In this festive edition of the show, our music critics Marjorie Hache and Florence Villeminot take a look back over the highs and lows of 2020. This year, the world was brought to a standstill by the Covid-19 pandemic, which inevitably impacted the music industry as whole. How have artists coped with the various lockdowns and restrictions? What were the big hits of the year and our favourite interviews? And what are we looking forward to in 2021?

French Prime Minister Jean Castex dashed hopes among art lovers and industry professionals when he announced that theatres, museums and cinemas in France would not be permitted to open before the New Year. Olivia Salazar-Winspear takes a look at some of the frustration felt in the film industry, where producers and distributors had been looking forward to a lucrative moment for new releases.

As the pandemic continues to stand in the way of filming, here in France, the popular soap opera "Plus Belle La Vie", or "Life's So Sweet", has had to turn to cutting-edge technology to get round the absence of a self-isolating cast member. The show, which is set in the southern city of Marseille, called on the help of an anonymous French YouTuber specialised in the art of "deepfake", a technique which allows faces to be superimposed onto bodies.

FRANCE 24's film critic Lisa Nesselson speaks to Eve Jackson about the week's film news, including her favourite French film of the year, the lesbian love story "Deux" or "Two of Us", that's been submitted to the Oscars in the International Film category. We also look at some remarkable images ahead of the 125th anniversary of the world's first public movie screening on December 28, 1895 in Paris.

She's co-written some of the best breakup songs of all time. If you don't know her face, you almost certainly know the words she helped write for Ariana Grande that got her nominated for a Grammy or the songs she co-wrote for Christina Aguilera and Janelle Monáe. Eve Jackson speaks to Tayla Parx about her transition from child actor in "Hairspray", "Gilmore Girls" and "True Jackson, VP" to being dubbed the secret weapon behind radio's top 40 and her second solo album "Coping Mechanisms".

With nearly two decades of music behind her, Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun has made a name for herself the world over as a moving and passionate songwriter. This autumn, she's back with her first body of original music in five years, two albums released a month apart: "After the Great Storm" and "How Beauty Holds the Hand of Sorrow". She tells FRANCE 24's Florence Villeminot about the different moods and musical landscapes on the album and how they reflect two sides of her.

Rio de Janeiro’s ballet dancers had been performing for months without receiving their salaries when Vincent Rimbaux put them in the frame of his Emmy award-winning documentary “Ressaca”. The director tells us why the city’s municipal opera house is a microcosm of wider problems in Brazil’s public sector, pushing artists to leave the country in search of opportunities abroad. The lockdown has provided an unexpected musical high for a cellist here in Paris, as the empty streets and silent monuments of the French capital provide the perfect stage for a series of special events.

She was the first British female singer-songwriter to achieve international success. Hits such as "Love and Affection" and "Me Myself I" in the 70s made her a household name, but other songs like "Barefoot and Pregnant" now a feminist anthem, and "Rosie" about a transgender character have become cultural landmarks. As Joan Armatrading turns 70, she speaks to Eve Jackson about getting a CBE from the Queen and the UK's Women of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, being asked to write a song for Nelson Mandela and how she sees the future of the music industry after the pandemic.

The director of “Seven”, “Fight Club” and “The Social Network” has made his latest, critically-acclaimed feature for streaming service Netflix: “Mank” transports us to the Hollywood of the screenwriter responsible for “Citizen Kane”. Film critic Lisa Nesselson tells us why this stylish return to the Golden Age of cinema is a must-see today. We discuss a new ranking of the 21st century’s best actors, tipping our respective caps to France’s Isabelle Huppert.

A genre-blurring, polyphonic thriller about the double lives of passengers aboard a flight from Paris to New York, has won this year’s Goncourt prize. French author Hervé Le Tellier was awarded France’s top literary prize for his novel “l’Anomalie” (The Anomaly). This year marked a change to tradition for the prize; for the first time in over a century, the Goncourt Academy didn’t meet to decide the winner at the gastronomic Druant restaurant, but instead met over the video conference platform Zoom.