The Film Comment Podcast

Cannes 2026 has arrived, and the Film Comment crew is on the ground, ready to cut through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more. This year's edition is packed with highly anticipated premieres from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Valeska Grisebach, James Gray, Paweł Pawlikowski, and many more acclaimed filmmakers.To kick off our daily Podcasts from the Croisette, critics and Film Comment contributing editors Jonathan Romney and Beatrice Loayza join FC editor Devika Girish to discuss the highs and lows of the festival's first few days. The group begins by debating Pierre Salvadori's The Electric Venus (4:30), the festival's opening night film, and Kantemir Balagov's Butterfly Jam (9:58), the opening selection of the Directors' Fortnight section. Next, they share their responses to Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (22:15) and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet's A Woman's Life (33:45) before discussing the films they are most looking forward to seeing at this year's edition. Subscribe today to Film Comment to stay up-to-date with all of our Cannes 2026 coverage.

Subscribe to Film Comment today. Next week, on Monday, April 27, Film at Lincoln Center honors George Clooney with their annual Chaplin Award. Clooney has been a shining star in the American media firmament since the 1990s, from his breakout role on E.R., through innumerable hits, like O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Michael Clayton (2007), The Descendants (2011), just to name a few—to Noah Baumbach’s recent Jay Kelly (2025), in which he gave a twinkling, reflexive performance as a movie star looking back on the choices made during a long and illustrious career. Throughout roles big and small, as well as directorial outings, Clooney has combined versatility, humility, humor, and strong moral convictions, with an undeniable screen presence. As Adam Nayman writes in an essay for The Film Comment Letter, dropping this Friday: “Pauline Kael, who shouted out Clooney’s performance in Three Kings (1999) in her final on-the-record interview (‘he was very good’), once called Cary Grant ‘The Man From Dream City.’ Clooney’s gifts put that phrase in reverse. Instead of materializing out of thin air, he’s grounded, earthbound—not a figure of fantasy but a stickler for mischief. Tasked consistently with playing petty thieves, swindlers, and ethically flexible professional types, Clooney traverses familiar actorly terrain and transforms it, by sheer force of presence.” In advance of next week's Chaplin Award Gala, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish chatted with Clooney about the depth and breadth of his career—his key roles, his approach to his craft, and his vision of the world which he brings to every performance and work.Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring podcasts, features, reviews, interviews, streaming picks, news, and more.

Subscribe to Film Comment today. On October 30 of last year, we lost one of cinema’s most daring auteurs: the British director Peter Watkins. Starting out in television in the 1960s, Watkins developed an utterly unique and militantly political mode of filmmaking. In works like Culloden (1964), The War Game (1966), Punishment Park (1971), and his magnum opus, La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), he cast nonprofessional actors in enactments of political events from the past, present, or a dystopian future, which he then shot in the style of live news reporting on TV. The results are thrilling films that startle with their naturalism and urgency, and provoke thorny questions about authoritarianism—not just of the state, but also of the media. To commemorate this great filmmaker’s legacy, Film Comment editor Devika Girish invited critic J. Hoberman, who has not only admired and written about Watkins’s work, but also took a class with the man himself back in the 1970s. They talk about the trajectory of Watkins’s life and work, what makes his films feel so singular even today, and the contemporary directors that carry forward his legacy.

Set in Nigeria in 1993, Akinola Davies Jr.’s elliptical, atmospheric My Father’s Shadow is a portrait of a country on the cusp of a political crisis. We experience these events through the eyes of the film’s young protagonists, two boys who spend a day in Lagos with their father. They’re thrilled at the prospect of some quality time with their often-absent old man—but they also sense that there’s trouble brewing around them, even if they don’t understand all the details. Film Comment Editor Devika Girish spoke with Davies, who just won a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut for the film, about the extent to which he drew upon family memories while writing the script with his brother, Wale; how the crew recreated the textures, sounds, and feel of 1990s Nigeria; and why it was important to have a children’s perspective at the heart of this story.

It's late January, and the intrepid Film Comment crew has been on the ground reporting from an extra special edition of the Sundance Film Festival—the last to take place on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, the festival's home since 1981, before moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2027. For the past week, we’ve gathered the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. For our final Podcast from Sundance 2026, critics Bilge Ebiri and Tim Grierson and programmer Madeline Whittle joined Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to close out the fest, discussing Padraic McKinley's The Weight (2:56), Noah Segan's The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (24:26), Dawn Porter's When a Witness Recants (28:46), Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans's Who Killed Alex Odeh? (34:34), Josephine Decker's Chasing Summer (47:20), Walter Thompson-Hernández's If I Go Will They Miss Me? (1:05:46), Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei The Friend's House Is Here (1:10:28), Rafael Manuel's Filipiñana (1:14:05), and more. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2026 coverage at filmcomment.com

