With her episode "Mr. Song" kicking off the second season of Apple TV+'s Little America, Canadian Screen Award winner and Oscar nominee Deepa Mehta is here to talk about the sun-dappled dread of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Vittorio Di Sica's 1970 drama about a privileged Jewish famliy living obliviously in Italy as World War II draws near. Your genial host Norm Wilner still gets hives from this one.

Writer-director Elegance Bratton -- whose autobiographical debut The Inspection is in theaters now, and opening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this Friday -- examines the tangled themes of race, class and belonging in Douglas Sirk's 1959 remake of Imitation of Life, and how they resonate with his own work. Your genial host Norm Wilner prefers Sirk's version too.

With her new drama Ashgrove in theaters and on digital Friday, the invaluable Amanda Brugel -- a veteran of everything from Kim’s Convenience, Workin' Moms and Pretty Hard Cases to The Handmaid’s Tale, Snowpiercer and Orphan Black -- is here to share her love for The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont’s 1994 adaptation of a Stephen King prison story that tanked in theaters but found eternal life at home. Your genial host Norm Wilner still loves the opera scene.

Reposted with corrected audio! Writer-director Faran Moradi, whose first feature Tehranto opens in Toronto this Friday, November 25th, is here to declare Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight the best Batman movie -- and a crucial film in his own development as a storyteller. Your genial host Norm Wilner has some stories from the press junket he's been waiting to share. 

With her first feature Stay the Night opening in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday, writer-director Renuka Jeyapalan salutes Paul Newman's greatest screen performance in Sidney Lumet's 1982 drama The Verdict -- the one backed by the David Mamet script, the powerhouse supporting cast and the appropriately grim Boston locations. Your genial host Norm Wilner happens to share this opinion.

With their found-family dramedy Rosie opening across Canada on Friday, writer-director Gail Maurice and star Melanie Bray take a minute to celebrate Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi’s Oscar-winning satire of hero worship in Nazi Germany. Your genial host Norm Wilner never had an imaginary friend.

With their new film Something in the Dirt opening in New York and Los Angeles on Friday (and coming to VOD in Canada November 22nd), this feels like the perfect time to go back to 2015, when indie genre masters Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead took time out from launching Spring  to celebrate Cameron Crowe's autobiographical 2000 masterwork Almost Famous. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been a little busy this week.

Actor, writer and producer Kate Hewlett (Stargate Atlantis, Degrassi, Murdoch Mysteries and more), who's just adapted her 2008 stage musical The Swearing Jar into a feature film with director Lindsay Mackay, sinks into the beguiling mysteries of Sofia Coppola's 2003 Oscar-winner Lost in Translation, that delicate little drama where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson forge an unexpected connection in a Tokyo hotel. Your genial host Norm Wilner has never been to Tokyo, by the way.

With her first feature We're All In This Together now playing in Toronto and Vancouver, actor, filmmaker and friend of the show Katie Boland -- whose episode on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one worth chasing down, by the way -- returns to explore the exquisite structure and shattering truths of Sarah Polley's 2012 documentary Stories We Tell. Your genial host Norm Wilner has been waiting forever for this one. (Also, Sarah's a friend of the show too and you can find her episode, on Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, right here!)

Actor (Mood Indigo, The Hundred-Foot Journey, The Walk, Fresh) turned filmmaker (Falcon Lake) Charlotte Le Bon celebrates the Canadian theatrical release of her charmingly creepy coming-of-age romance this Friday, October 14th, by praising one of its inspirations: Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, the sun-dappled European romance that cemented Timothee Chalamet's stardom and should have won Michael Stuhlbarg an Oscar -- or at least gotten him nominated for one. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for the background noise, and the whole Armie Hammer thing. 

Winnipeg filmmaker Deco Dawson, whose first feature Diaspora premieres this Saturday, October 8th, at 7:30 pm in Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema, steps up for Jacques Tati's charming 1958 comedy Mon Oncle, the one where Tati's befuddled M. Hulot ventures from his ramshackle Paris neighborhood to stay with his upwardly mobile sister and her family in a modernized suburb. Your genial host Norm Wilner has fond memories of the fish fountain.

Actor Joris Jarsky (Wynonna Earp, Saw V, Bad Blood and dozens of other credits), who's now on-screen opposite Thandiwe Newton in Julian Higgins' thrillerGod's Country, reveals himself to be a closet romantic with his love for Norman Jewison's beloved 1987 comedy Moonstruck -- you know, the one where Nicolas Cage takes Cher to the opera and Olivia Dukakis flirts with John Mahoney. Your genial host Norm Wilner can't wait to tell John Patrick Shanley about this one.

