Podcasts by The Bigger Picture, presented by The British Film Institute

Kirk Douglas tribute from 2020-02-07T11:04:22

Kirk Douglas died this week. In this special episode of the British Film Institute's flagship podcast the BFI's Digital editor, Henry Barnes, pays tribute by introducing clips from an archive in...

The trends of the 2010s from 2019-12-23T11:15:14

The 2010s saw huge changes in the way films were watched and talked about. In the final episode of this series of The Bigger Picture (and the final episode of this decade) Anna, Hen and Pete exp...

Little Women, instant friendship from 2019-12-12T11:00

Greta Gerwig's take on Little Women, Louis May Alcott's classic novel, starts fast and speeds up from there. We talk about how Gerwig's antic adaptation barely pauses for breath, but still makes...

Atlantics and supernatural love from 2019-11-28T15:02:13

Heartless, irrational, unstoppable - zombies and the sea are natural soul(less) mates and Mati Diop's debut film pairs them beautifully. Atlantics, which took home the first feature award at thi...

The Report and the paperwork thriller from 2019-11-14T15:38

A paperwork thriller. A chit-chat drama. The Report, the true story of the US Senate intelligence officer who investigated the CIA's torture of detainees after 9/11, uses dialogue - lots and lot...

Monos: A mystical teen party war movie from 2019-11-01T14:41:26

Alejandro Landes's Monos has teen soldiers running wild in the mountains of an unspecified south American country. Hen, Anna and Pete take a trek up into the weird world of guerrilla warfare, pr...

Singing the praises of Singin' in the Rain from 2019-10-25T16:47:22

Dum-de-dum dum. Dum-de-dum de-dum dum-de-dum-de. Singin' in the Rain, the Gene Kelly classic, has been re-released by the BFI as part of a three-month musicals season. To celebrate Hen, Anna and...

Joker, masculinity and angry, lonely fools from 2019-10-03T11:58:05

Joker, Todd Phillips's gunky take on DC Comic's supervillain, gives us the origins story of a lonely guy with mental health issues who finds himself through violence. Anna, Hen and Pete talk abo...

Shola Amoo on The Last Tree from 2019-09-19T11:07:30

No Anna this ep, but Hen and Pete are joined by a special guest, filmmaker Shola Amoo. Shola's in to talk about his new film, The Last Tree, which sees a British-Nigerian kid plucked from his ru...

Bait, class and Brexit from 2019-09-05T15:47:29

Hen, Anna and Pete get a line on a reel-y good film. Bait, BFI-backed and brilliant to boot, is written and directed by Mark Jenkin. Set in Jenkin's native Cornwall, it's a drama about the effec...

Pain and Glory: Making agony entertaining from 2019-08-22T08:53:54

Pedro Almodóvar returns with Pain and Glory, a deeply personal film about an ageing film director (played by Antonio Banderas) struggling with the physical and psychological ailments that are pr...

Blinded by the Light and freedom through fandom from 2019-08-02T11:31:15

Clamber into your double denim and strap your hands across our engines! On this episode of The Bigger Picture we've got the goss on a film inspired by The Boss: Blinded by the Light, in which a ...

The Matrix, the Nineties and searching for The One from 2019-07-19T08:52:23

Whoah. The Bigger Picture logs on for series 3. This episode we're plugging into The Matrix, the Wachowskis' cyber-hacking kung-fu smacking techno western. Anna, Hen and Pete see through the 1s ...

The Bigger Picture returns on July 18th 2019! from 2019-07-04T09:00

Season 3 of The Bigger Picture podcast, brought to you by the BFI, starts July 18th 2019. Here Anna, Hen and Pete offer a sneak peek at what's coming up on the show.

Listen

Cannes 2019 from 2019-05-22T12:23:57

Anna's in Cannes and calls from the Croisette to fill Hen and Pete in on the best new films that have premiered at this year's festival. Included in Anna's picks: Robert Pattinson wants to get into...

Booksmart and high school besties from 2019-05-09T13:16:39

Booksmart, Olivia Wilde's racous directorial debut, shows teenage girls being loud, funny, crass and disgusting. Anna and Hen talk about why it's so rare to see that on-screen, recount (a bit) o...

