Welcome back to the Film Comment Podcast!

After a months-long hiatus prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are thrilled to kick off the return of Film Comment with one of our favorite ways to connect with our audience: our weekly podcast. We’ve missed talking about movies with our whip-smart friends and fellow critics, and we’re excited to be back here, bringing you insightful commentary on the latest in film culture.

For our first new episode, we delved into the lineup of the 2021 Berlinale. Like several other festivals, this year’s edition is taking a hybrid approach, with two staggered parts—a virtual Industry Event, which took place March 1-5, and an in-person event scheduled for June. To dig into some highlights from the (very strong) slate screened online last week, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined by two of our favorite critics: scholar Erika Balsom, who writes for Artforum, CinemaScope, and other publications, and Ela Bittencourt, a longtime Film Comment contributor. They discussed Alexandre Koberidze’s What Do We See When We Look at the Sky, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s The Girl and the Spider, Radu Jude’s Golden Bear-winner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Céline Sciamma’s highly anticipated Petite Maman, and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, among other films.

You can read more about Film Comment’s return and about our forthcoming Film Comment Letter here. And check this space every Tuesday for a new episode of the Film Comment Podcast.