Filmmaker Julian Higgins, whose latest feature God’s Country stars Thandiwe Newton as a retired academic drawn into a confrontation with trespassers on her remote Montana property, delves into the darkness of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s 2017 drama Loveless – and Zvyagintsev’s cinema as a whole. Your genial host Norm Wilner will be chatting with Julian and co-star Joris Jarsky after the 7:15pm screening of God's Country this Friday, September 23rd, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Just putting that out there.

In 2015, emerging filmmaker Chandler Levack joined your genial host Norm Wilner to talk about her love for Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s 1998 coming-of-age film Can’t Hardly Wait. Seven years later, Chandler's first feature I Like Movies is making its world premiere at TIFF -- and Norm has joined the festival as a programmer. Enjoy the flashback -- and if you want to see I Like Movies, it's screening again at 6:30 pm Wednesday September 14th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, and at 9:45 pm Friday September 16th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox 2. 

It's a special TIFF bonus episode, and Vancouver filmmaker Sophie Jarvis -- whose unnerving first feature Until Branches Bend makes its world premiere this Saturday, September 10th, at 8 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 -- is here to discuss Another Year, the 2010 Mike Leigh dramedy starring Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as an unassuming English couple who are always inviting friends and family to come out for a meal or a chat, and escape their miserable lives for a little bit. Your genial host Norm Wilner wonders what they're really up to.

Toronto filmmaker V.T. Nayani, whose first feature This Place premieres at TIFF this Friday (September 9th) at 8:45 pm at the Scotiabank 3 and is available to stream in the Festival @ Home digital series next Wednesday September 14th on digital.tiff.net, steps up for 10 Things I Hate About You,  the Disney high-school update of The Taming of the Shrew  that made Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger into legit heartthrobs -- and kinda made Shakespeare cool again, too. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy he still has those Save Ferris CDs.

Actor and filmmaker Valerie Buhagiar, who broke out in Bruce McDonald’s Roadkill and Highway 61  and went on to direct her own features -- like The Anniversary, It’s Hard to Be Human and her latest, Carmen, which is now playing in theatres across Canada -- tackles the religious and emotional undercurrents of Pawel Pawlikowski's Oscar-winning 2013 drama Ida, which stars Agata Trzebuchowska as a novitiate in early-60s Poland whose life is changed when she learns the secrets of her own past ... and her country's. Your genial host Norm Wilner is always up for a little soul-searching.

Writer-director Perry Blackshear, whose new thriller When I Consume You is now on digital and on demand, reaches back to the darkness of Absentia, the feature that put genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan on track to make Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Doctor Sleep and all those Netflix projects. Your genial host Norm Wilner just wants to be able to use pedestrian tunnels again someday.

Actor and filmmaker Jude Klassen, whose new film Stupid for You -- about a teenager who decides to reunite her mother's old punk band to impress a girl -- hits VOD today, is here to celebrate John Waters' 1988 breakthrough Hairspray, the movie about Ricki Lake and Divine accidentally enabling a civil-rights revolution in 1962 Baltimore ... and pissing off Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry in the process. It's a movie about teenage exuberance in the face of grown-up confusion, and also about seeing what Josh Charles looked like as a kid. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just happy for the chance to do The Roach.

Becky Shrimpton, producer and host of Hollywood Suite's A Year in Film podcast and one of the dozen or so critics and programmers who appear in the new HS documentary series Cinema A to Z, is here to celebrate NFB filmmaker Robert Fortier's mesmerizing 1981 documentary The Devil At Your Heels, a chronicle of stunt driver Ken Carter's obsession with jumping a rocket car across the St. Lawrence River. Your genial host Norm Wilner (who also appears in the show!) just knows this won't end well.

Stage and screen veteran Graham Abbey (Defendor, Take This Waltz, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Under the Banner of Heaven), who's also the artistic director of Prince Edward County’s Festival Players, takes a run at Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire, the film about the unlikely friendship between British Olympians Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) that went on to triumph over Atlantic CIty, On Golden Pond, Reds and Raiders of the Lost Ark at the 54th annual Academy Awards. Your genial host Norm Wilner is still a little sore about that, if we're being honest.