The Goonies and crazy kid capers from 2019-04-29T13:43:19

Hello, you people! The Goonies, re-released in 4k recently, has delighted and inspired a generation of film-makers and film fans. Unfortunately, Hen is not one of them. Anna explains why Richard...

A Clockwork Orange and pop culture's sexy psychopaths from 2019-04-11T12:29:48

Slooshy our A Clockwork Orange special, in which Anna, Hen and Pete analyse the impact of Kubrick's stylish, shocking dystopian adventure.


A Clockwork Orange, which is on re-release a...

Dumbo, Disney's remakes and big top cinema from 2019-03-28T11:24:54

Roll up, roll up for a big-top Bigger Picture all about Tim Burton's Dumbo. Thrill! At Anna, Hen and Pete's soaring appraisal of Disney's 1941 original! Gasp! At the flap they get themselves int...

The Bigger Picture: The White Crow and ballet's Soviet dissidents in film from 2019-03-14T00:00

Strap on your pointe shoes and join Anna, Henry and Pete as they hit the floor with an episode about the Soviet ballet dancers who defected to the west. Inspired by Ralph Fienne's The White Crow...

The Bigger Picture: Alien and (work)space horror from 2019-02-28T00:00

Ridley Scott's space slasher, Alien, was released 40 years ago this September. To celebrate Anna and Hen dive into the film, wriggle around its inner-workings and burst out the other side. We're...

The Bigger Picture: Notting Hill and the British romcom from 2019-02-14T00:00

We're back, renamed as The Bigger Picture, but as bumbling, charming and cor-gosh-blimey British as ever!

This episode - at the start of our second season - we're talking about Notting...

Die Hard is a Christmas film from 2018-12-20T12:26:28

Yippee-ki-yay Christmas lovers! It's our festive special, so we're talking about Die Hard (which is a Christmas film). Join Anna, Hen and Pete as we examine what makes John McTiernan's tower blo...

The Old Man & The Gun, lovable rogues and cuddly manhunts from 2018-12-14T00:00

Anna and Hen talk about The Old Man & The Gun, a heist film from director David Lowery that stars Robert Redford as a twinkly-eyed, charming bank robber. Why does the lovable rogue's popular...

Assassination Nation and the girl gang from 2018-11-29T13:25

Join the crew - Anna, Hen and producer Pete - as they walk down a corridor in slow-motion towards this episode's topic: girl gangs. We talk about Mean Girls, Clueless, The Craft, Jawbreakers and...

9 to 5 and women in the workplace from 2018-11-15T11:00

Anna and Hen clock in to talk about 9 to 5 - the 1980 comedy, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton - in which a trio of women take down their tyrannical boss. We look at how film an...

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen and how to make a music biopic sing from 2018-11-01T11:39

Ayyyyyyyy-oh! And welcome to our music biopic special, performed - with Queen-ish grandiosity - in five movements. Join us as we work out what makes a musician's story sing on screen.

...

Happy Halloween? from 2018-10-17T23:00

Slasher icon Michael Myers is as much part of Halloween as hiding behind the curtains hoping those 16-year-old Trick or Treaters will go away. This episode we look back at Mike's work by examini...

A Star is Born again from 2018-10-04T23:00

Hollywood resurrects A Star is Born - the story of a young woman shepherded into stardom by a self-destructive older man - roughly once every other decade. The latest version, the directorial de...

Little lies: American Animals and the 2010-12 docu-drama boom from 2018-09-13T23:00

This much is true: we made a podcast about the film American Animals and the spate of docu-dramas (The Imposter, The Act of Killing, Catfish etc) between 2010-12 that muddled fact and fiction in...

Desiree Akhavan, Joan Crawford, Nuts in May from 2018-08-30T11:39:22

Writer-director-actor Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behaviour) joins Anna and Hen in the BFI's "glitzy" green room (there are mir...

BlacKkKlansman, Desktop Docs and Last Chance U from 2018-08-15T23:00

BlacKkKlansman, the latest film from Spike Lee, tells the story of the black Colorado cop who konned (sorry) the klan into accepting him as a member, then brought down a chapter...