It's late January, and the intrepid Film Comment crew is on the ground reporting from an extra special edition of the Sundance Film Festival—the last to take place on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, the festival's home since 1981, before moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2027. For the next week, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. For our third Podcast from the fest, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics and FC Podcast veterans Tim Grierson, Robert Daniels, and Monica Castillo to discuss some of this year’s buzziest premieres to date, including Cathy Yan’s art world–satire The Gallerist (3:00), Gregg Araki’s erotic romp I Want Your Sex (20:15), and Olivia Wilde’s couples' night dramedy The Invite (31:45, 42:40). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2026 coverage at filmcomment.com

It's late January, and the intrepid Film Comment crew is on the ground reporting from an extra special edition of the Sundance Film Festival—the last to take place on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, the festival's home since 1981, before moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2027. For the next week, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. To kick things off, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited programmer Madeline Whittle (Film at Lincoln Center) as well as critics Robert Daniels (RogerEbert.com) and Will Tavlin (n+1) to share their responses to the films premiering during the first few days of the fest. The group discusses the tongue-in-cheek Charli XCX mockumentary The Moment (3:30), Casper Kelly's dark comedy Buddy (20:15), and Beth de Araujo’s sophomore feature Josephine (29:50). Stay tuned for more of our Sundance 2026 coverage.

On December 11, 2025, as part our annual winter list extravaganza, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined by esteemed critics Amy Taubin and Bilge Ebiri for a real-time countdown of the films topping our year-end critics’ poll. The evening featured a lively discussion (and some hearty debate) about the films as they were unveiled—and now it’s available in Podcast form, for your home-listening pleasure. Consider it a holiday gift from us to you, our loyal listeners. Read the full list, plus best undistributed films, individual ballots, and more, here: https://www.filmcomment.com/best-films-of-2025/

This week, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute sit down with writer-director Noah Baumbach, whose new feature, Jay Kelly, is in select theaters now. The movie stars George Clooney as an aging Hollywood star reckoning with the choices he’s made on his way to the top. The action unfolds on a trip Jay takes to a tribute to his career in Tuscany, trailed by an entourage of handlers (played by Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, and others), and haunted by his missteps as a friend, lover, and parent. Jay Kelly blends Fellini-esque memory theater, a screwball-inspired train journey, and a self-reflexive contemplation on the world of filmmaking to arrive at something universal; as Noah says in our conversation, the theme at the heart of the film is one that has animated many of his works: coming to terms with an irretrievable past. We also talked about his remarkable casting choices, how he and his crew built sets to facilitate the dreamlike flashback sequences without the use of CGI, and much more.

Last week, Devika returned from the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from October 27 to November 5 in the Japanese capital. As one of the major festivals in Asia, the event is a great showcase for new and restored films from the region, as well as Japanese specialities like animation. While there, Devika recorded three Podcasts exploring the lineup with a stellar rotation of guests. On the second episode from the festival, critics Kambole Campbell and Sasha Han discuss selections from their areas of expertise—respectively, animation and Southeast Asian cinema. Some highlights include Momotaro, Sacred Sailors, a piece of WWII propaganda and the first-ever animated feature made in Japan; Mamoru Oshii’s cult classic Angel’s Egg; and Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s culinary thriller Morte Cucina.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has been the talk of the town since its wide release last month—from critics to filmmakers to audiences, the reception has been nothing short of euphoric. Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the film opens in an unspecified present, detailing the activities of a militant group led by a Black revolutionary (played by Teyana Taylor). Years after her disappearance, her partner (Leonardo DiCaprio) and their daughter (newcomer Chase Infiniti) are hunted down by an old enemy, Sean Penn’s Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. The chase takes them across California, with an assortment of other characters becoming embroiled along the way. The movie is an unabashedly fun, feel-good action flick—one that also calls back to films as disparate as The Searchers, Commando, and Running on Empty. But is it among the greatest of the decade, as some have claimed? Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited critics and programmers Miriam Bale and Adam Piron on the Podcast to discuss the film’s successes and failures, how it fits into PTA’s larger body of work, and its engagement with American history and the present. If there’s one thing the four agreed on, it’s that One Battle After Another is indeed a “very rich text.”

One of the highlights of this year’s New York Film Festival is the latest feature by the nonfiction master Gianfranco Rosi, known for documentaries like Sacro GRA (2013), Fire at Sea (2016), and Notturno (2020), which paint both lyrical and urgent portraits of places that function as thresholds—between land and water, life and death, heaven and hell. His new cinematic essay, Below the Clouds, brings that approach to the Italian city of Naples. Shot in ethereal black and white, the film explores Naples as an environment both cosmic and prosaic—a city whose skies are suffused with volcanic ash and whose earth is shaken by tremors; and where a glorious and ancient past scaffolds a gritty, melting-pot present. Below the Clouds premiered in August at the Venice Film Festival, where Film Comment's Devika Girish sat down with the filmmaker for a conversation. The two discussed how Pietro Marcello (director of the NYFF selection Duse) inspired Rosi to make a film in Naples, as well as Rosi’s uniquely embedded and immersive technique, and the state of nonfiction cinema today.