Girls On Film

In episode 21 Tuppence Middleton, Ingrid Oliver and Tricia Tuttle join Anna for a special Girls On Film Live from the London Podcast Festival at Kings Place in London. The team review stripper revenge drama Hustlers, starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez, and disagree about the French music movie The Shock Of The Future, featuring Alma Jodorowsky. Ingrid speaks about her experience of filming T...

Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab is a special guest at this episode live from HOME in Manchester. The Channel 4 News journalist talks frankly about her time living and filming inside war-torn Aleppo and making her astonishing first feature film For Sama.  Anna is joined by BBC Asian Network’s Ashanti Omkar and the University of Salford’s Dr Kirsty Fairclough to review current releases Seahorse: The...

Director Gurinder Chadha joins Girls On Film for a special episode about her new film Blinded By The Light. Based on the memoirs of Sarfraz Manor, the movie centres around a Bruce Springsteen-obsessed teen. The filmmaker talks about meeting The Boss and how Brexit informed the screenplay, as well as her career, feminism, her next music movie and her plans to make a superhero film. Host Anna Smith...

Three women who’ve forged their own path in the film industry join Anna for an inspiring chat about making waves in a man’s world. Holly F Tarquini founded F-Rated, a ground-breaking system for rating female-driven films, Hilary Oliver launched Cameo Productions, a female-run audio production house & broadcast PR consultancy. Chiara Marañón is Director of UK Programming at MUBI who stream films fr...

Director Chanya Button joins Anna in the studio to discuss Vita and Virginia and makes a revelation about the sex scenes between Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki. Our guest critics are Clarisse Loughrey (The Independent) and Sophie Monks Kaufman (Little White Lies), who review the new horror Midsommar starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor, as well as the romance Tell It To The Bees starring A...

Girls On Film goes live at Edinburgh International Film Festival with guest critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Amber Wilkinson reviewing new releases Support The Girls and Penny Slinger: Out Of The Shadows, as well as EIFF screenings The Souvenir and Marianne & Leonard: Words Of Love. Anna is also joined by Miranda de Pencier, the director of the Canadian hit The Grizzlies, along with her star Anna L...

Award-winning actress Maxine Peake joins Girls On Film live on stage at HOME in Manchester for a special episode to talk about her working life and her commitment to female-led films, such as her upcoming film Gwen. Maxine also puts her favourite films to the Bechdel Test, while critics Emma Jones and Kate Muir join Anna to review Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, and discuss gen...

Booksmart stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever join Anna for a special episode celebrating Olivia Wilde's terrific new comedy about two friends looking for a party. Meanwhile, film critic Karen Krizanovich joins Girls On Film to review the movie and share hilarious highlights. This episode was recorded at the Mayfair studios of Cameo, a female-run audio production house & broadcast PR consulta...

Three fantastic female filmmakers discuss their work on a special Sundance episode of Girls On Film. Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and Sophie Hyde (Animals) talk about portraying female relationships on screen, while The Brink’s Alison Klayman reveals how she gained the trust of notorious far right strategist Steve Bannon. Lulu also speaks about her hopes for the new wave of mainstream Asian-American c...

Cannes special! Girls On Film hits the Cannes Film Festival with an episode recorded at the UK Film Centre in front of an industry audience. Films reviewed include Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and The Dead Don’t Die along with Cannes classics like We Need To Talk About Kevin. Our guest film critics are Leslie Felperin and Ella Kemp while Melissa Silverstein and Delphyne Besse discuss activism at Can...

Amma Asante joins Anna Smith and film critics Wendy Lloyd and Angie Errigo for a special episode in front of an audience at The AllBright Club Mayfair. Asante talks about her new film, Where Hands Touch, as well as her career, inspirations and being a film director in the age of Time’s Up. Films reviewed include Avengers: Endgame and Woman At War; while the panel discuss research around critical r...

Us, Eighth Grade and Madeline’s Madeline are reviewed by Anna and her guests: Total Film’s Jane Crowther and BBC’s Rhianna Dhillon.  Recorded live at HOME in Manchester, episode 10 also features lively audience contributions and the panel dissect The Pajama Game, Dirty Dancing, Bend It Like Beckham, Passengers, Thor: Ragnarok, Whiplash and Greta. Find out why Bo Burnham is our first male interview...

Anna welcomes Mia Bays (Birds Eye View), Eve Gabereau (Modern Films) Akua Gyamfi (The British Blacklist) and actor Muna Otaru (The Keeping Room) to a special episode from Annabel’s club in association with FiXX. Films reviewed include Jellyfish and The Breaker Upperers, while those put to the Bechdel Test range from Back To The Future to The Phantom Thread. FiXX is an international multi-media pro...

Miranda Sawyer and Francine Stock join Anna Smith to review Barbarella, Colette and Out Of Blue in the first in a series of episode recorded live from HOME in Manchester. Audience questions raise the topic of working class women in films, while films put to the Bechdel Test include If Beale Street Could Talk, Isle Of Dogs and Frozen. Girls on Film is an HLA production, produced by Hedda Archbold a...

International Women’s Day exclusive! Brie Larson and Lashana Lynch join host Anna Smith to discuss Captain Marvel, the first stand-alone female superhero movie in the Marvel universe. Topics include female friendship, diversity in criticism, cleavage shots and cat allergies. Anna also welcomes back critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh to review the film. Girls On Film is an HLA production, produced by Hedda...

Live from Glasgow Film Festival 2019, episode 6 of Girls On Film sees host Anna Smith welcoming Observer critic Simran Hans, Dirty God director Sacha Polak and GFF’s own Allison Gardner. The panel has a lively discussion about new releases Wild Rose and The Kindergarten Teacher, and debates on the charms of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. Meanwhile films put to the Bechdel Test range from Thelma & Lo...

Recorded at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, episode 5 of Girls On Film features reviews of films including The Favourite, Dirty God, Second Act and The House that Jack Built from host Anna Smith and her guests, film critics Dana Linssen and Tara Judah. The team also has a lively discussion with the audience about gender and film criticism. Girls On Film is an HLA production, produced by...

Host and film critic Anna Smith is joined by Kate Stables and Steph Watts to exclusively reveal the results of The Bechdel Test Fest's poll, which asked female film critics to select the best films of 2018. The critics also discuss Oscar contender Roma and hear from star Marina de Tavira. Meanwhile Anna interviews Kathryn Hahn and Tamara Jenkins about the Netflix film Private Life. Girls on Film i...

Episode 3 of Girls On Film is a Time’s Up special in which Anna Smith and special guests chat about female roles, the pay gap, sisterhood and more. Anna Smith is joined in the studio by actor Andrea Riseborough, whose new film Nancy comes from an all-female crew, and Birds Eye View’s Mia Bays, who is championing the diverse UK musical Been So Long. Out and about, Anna interviews Carey Mulligan abo...

In episode 2 of Girls On Film, host Anna Smith is joined by film critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Helen O'Hara to review A Star Is Born, starring Lady Gaga and directed by Bradley Cooper. Films put to the Bechdel Test include Ant-Man and the Wasp, Pili, The Breaker Upperers, Bad Times at the El Royale and Venom. Finally, writer-director Carol Morley chats to Anna at the London Film Festival about h...

Girls On Film is a new film review podcast from a female perspective, hosted by film critic and broadcaster Anna Smith. Episode 1 (pilot): This week, the Girls On Film review Agnes Varda’s Faces Places, debate diversity in film criticism and put new movies to the Bechdel Test, including Widows, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, First Man, American Animals and a surprise choice that we dub ‘Spanx a...