Heathers, Sharp Objects, The Rock from 2018-08-01T23:00

Check your damage at the door as we raise a cup of Hull Clean to the greatest, bleakest teen movie - Heathers. Thirty years old, but still looking fresh, the film's a cynical, n...

The BFI Podcast: Atlanta, Maurice, First Reformed from 2018-07-18T23:00

Maurice, released in 1987 was "the OG Call Me By Your Name" (says Anna). This episode we examine the impact the Hugh Grant-starring gay love story had on film culture, rave about Atlanta season ...

The BFI Podcast: Anna! Westworld and Arcadia from 2018-07-04T23:00

We're talking about Westworld, so we'll need another host. Anna Bogutskaya - events programmer at the BFI Southbank - starts on the pod as co-host from this episode. We talk - well argue, really...

The BFI Podcast: McQueen, Vanessa Redgrave and Pin Cushion from 2018-06-19T12:45

Archive chat this episode from Vanessa Redgrave, talking to Simon Callow in 1991 about Antonioni, the "terrifying" British film industry of the 1960s and shaving her head for the concentration c...

The BFI Podcast: Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ian McKellen, My Friend Dahmer and Glasgow's Weird Weekend from 2018-05-24T11:00

From the stars to the gutter this episode as we plummet from the Star Wars galaxy - via an interview with Solo: A Star Wars Story third AD Donald Bentley - to the monstrous crea...

The BFI Podcast: Clint Eastwood, Filmworker, F-Rated and Wedding Bells from 2018-05-10T11:49:18

Move 'em on, head 'em up! Head 'em up, move 'em on! This episode we round up, rope, tie and brand some archive audio of Clint Eastwood as part of the BFI Southbank's Sergio Leon...

The BFI Podcast: Andrew Haigh, Beast director Michael Pearce, interactive film and 80s cinema from 2018-04-26T20:35:47

We go wild this week with a menagerie of animal-based filmic bits and bobs from across the British film industry. Weekend and 45 Years director Andrew Haigh leads in Lean On Pete, his Pacific No...

The BFI Podcast: Hugh Grant, Rupert Everett and Robin Campillo - BFI Flare special from 2018-04-13T15:18:20

The BFI Podcast: Hugh Grant, Rupert Everett and Robin Campillo We round up the highlights of BFI Flare, Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ film festival, which included Rupert Everett instructing an audience ...

The BFI podcast: Derek Jarman, Journeyman DOP Laurie Rose, African Odysseys: New Wave and Into Film from 2018-03-29T19:18:03

Journeyman DOP Laurie Rose tells us how he helped Paddy Considine's boxing tragedy Journeyman get into shape; The UK's best new film critic (who's 10) explains what it's like to win an Into Film aw...

The BFI podcast: Guillermo del Toro, Hotel Salvation and BFI Flare from 2018-03-08T12:04:05

Four stories from across the British film industry, brought to you by the British Film Institute. Oscar golden boy Guillermo del Toro visited the BFI in October with his film, The Shape of Water. W...

The BFI podcast: Greta Gerwig, Max von Sydow and Three Billboards editor Jon Gregory from 2018-02-20T14:54:05

The BFI podcast returns, rewound and restarted with a new format: four sections, four stories from across the British Film Institute. This episode we talk to Greta Gerwig about bringing home Lady B...

BFI NETWORK: Directing for TV with Lewis Arnold from 2018-01-10T11:01:05

Lewis and Matimba met up to talk about Lewis' career directing iconic TV like Humans, Broadchurch and Banana. They also ate cake.

Hosted on Acast...

BFI NETWORK: Writing, Acting & Hollywood : Daniel Kaluuya from 2017-12-04T10:09:29

Daniel Kaluuya joins Matimba in her kitchen to talk about writing Skins at 17 years old, shaking up Hollywood and working with people who have something to say.***Please note this podcast contains ...

The BFI podcast #9 - James and Dave Franco on The Room and The Disaster Artist from 2017-11-29T11:42:11

Film-making brothers James and Dave Franco popped into the BFI last week to screen The Disaster Artist, a good film about the making of one of the worst: Tommy Wiseau's The Room. James and Dave exp...

