Girl with a Camera

This year's Oscars are approaching quickly and we don't even know who is going to be nominated but I don't think there is any doubt that Jane Campion's masterpiece The Power of the Dog will get the nomination and according to my opinion, it will win Best Picture as well.

In this episode I'm discussing top actors whose performances were ignored by The Academy and didn't receive any nominations for their performances.

Have you watched the new docu-film on Netflix The Tinder Swindler? It's a true story of a guy who fooled women all around Europe to give him over 10 million dollars for his lifestyle. A fraudster who pretended to be a millionaire was looking for gold diggers to fool them into sending him money. 

Simon Cox has been a filmmaker his whole life. He brought Hollywood into the UK with his film Invasion Planet Earth when he turned the streets of Birmingham into an Alien war zone. 900 supporters joined his filming to run away from enemies attacking Planet Earth. Simon is currently raising money for his new film Of Infinite Worlds with selling 20,000 mugs: https://www.ofinfiniteworlds.com

Director, producer and writer Dom Lenoir talks with me about the importance of aiming for excellence rather than just trying to make a good film. You learn so much even if you fall short on your goal. It plays a big role especially when you transition from shorts to features. Dom is a producer so he also talks about how to pitch your film and what definitely not to do.

Craig made his debut feature film in 1995 and currently has at least 4 films in production. We talk about all the obstacles you come across before you're able to make your film but also while you're making it. It is a never ending struggle but that's what we love about it. Are we a bit of masochists or are we just crazy?

I'm talking to Aharon Keshales, Israeli film director of a horror film Rabies (the best film of the year in Quentin Tarantino's words), South Of Heaven starring Jason Sudeikis. Aharon tells his story of becoming a filmmaker with all the bumps on the road. Started as a film critic, he made a horror film which wasn't a huge success in Israel which seemed like an end to his career as a director but then Rabies scored a lot of success internationally and catapulted his career into the Hollywood.

I talked to jack of all trades Raine McCormack who made his first feature film The Village in the Woods (Available on Prime Video, Apple TV). Raine shares great advice for filmmakers who want to make their features, what are the pitfalls, what mistakes he's done along the way, pros and cons of filming locations, but also he was able to catch the real paranormal activity on camera! And he kept it in the film. Go watch it!

I'm talking to a director of a feature documentary A Manchester Story Anton Arenko. It was actually his first documentary he has ever made and we talked about all the joys and challenges that came with it.

Get into the Christmas mood and listen to my interview with film director Shaun Piccinino about his sequel A California Christmas: City Lights - streaming now on Netflix. Shaun has 5 films on Netflix and he talks about how do you get there as a film director.