BAFTA-winning actor Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions, Stranger Things, Enola Holmes and Sweet Tooth, among others), who co-stars with Clare Rushbrook in Clio Barnard's Ali & Ava -- opening across Canada Friday -- is here to talk about how important it was to see himself reflected in Gurinder Chadha's 1993 breakout drama Bhaji on the Beach, and what real representation means for everyone who's watching. Your genial host Norm Wilner just wants to ask about making Four Lions, really.

Award-winning actor turned author Tracy Dawson -- whose first book Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren’t Supposed To Do was published in May by Harper Collins -- is here to celebrate James L. Brooks' eerily prophetic Broadcast News, the 1987 dramedy starring Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks and William Hurt that showed us exactly where America media, and the world, was heading. Your genial host Norm Wilner is worried he buried the lede. 

South African filmmaker Jenna Cato Bass -- director of High Fantasy and Flatland , co-writer of Rafiki and whose crafty new thriller Good Madam drops on Shudder this Thursday, July 14th -- found her early aesthetic in Homicide: Life on the Street, the revolutionary NBC series which explored policing and morality in 1990s Baltimore  over seven seasons and a feature-length finale. Your genial host Norm Wilner is happy to tweak the mission statement for this episode. Who wouldn't?

Filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero -- whose Into the Dark episode Culture Shock just landed on Hollywood Suite in Canada -- discusses the impact of William Friedkin's The Exorcist on her young psyche, and the creative path she's been on ever since. Your genial host Norm Wilner wonders why everyone wants to talk about horror movies lately ... not that he minds, of course.

Memories of seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street as a child send filmmaker Albert Birney on a reverie through the films that walk between the conscious and unconscious. Your genial host Norm Wilner works Cronenberg in there somehow, too. Strawberry Mansion, which Birney co-wrote and co-directed with his pal Kentucker Audley, is now on digital and on disc, and you should see it; Norm liked it so much he even featured the Blu-ray in the latest edition of his Shiny Things newsletter!

Actor Jordan Gavaris, whom you knew and loved on Orphan Black, The Sea of Trees, Take Two  and Love in the Time of Corona -- and who's now showing off his comic and dramatic chops in the Prime Video series The Lake -- shares his enduring love for Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, the Italian auteur's 2018 reinterpretation of Dario Argento's 1977 classic about an American student uncovering witchy workings in a German dance academy. Your genial host Norm Wilner is skeptical, but he trusts Jordan to make a decent case because it's our 400th episode and all.

In our 399th episode, Alanna Bale of Cardinal, Killjoys and Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood -- which arrives on digital next week -- braves the bleak, woodsy horrors of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez' game-changing 1999 found-footage classic The Blair Witch Project. Your genial host Norm Wilner is standing in the corner, don't mind him ... although he would feel a lot less lonely if you subscribed to his Shiny Things newsletter. He's just saying.

Sibling filmmakers Yoav and Doron Paz (The Golem, JeruZalem), whose new film Plan A opens the Toronto Jewish Film Festival this Thursday, June 9th, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, are here to tackle Christopher Nolan's genre-twisting thriller Inception, which blew their minds when they first experienced it in 2010. Your genial host Norm Wilner is willing to take his eyes off that damn top long enough to tell you to subscribe to Shiny Things, his weekly newsletter about film, culture and physical media -- wait, did the top wobble just then?

Hello (Again) director Melanie Chung plumbs the psychological depths of Denis Villeneuve's all-star 2013 thriller Prisoners -- the one where Hugh Jackman holds Paul Dano hostage in a basement to solve his daughter's disappearance, while Jake Gyllenhaal's obsessive detective conducts his own equally fevered investigation. Your genial host Norm Wilner warns you: We talk about the ending almost immediately, so if you haven't seen Prisoners you're probably going to want to do that first.  And maybe subscribe to Norm's newsletter, Shiny Things, while you're online.

In an episode almost seven years in the making, actor Tim Rozon (Lost Girl, Schitt’s Creek, Wynonna Earp, Vagrant Queen, Surreal Estate and the new family film Dakota) shares his love for My Own Private Idaho, and the incandescent, indelible performance of River Phoenix within Gus Van Sant's masterful 1991 indie drama. Your genial host Norm Wilner is really just an enabler here, but also  feels he really underestimated what Keanu Reeves was doing the first time around. (Also, have you subscribed to Norm's Shiny Things newsletter yet? You really should!)