BFI Experimenta Symposium: Artists’ film in Asia from 2017-11-06T12:05:29

A wide-ranging discussion on the past, present and future of artists' film in Asia with curators and artists active in the region. The symposium explores current initiatives, considering the nation...

BFI Experimenta Salon: Anatomy of an artist’s film production with Andrea Luka Zimmerman from 2017-11-06T11:51:26

Focusing on Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s creative process in making her new long form work Erase and Forget, this Salon event examines the production history of the film. Chair Experimenta programmer He...

BFI Experimenta Salon with Chen Zhou in conversation with Erika Balsom from 2017-11-06T11:35:39

Join NEW:VISION Award-winning artist Chen Zhou in conversation with art critic, researcher and senior lecturer at King’s College London Erika Balsom for a salon that takes Chen’s Life Imitation as ...

BFI Experimenta Salon with Filipa César and Narimane Mari from 2017-11-06T11:34:35

Questions of how international artists’ film engages with political realities and histories were the focus for this Experimenta Salon bringing together artists Filipa César (Spell Reel) and Nariman...

BFI Experimenta Salon with Anne-Marie Copestake and Shambhavi Kaul from 2017-11-06T10:58:16

For the first of the BFI London Film Festival’s 2017 Experimenta Salons we invited two artists featured in the programme but who have never met to discuss their work with Experimenta programmer and...

The BFI Podcast #8 - A Matter of Life and Death from 2017-10-23T10:52:56

Powell and Pressburger’s story of war, love and the other world is being re-released by the BFI in UK cinemas in December. To celebrate BFI podcast host Henry Barnes looks back at the making of the...

BFI NETWORK: Programming Festivals: Clare Stewart - BFI from 2017-10-03T14:36:44

The 61st BFI London Film Festival 2017 is here! Back in February we spoke to the festival's director Clare Stewart on growing such a world renowned festival.Produced by: Marie HornerMusic by: Rory ...

BFI NETWORK: Francis Lee on making God's Own Country from 2017-09-05T09:52:34

In this episode of the BFI NETWORK podcast Talent Development Manager Matimba Kabalika travels to Yorkshire to talk to writer/director Francis Lee about the making of his critically acclaimed debut...

The BFI Podcast #7 - Steven Soderbergh's return from 2017-09-01T15:18:12

Eight years ago, frustrated by mainstream Hollywood, Steven Soderbergh quit filming directing. He un-quit last week with Logan Lucky, the rural American take on his Ocean's heist movies. The direct...

The BFI Podcast #6 - Dirk Bogarde, Victim and the fight for gay rights from 2017-08-02T12:52:28

Simon McCallum, programmer of the BFI's Gross Indecency season, introduces Victim, the 1961 film, starring Dirk Bogarde, that was a mainstream crime thriller unlike any other. The first English-lan...

The BFI Podcast #5 - Claude Chabrol: murder, mystery and meal-times from 2017-05-19T09:57:08

Special guest Sam Wigley introduces Claude Chabrol, "the French Hitchcock", whose 50-plus films explored the psychology of murder with a mischievous flair. Chabrol, the first of the French New Wave...

The BFI Podcast #4 - Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and the New German Cinema from 2017-04-24T13:09:27

The story of the New German Cinema film-makers, who magicked one of the world's most exciting cinema movements out of the creative ruin of the second world war. As the BFI's Rainer Werner Fassbinde...

The BFI podcast #3 - Michelle Williams and Kelly Reichardt: a rare female director-actor partnership from 2017-03-17T13:33:59

Sight & Sound production editor Isabel Stevens guest hosts on an episode about the history of all-female director-actor partnerships, from Frances Marion and Mary Pickford's box office busting sile...

The BFI podcast #2 - Martin Scorsese in his own words, part 2 from 2017-03-01T16:00:12

Part two of our special double episode on an American indie cinema heavyweight, Martin Scorsese. This episode we hear how Robert De Niro pigged out to play Raging Bull's Jake La Motta, why Scorsese...

The BFI podcast #1 - Martin Scorsese in his own words, part 1 from 2017-02-20T16:31:13

The new podcast from the British Film Institute launches with the first of a two-part episode on Martin Scorsese, featuring a previously unreleased interview with the film-maker from 1987, as well ...

