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The Empire Film Podcast is the official podcast of Empire, the world's biggest and best movie magazine. We bring you all the latest movie news and nonsense, as well as reviews of the week's new films, an assortment of irreverent, film-related chat and interviews with some of Hollywood's best and brightest. New episodes every Friday. For our famous deep dives into specific movies, subscribe to the Empire Spoiler Special Podcast at https://empire.supportingcast.fm/ Love TV? Subscribe to our si ...
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Christina’s first dispatch from Cannes 2025! Highlights from the Opening Press Conference with Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Strong & more—on festival expectations, Trump’s tariffs, and the new red carpet dress rules. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Evergreen Podcasts
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This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees the podteam — Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, James Dyer and Alex Godfrey — get to grips with the definition of in media res, as they discuss some of their favourite films that throw you right into the action. Elsewhere, they talk about the week's movie news, pay tribute to Empire's founding editor Barry M…
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Samira Ahmed and writers Dreda Mitchell and Mark Ravenhill review Imelda Staunton and her daughter, Bessie Carter, in Mrs Warren's Profession. They consider, too, theatre director Marianne Elliott's first foray into film, The Salt Path, based on a Raynor Winn's bestselling memoir of how she and her husband, after they have lost their house and farm…
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Paul Hartnoll of electronic music duo Orbital talks about the reissue of the band's Brown album which was originally released in 1993, with the addition of 23 extra tracks of rarities and previously unreleased material and about the intersection between dance music and politics. Frances Wilson, who has previously published acclaimed biographies of …
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Live from the Hay Festival, Alison Steadman talks to Samira about her career, from Abigail's Party to Gavin and Stacey. Laura Bates and Gwyneth Lewis discuss Arthurian Legends and The Mabinogion. Hisham Matar champions the Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. And transatlantic husband and wife country duo Outpost Drive perform on stage. Presente…
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Joining Christina is film critic and writer Ryan McQuade of AwardsWatch as they wrap up the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. From what it was like covering this year’s festival, to the Palme d’Or winners, major Neon and MUBI acquisitions, standout titles from Joachim Trier and Spike Lee, The Secret Agent, The History of Sound, and more—this episode dives…
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Stereophonic is a play about the creative process, power dynamics and fraught personal relationships of a 1970s rock band. It won a Tony and many other awards on Broadway. Now Stereophonic has come to the West End. Playwright David Adjmi and Will Butler, sometime of Arcade Fire, who has written the music, discuss their own artistic process as they …
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This week's episode of the Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt mark the release of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning by doing a non-spoiler, non-epic (less than 20 minutes!) chat with that film's director, the legendarily loquacious Christopher McQuarrie, [26:00 - 43:06 approx] and have a lovely natter with the stars of the new Wes Anderson fi…
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Benicio Del Toro talks about playing a business tycoon in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. This aesthetically stylised film, by the director who also made The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, is reviewed by Tom and critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Rachel Cooke. They also give their verdict on Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckon…
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The Shameless Plug — the show in which Chris Hewitt and Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen, sit down and talk you through the latest issue of Empire — is back for its third episode, folks. This one is dedicated to issue 441 of Empire (on sale now at all good, evil, and virtual newsagents), which features Jurassic World Rebirth on the cover, and Nick ta…
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In this special dispatch from the Croisette, Christina is joined by the brilliant and effortlessly cool Stellan Skarsgård, starring in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value—a strong Palme d’Or contender at this year’s festival. Skarsgård plays Gustav, a once-renowned director who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter by casting her in his come…
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Frontwoman of Garbage, Shirley Manson talks about the band's latest album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, which is inspired by contemporary events including the killing of George Floyd in Los Angeles, but which presents an optimistic perspective on a dystopian world. We hear from the winner of the International Booker Prize, which was announc…
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Musician Rhiannon Giddens on returning to her North Carolina roots after working with Beyoncé. As a huge retrospective of the work of the artist Helen Chadwick opens at The Hepworth Wakefield, art critic Louisa Buck and the exhibition's curator, Laura Smith, discuss why Chadwick should be viewed as the godmother for a golden generation of British c…
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25 years after Joanne Harris introduced readers to the soothing delights of Chocolat, she's released her new book Vianne. It’s the prequel that explains how her heroine found her way into the world of high end French confectionery. A new exhibition at the British Museum sheds light on the provenance of popular images of the Hindu god Ganesha, the B…
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Christina is joined by critic and author John Bleasdale (The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick) for a new dispatch from the Croisette. They dive into some of the most talked-about titles at the festival, including The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson, Pillion starring Alexander Skarsgård, and two films directed by actors: K…
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🎬 Dispatch 3 from Cannes 2025 Christina is joined once again by Ryan McQuade (AwardsWatch) for a new dispatch from the Croisette. They dive into some of the festival’s buzziest titles so far, including Ari Aster’s Eddington, The Plague, Sound of Falling. Plus, thoughts on the latest Mission: Impossible. In other news: Pop Culture Confidential which…