Filmmaker Nathalie Bibeau (The Walrus and the Whistleblower, and the new Prime Video miniseriesThe Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith) saw Into the Wild, Sean Penn's 2007 film about the life and death of Chris McCandless, at exactly the right moment in her development as an artist. Your genial host Norm Wilner wants to hear all about that ... and he also wants you to know his Shiny Things newsletter – a weekly dispatch about physical media, culture and maybe even the odd streaming show – is now up and running. Subscribe right here! You'll like it!

Actor Rong Fu  -- whom you might know from Pretty Hard Cases and Hello (Again), and who's now a member of the Enterprise bridge crew in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds -- is here to talk about discovering Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 in her teens, and the rush that came with discovering Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii and realizing badass villains could be more than just one-dimensional antagonists. Your genial host Norm Wilner gets it, he really does. (And check out Norm's new newsletter project Shiny Things, a weekly look at physical media, culture and probably some streaming titles as well, because that's how we all live now.)

Filmmaker Chase Joynt -- whose metatextual documentary Framing Agnes makes its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs this week -- unpacks the layers of Cheryl Dunye's 1996 indie breakout The Watermelon Woman, a film that was easily 25 years ahead of its time in its exploration of race, representation, privilege and sexuality. Your genial host Norm Wilner can't believe what he missed the first time around, although he's glad we've left VHS behind.  And don't forget, the entire first year of this podcast is still available for purchase for only $20 (!) at payhip.com/semcast. That's 52 episodes! Days of listening pleasure!

Writer, producer and performer Stephanie Kaliner -- whose delightful new series Pinecone & Pony just dropped on Apple TV+ -- is here to share her love of Disney's 2016 animated smash Moana, another fantastical tale of a young woman who learns that being a hero and saving the world can be ... complicated. Your genial host Norm Wilner is Team Hei Hei all the way, and would also like to remind you that the entire first year of this podcast is still available for purchase (and only $20!) at payhip.com/semcast. You're welcome.

It's National Canadian Film Day on Wednesday, and filmmaker Michael McGowan -- director of Saint Ralph, One Week, Still Mine and now All My Puny Sorrows , which opened in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal last weekend and reaches Winnipeg this Friday, April 22nd -- is here to celebrate Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, the secretly Canadian 1997 drama that won Robin Williams  his only Oscar and catapulted screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to superstardom. Your genial host Norm Wilner is a little uneasy about the Harvey Weinstein of it all, but he offers a distraction by reminding you that the Someone Else's Movie: Year One collection is still just $20 at payhip.com/semcast . Hours of listening fun! Packed with Canadian talent! How do you like them apples?

Toronto filmmaker Martin Edralin, whose award-winning first feature Islands plays the TIFF Bell Lightbox tonight (April 12th) through Thursday (April 14th), unpacks the tensions at play in Korean master Lee Chang-dong's almost unbearably empathetic Secret Sunshine, a study of a woman carrying the weight of unimaginable loss that earned star Jeon Do-yeon the Best Actress prize at Cannes in 2007. Your genial host Norm Wilner is braced for impact, and reminds you the first year of the podcast can be yours at payhip.com/semcast for just twenty dollars. That's 52 episodes, 46 of which are unavailable to stream anywhere, including gems like Scott Thompson on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Chandler Levack on Can't Hardly Wait. Just saying.

With her new drama Marlene opening this Friday in Toronto, Guelph, Edmonton and Calgary, actor Kristin Booth (Foolproof, Orphan Black, Workin' Moms, the Signed, Sealed, Delivered series and more) is here to declare her undying love for the self-aware magic of Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, which made heartthrobs of Robin Wright and Cary Elwes, gave Mandy Patinkin one of his finest screen roles and taught kids of all ages to appreciate the occasional kissing book. Your genial host Norm Wilner remains just as smitten, honestly, and would like to remind you that the first year of the podcast can be yours at payhip.com/semcast for just twenty dollars. Hours of listening pleasure, including episodes with Kristin's Young People Fucking co-stars Aaron Abrams and Ennis Esmer! It's either this or join the Brute Squad, and really who wants that.

Actor Alex Mallari Jr. -- whom you may remember from Dark Matter, Ginny & Georgia, Workin' Moms, The Adam Project, Transplant and as the star of the brand-new CBC Gem digital series Hello (Again) -- shares his love for Boaz Yakin's 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans. Your genial host Norm Wilner has never been much of a football guy, honestly, but -- wait, is that Ryan Gosling? Oh, and while we're remembering things, the first year of Someone Else's Movie is available to download -- ad-free, in glorious mono! -- for just $20 at payhip.com/semcast . That's 52 episodes, 46 of which aren't available anywhere else. Go check that out.

