looks back at some highlights from the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival. Pasquale talks to writer-director Jack King about his film The Ceremony, the film that won EIFF's inaugural Sir Sean Connery Prize for Excellence in Feature Filmmaking. He also speaks to BAFTA-winning writer-director Daisy-May Hudson about her film Lollipop. Pasquale offers...

On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Dr Sarah Artt (Lecturer in English and Film at Edinburgh Napier University) to discuss her new book Quiet Pictures: Women and Silence in Contemporary British and French Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2024). In the book, Sarah draws on the work of Lynne Ramsay, Joanna Hogg, Lucile Hadžihalilović and Céline Sciamma to explore the different uses o...

In this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone previews the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival in the company of Director Paul Ridd and Producer Emma Boa. Paul and Emma discuss their vision for EIFF and its position in the wider Film Festival landscape as well as the advantages of staging the event in August. Other topics covered include the choices of opening and closing night films,...

Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by award-winning poet, author and editor  Dr Sarah Stewart to discuss the links between poetry and cinema. Pasquale and Sarah discuss poems by May Swenson, Sharon Olds, Bill Sherman and Elizabeth Jennings on subjects ranging from James Bond to post-war Polish cinema, Orson Welles to Marilyn Monroe. The episode also includes recommendations of film-themed poe...

On this episode of the podcast, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Professor Catherine O’Rawe. Catherine is Professor of Italian Film and Culture at the University of Bristol. Her books include Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema (2014). Catherine discusses her latest monograph The Non-Professional Actor: Italian Neorealist Cinema and Beyond (2023) where she provide...

In this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Don Boyd, a Scottish-born filmmaker with more than fifty years experience working in both Hollywood and the UK.  As well as directing his own successful features and documentaries, Don produced some of the most bold and boundary-pushing British films of the 70s and 80s - works as diverse as Alan Clarke’s borstal drama  Scum &nbs...

Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by MSc Film Studies student Russell Shen to discuss two films by the great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien: 1987 drama Daughter of the Nile and the director's final film, The Assassin (2015).

A special edition of the podcast dedicated to Filmhouse, Edinburgh's much-loved independent cinema. Host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Rod White, Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz, Raymah Tariq and David Boyd.

In this Halloween special, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by current MSc Film Studies student Sebastian Gilling-Ulph to discuss dark filmic fairytales. Films discussed: Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009)  https://edin.ac/47qqP6P Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju, 1959)  https://edin.ac/47a3c1R

In this first episode of the new season, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by Film Studies colleague Dr Ana Salzberg (Senior Lecturer in Film Studies) to discuss autumn in film. Main films discussed: Something Wicked This Way Comes (Jack Clayton, 1983) IMDb:  https://edin.ac/45BaHOl The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973) IMDb:  https://edin.ac/3PW21w5 Staff pages: Dr Ana Salzber...

Kat Zabecka speaks to  Dr David Sorfa , the programme director of the MSc and PhD in Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and his colleagues  Dr Pasquale Iannone , Dr Chiara Quaranta and Dr Hoi Lun Law  about their personal best of film and television in 2021. Films and TV mentioned (in order of mention): Celine Sciamma – Petite Maman (2021) Leos Carax – Annette (2021)...

In early April 2022, Kat Zabecka spoke to University of Edinburgh MSc Film Studies  students Niamh Carey-Furness and Yvonne Wang, founders of The Film Dispatch magazine, an exciting student-led initiative.

Kat Zabecka speaks to Mira Nemcikova and Rici Wenger, former MSc Film Studies students at the University of Edinburgh, about romantic comedies. They discuss You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron 1998), Ever After: A Cinderella Story  (Andy Tennant 1998) and The Proposal (Anne Fletcher 2009). Please note this episode includes spoilers. Sources mentioned: Ruti, M., 2016. Feminist film theory and Pretty...