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Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's The Extraordinary Miss Flower is part-concert film, part-performance art piece inspired by the life of its subject, a woman called Geraldine Flower. When she passed away a few years ago, her daughter Zoe discovered a number of letters, written over the years by suitors of Geraldine's, which painted a picture of a wil…
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This week's episode of the BSME Awards-nominated Empire Podcast had better not be the episode that the BSME Awards judging panel listens to ahead of voting, or our nomination might be rescinded. Which is to say, chaos reigns as Chris Hewitt returns — eventually, after being waylaid by a McQ&A — to the hosting chair, and is joined by Helen O'Hara, J…
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David Benedict and Viv Groskop review Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, a surreal story of brunch and existential dread; French film about about grassroots music, The Marching Band and Daniel Kehlmann’s new novel, The Director, about a real life German filmmaker navigating the Third Reich. Presenter: Tom SutcliffeProducer: Simon Richar…
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Colin Bulfield, Executive Producer of the new film Ocean With Attenborough, talks about working with the celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker Sir David Attenborough on his latest project, an exploration of the vital importance of healthy oceans to our planet which is in cinemas around the country now. Current exhibitions at V&A Dundee and the Briti…
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🎬 Dispatch 2 from Cannes 2025! Christina is joined by Ryan McQuade (AwardsWatch) for a dispatch from the Croisette. They break down Christopher McQuarrie’s Q&A—featuring a surprise appearance by Tom Cruise—Neon’s impressive Cannes track record and this year’s contenders, and Robert De Niro’s politically charged moment at the festival. Please note: …
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Novelist Elif Shafak, artist and writer Edmund de Waal and Professor Rachel Bowlby join Samira to discuss the centenary of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. As the Semi Finals of Eurovision start tonight in Basel, Switzerland, Paddy O'Connell talks about this year's contest. Four hundred leading British Artists such as Paul McCartney and Kate Bush hav…
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Suzanne Vega has just released her first album of all-new material for nearly a decade. "Flying With Angels" continues her folk-influenced sound and introduces influences of soul as well as a song in tribute to Bob Dylan's "I Want You". She performs in the studio with guitarist Gerry Leonard. Sean Combs aka P Diddy is on trial in New York, charged …
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Sharing a special episode! Christina joined the AwardsWatch podcast for the 78th Cannes Film Festival Preview . On episode 287 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, and special guest Christina Birro of Pop Culture Confidential to preview the 2025 Cann…
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It's another cracking episode of the (freshly award-nominated) Empire Podcast this week, folks, as Helen O'Hara slips into the hosting chair and tries to wrestle James Dyer and Alex Godfrey into shape as they talk about changeable movie titles, great actor/director pairings, Alex's favourite teen movies, the week's movie news including Donald Trump…
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We’re just days away from the 78th Cannes Film Festival, and one of the most anticipated moments is the premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on May 14 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt in this eighth installment of the legendary action franchise, joined by director Christopher McQuarrie and an all-star …
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Authors Matt Cain and Eimear McBride join Tom Sutcliffe to review a new remake of Ang Lee's 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet. They also discuss Isabel Allende's new novel My Name is Emilia del Valle and the play The Brightening Air, on at the Old Vic theatre in London. And the National Gallery is having a re-hang, we speak to Head of the Curatorial…
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Acclaimed German journalist and film producer Sandra Maischberger talks about her new documentary about Leni Riefenstahl, which re-examines the life and career of the filmmaker and Nazi propagandist who was one of the most controversial women of the 20th century. Art historian and curator Sandy Nairne, a member of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Commi…
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In the wake of President Trump's proposed film tariffs, Jake Kanter, International Investigations Editor at Deadline, discusses what the impact could be for the British film industry. Last week Moorcroft became the latest heritage ceramic company to close its doors in Stoke-On-Trent. Emma Bridgewater, founder of the eponymous ceramics company, and …
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To mark the 80th anniversary this week, we explore British culture around VE Day in 1945, reflecting on the music, books, films and theatre that defined the moment and the complex emotional landscape that followed the war’s end. Songwriter and pianist Kate Garner joins us at the piano. Guests: Michael Billington, theatre critic; Ian Christie, film …
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US director Ryan Coogler on his supernatural horror film, Sinners. Anne Sebba discusses her new book, The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, about the orchestra formed in 1943 among the female prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. And as a new report looking at so-called book banning in the United States is published, we talked to au…
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On the show this week: the exceptionally talented Barbie Ferreira, best known for her breakout role as Kat Hernandez on HBO’s Euphoria. Christina talks with Barbie about her wonderful new film Bob Trevino Likes It, where she plays Lily, a young woman grappling with the pain of a self-centered, absent father. After forming an unexpected bond with a …
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It had to happen: the Empire podcast has finally gone to hell — quite literally in this case, as this particular show is episode 666. Perhaps appropriately, James is in the driving seat for this one, embracing this demonically anointed episode to bring you such thematically-relevant discussions as a Mount Rushmore of movie Satans and an off-topic d…