BFI Black Star 1990-2016: Tyler Perry's takeover from 2016-12-02T11:05:29

Tyler Perry became a media power player through Madea, his riotous spin on the mammy stereotype. Now the richest man in entertainment, Perry's success lies in serving a black audience that has been...

BFI Experimenta Salon: Alia Syed, Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor from 2016-11-24T15:28:39

In the last of our suite of salons, Experimenta programmer and BFI head of cinemas Helen de Witt takes Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s (aka Desperate Optimists) Further Beyond and Alia Syed’s On ...

BFI Experimenta Salon: Anja Kirschner, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind from 2016-11-24T15:28:14

Anja Kirschner (Moderation), Larissa Sansour and co-director Søren Lind (In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain) are invited into the BFI Studio for a lively conversation with Experiment...

BFI Experimenta Salon: On the Past, Present and Future of Experimental Film Festivals from 2016-11-24T15:27:46

To celebrate the London Film Festival screening of EXPRMNTL, a documentary about the first experimental film festival, founded in 1949, we reflect on where we have got to in the intervening years. ...

BFI Experimenta Salon: Sarah Pucill & Ruth Maclennan from 2016-11-24T13:59:25

Questions of how the past intersects with, and is activated by, the present are concerns addressed in this Experimenta Salon that brings together Sarah Pucill (Confessions to the Mirror) and Ruth M...

BFI Black Star 1980-90: Whoopi Goldberg and the black megastar from 2016-11-21T17:10:28

Back to the 90s and the ascent of the black star as box office titan. Following in the footsteps of Pam Grier and Richard Pryor, actors like Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg used their immense popu...

BFI Black Star 1970-80: Blaxploitation hits, doesn't quit from 2016-11-14T12:25:40

The one, the only, the mighty ... Pam Grier. This week the Black Star podcast pays tribute to the figurehead of the Blaxploitation movement: a star who became one of the only black women to take th...

BFI Black Star 1950-70: Risk, reward and revolution - the black star as activist from 2016-11-07T14:17:58

The Black Star podcast continues with the story of a civil rights campaigner, who also happened to be one of the 1950s' biggest movie stars: Harry Belafonte. Tracing Belafonte’s political awakening...

BFI Black Star 1940-50: The bittersweet success of the first black Oscar winner from 2016-10-31T15:51:41

The first black person to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel struggled to escape the maid archetype that was the source of her success. A trailblazer, the Gone with the Wind star nevertheless became wen...

BFI Black Star 1900-40: The pioneer spirit of Oscar Micheaux from 2016-10-24T13:34:43

Welcome to the Black Star podcast, part of the BFI's Black Star season, a UK nationwide series of screenings and events celebrating the power, range and versatility of black performers. Over six we...

BFI NETWORK: The visibility of women in film from 2016-07-15T13:04:59

Producer Ivana Mackinnon, writer Bola Agbaje and director Caroline Bartleet talk about the challenges and opportunities in the film industry.

Host...

BFI NETWORK: The Anatomy of Story - Episode 3 from 2016-06-23T17:10:31

In this episode Development Executive Angeli Mcfarlane asks some tough questions, including how to find a unique and different voice as a writer and how do you know if your script is any good?
Listen

BFI NETWORK: The Anatomy of Story - Episode 2 from 2016-06-23T17:08:08

In this episode Development Executive Angeli Mcfarlane tackles character development: what should you be asking your character and how do they relate to other people, places and problems.

BFI NETWORK: The Anatomy of Story - Episode 1 from 2016-06-23T17:05:23

Development Executive Angeli MacFarlane untangles storytelling with a group of filmmakers who had submitted to the Postroom.

Hosted on Acast. See ...

BFI NETWORK: How do emerging filmmakers get an agent, and what agents are looking for? from 2016-06-14T12:24:46

Matthew Bates, Sayle Screen, talks about the ins and outs of being an agent, client/agent relationships, and what agents look for when signing new talent.

Listen

BFI NETWORK: Discovering and working with writers from 2016-06-14T11:24:17

Rachael Prior, Big Talk Pictures, talks about how she finds new writers, what she's looking for and working with some of the biggest writers in UK comedy.

Listen