ANOTHER Friday bonus episode! Nathalie Younglai, co-creator, co-writer and executive producer of the new digital series Hello (Again), is here to talk about Domee Shi's Turning Red, another story of an Asian-Canadian protagonist whose life is up-ended by supernatural events. Your genial host Norm Wilner just likes seeing his old building in CG.Hello (Again)  is now streaming across Canada on CBC Gem. And don't forget, the first year of Someone Else's Movie  is now available  to own at payhip.com/semcast . Hours of ad-free podcast gold for just $20! Really, it's a bargain for the ages.

With his debut feature Learn to Swim opening in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday,  filmmaker Thyrone Tommy trawls the surprising depths of Jerry Zucker's Ghost, the 1990 blockbuster that combined Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg in a story that functions as a slapstick farce, a swooning romantic tragedy and a supernatural action thriller, and sometimes does it all at once. Your genial host Norm Wilner says: Ditto. And don't forget, the first year of SEMcast can (and should) be yours for just $20 at payhip.com/semcast!

It was David Cronenberg's birthday this week, and Halifax filmmaker Seth Smith's creepy new movie Tin Can hits VOD today, so there's no better time for a Friday bonus episode tackling the grand romantic horror of The Fly -- Cronenberg's 1986 body-horror classic that paired Jeff Goldblum as a disintegrating genius and Geena Davis as the woman determined to love him no matter what he becomes. Your genial host Norm Wilner politely reminds you that Year One of the podcast can still be yours for just $20 at payhip.com/semcast . 

It's SEMcast's seventh anniversary, and filmmaker Igor Drljača -- whose new drama The White Fortress screens at TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of Canada's Top Ten tomorrow night, Wednesday March 16th, before hitting TIFF's streaming platform March 25th -- is here to take us on a trip to Punishment Park, Peter Watkins' distressingly perceptive 1971 thriller about America's slide towards fascism. Your genial host Norm Wilner wants you to know that the first year of this podcast is now available to own for just $20 at payhip.com/semcast . That's 52 episodes of SEMcast goodness, 46 of them no longer available to stream, with guests like Aaron Abrams, Katie Boland, Kristian Bruun, Ennis Esmer, Nelson George, John Maclean, Natalie Merchant, Scott Thompson, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and many, many more. Full track listing at payhip.com/semcast. Support the podcast! Get hours and hours of entertainment! Everybody wins!

Actor and filmmaker Agam Darshi -- whose first feature Donkeyhead is streaming on Netflix in most of the world, and opens in Toronto, Regina and Saskatoon today, is here to talk William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Baz Lurhmann's swoony 1996 adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy that minted Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the hearts of young moviegoers everywhere ... even as it alienated some older critics. Your genial host Norm Wilner has oft felt like fortune's fool, if he's being honest.

With his remarkable new drama After Yang  in theatres across the US and opening in Canada this Friday, March 11th, writer-director Kogonada is here to discuss the delicate beauty and endless resonance of Hirokazu Kore-eda's After Life, the 1998 drama that wondered what memories we'd be willing to take with us into eternity. Your genial host Norm Wilner is just here to facilitate, really.

Lifelong pals and frequent co-stars Ennis Esmer and Aaron Abrams mark the end of the first season of Children Ruin Everything by arguing about the entire 007 franchise: The highs, the lows, the tonal shifts, the changing leading men, the quiet refusal to really embrace creative chances that could keep the series fresh. Your genial host Norm Wilner bought a fluffy white cat for this.

With his new Foo Fighters horror-comedy Studio 666 in theaters this Friday, February 25th, filmmaker BJ McDonnell throws his hat in the ring for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, the movie that cemented Harrison Ford's superstar status, revived a forgotten genre of action cinema, kicked off a franchise that is, incredibly enough, rolling into its fifth decade and took an unambiguous stance on punching Nazis . Your genial host Norm Wilner is okay with that.

This week, Josephine Decker -- director of Madeleine’s Madeleine, Shirley and the brand-new Apple TV+ drama The Sky Is Everywhere -- drops in to celebrate Babe, director Chris Noonan and producer George Miller’s 1995 live-action adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s children’s book The Sheep-Pig  and one of the sweetest, most deeply human films ever made about animals. Your genial host Norm Wilner thinks James Cromwell was robbed, by the way.