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Critic Kate Maltby and Beatles author Ian Leslie join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss two documentaries about John Lennon remaking his life in New York - Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade and One to One: John & Yoko. They also discuss Tina Fey’s new series The Four Seasons, based on the 1981 film of the same name, which explores the relationships of thr…
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Jeff Pope on his new series Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent man who was killed by police on a London tube in 2005, which launches tonight on Disney+. James VI of Scotland & I of England is the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. We’re joined by the historical writers Lucy Hu…
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In 1975, at the height of their fame, British band Slade made a feature film, Slade in Flame. The film was a critical and commercial failure at the time, but has built up a cult following over the years. Now it's being re-released in cinemas and on DVD. Frontman Noddy Holder and film director Richard Loncraine spoke to Samira Ahmed in studio. With …
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Mark Rosenblatt on Giant, his Olivier award-winning play starring John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. As Universal Studios announce plans for a major new theme park in Bedfordshire, what does this mean for the UK entertainment industry? Samira is joined by entertainment journalist Ella Baskerville and Gareth Smy from Framestore to discuss its signficance a…
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It was foretold by the Ancient Ones: The Convergence (or Gunvergence, if you will), the day on which three absolutely slamming action movies will be released at the same time in the UK (albeit on different formats), ushering in a new era of sweaty dad bods, car chases, and many scenes where people die in a hail of bullets. And that day is today, fo…
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Journalist Siân Pattenden & critic Stephanie Merritt join Tom to discuss Self Esteem's third album A Complicated Woman, which features collaborations with Nadine Shah and Moonchild Sanelly. Ahead of the release, Self Esteem AKA Rebecca Lucy Taylor showcased the album by staging a five-night theatrical presentation at London's Duke of York theatre. …
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This week, Christina is joined by Ryan McQuade, Executive Editor of AwardsWatch, to dive into Sinners—Ryan Coogler’s ambitious, multilayered, and visually stunning new film. They also break down the latest Oscar rule changes and announcements, and discuss what they could mean for the upcoming awards season. Plus, in honor of Michael B. Jordan’s phe…
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The Shameless Plug returns, folks, for a second glorious episode in which Chris Hewitt and Empire editor, Nick de Semlyen, sit down in the podbooth and tell you how (and why) the sausage is made. That sausage being the new issue of Empire, which is on sale now in all good, evil, and virtual newsagents. Our dynamic duo talk through the month's big c…
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As the journals of the American writer Joan Didion (based on conversations with her psychiatrist) are published, writer and journalist Rachel Cooke and Alan Taylor, editor of actor Alan Rickman's diaries, discuss the challenges, responsibilities and ethics of posthumously publishing the diaries of great writers, artists and actors. Acclaimed German…
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Jamaica's former poet laureate, Lorna Goodison, on setting Dante's Inferno on the island of her birth; Journalist Joanna Moorhead on Pope Francis' relationship with the arts; Poet and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts on writing a form-breaking book to re-examine French composer Olivier Messiaen's form-breaking masterwork - Quartet for the End of …
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Emmy-winning editor and co-producer Timothy Good ('The Last of Us') joins Christina to break down the episode everyone’s talking about — Season 2, Episode 2, “Through the Valley.” This unforgettable episode took over a year to bring to life, and Timothy takes us deep behind the scenes of its emotional and technical construction. From Joel’s (Pedro …
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Mr. Turner director Mike Leigh, art historian Charlotte Mullins and senior curator at Tate Amy Concannon join Tom Sutcliffe to celebrate the life and work of JMW Turner, as we approach the 250th anniversary of his birth. Also in this edition, David Hockney on Turner's skill as an artist, Alvaro Barrington talks about his continuing influence on art…
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This week's Empire Podcast (episode 664 if you're keeping score!) is more packed with goodness than your average Easter egg. Not only do Chris Hewitt, Helen O'Hara, and Alex Godfrey get into a discussion about what exactly makes a musical a musical (along with an impromptu visit to a certain mountain), but they tackle the week's movie news, includi…
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Alex Garland's latest film Warfare, which is co-directed by US military veteran Ray Mendoza turns back the clock back nearly twenty years to reconstruct a real-life surveillance mission in Iraq. Film critic Tim Robey and journalist Zing Tsjeng give their verdict on the analysis of the theatre of war, which unfolds in real time. They've also been to…
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American documentary photographer and President of the Magnum Foundation Susan Meiselas speaks about her fifty-year career, as she receives the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award at the Sony World Photography Awards 2025, and as her work goes on display at Somerset House in London. We hear how President Trump's economic tariffs are affec…
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Director and Screenwriter PJ Hogan, creator of the 1994 comedy Muriel's wedding, speaks to Samira Ahmed about the new musical adaptation of his film. With lead actors leaving, and ratings down, there are questions about the future of Doctor Who. Author John Higgs, and entertainment writer Caroline Frost, talk about the past, present and future of t…
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Kevin Macdonald's latest documentary, One To One: John & Yoko, is out now in cinemas around the UK, folks, and it's well worth your time for anyone with even a passing interest in John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, and their lives after The Beatles split up. But if you're a Beatlemaniac, this is manna from heaven as it not only brings you remaster…
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