HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR director Andrius Blaževičius joins INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE to discuss Lithuania’s official Oscar submission and his Sundance-winning drama about marriage, Ukraine, propaganda and moral compromise.

Marija tells her husband Vytas that she wants a divorce on February 23, 2022. The next morning, Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Blaževičius uses the fracture of one family to reflect a larger crisis: a Europe divided by fear, political polarization and the temptation to choose personal comfort over collective responsibility.

In this extended conversation, he discusses the atmosphere in Lithuania during the first months of the invasion, political divisions within families, changing gender roles and the challenge of finding bittersweet humor in people attempting to behave honorably—and failing their own ideals.

He also takes Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge inside the film’s remarkably natural performances and explains why the couple’s young daughter becomes its quiet witness, seeing far more than her parents understand.

HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR won the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is Lithuania’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.

00:00 A Marriage and a Continent in Crisis
00:08 Introducing HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR
01:00 INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE
01:30 The Conversation Begins
02:04 Building a Story Around Divorce and War
04:03 Lithuania’s Fear: “We’re Next”
05:37 When Political Division Enters the Family
07:31 Comfort vs. Collective Responsibility
09:40 HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR Official Trailer
11:40 Making the Political Personal
14:29 Weak Men, Strong Women and Changing Roles
17:41 Performances That Feel Like a Documentary
21:31 Finding Humor in Difficult Times
24:41 Characters Who Fail Their Own Ideals
28:50 Dovilė: The Child Who Sees Everything
31:32 Why the Film’s World Looks So Gray
34:42 Choosing Comfort Over Truth
37:12 Sundance, the Oscars and the Film’s U.S. Release
38:40 Closing

The film is now playing in U.S. theaters.

Tickets, theaters and more information:
https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/how-to-divorce-during-the-war

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There is no straight line through the life of Franz Kafka.

FRANZ director and three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland joins INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE for an extended conversation about Kafka and her bold, unconventional new film, a TIFF 2025 Official Selection.

Rather than trying to solve the mystery of Kafka, Holland enters it—moving through dreams, letters, loves, fears and contradictions to find the fragile, funny and fiercely determined man obscured by a century of mythology.

Past and present collide as Prague remembers Kafka, reinvents him and transforms a once-suppressed writer into a modern cultural brand. At the center is Idan Weiss, whose quietly affecting performance lets us glimpse the living man behind the literary icon.

Holland reflects on discovering The Trial as a teenager and coming to regard Kafka as an "admired brother"—someone she wanted, in her words, to bring out of the shadows and into color and light.

She also takes us inside the making of FRANZ: its restless, fragmented structure; the creative freedom that allowed her to approach the film like "quantum physics"; finding Idan Weiss; and the challenge of bringing Kafka's terrifying "In the Penal Colony" to the screen.

Along the way, Holland speaks candidly about Hollywood, the disappearance of ambitious middle-scale cinema and the artistic fearlessness she has found at this stage of her career.

What emerges is both a portrait of Kafka and a conversation about the elusive act of filmmaking itself—how we search for someone across time, how stories resist explanation and how mystery can sometimes bring us closer to the truth.

Join Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge for an intimate conversation with Agnieszka Holland about FRANZ.

FRANZ opens in U.S. theaters Friday, August 21, 2026.

Tickets, theaters and more information:

https://cohenmedia.net/product/franz

CHAPTERS

00:00 Agnieszka Holland on Kafka's Contradictions

00:24 Introducing FRANZ

01:51 The Conversation Begins

02:34 Kafka as Holland's "Admired Brother"

05:48 Searching for the Man Behind the Myth

08:56 Making a Film Like "Quantum Physics"

12:16 Creative Freedom and Filmmaking Without Fear

15:40 Hollywood and the Disappearing "Cinema of the Middle"

19:37 Why Kafka Is Frighteningly Relevant Again

19:47 Prague: From Banned Writer to Cultural Brand

21:22 Finding Idan Weiss

25:34 The Terror of "In the Penal Colony"

28:39 FRANZ Official Trailer

30:49 A Life Told Through Fragments and Puzzles

33:06 Creating an Epic Period Film in 40 Days

33:55 Building the Visual World of FRANZ

36:09 Did Making the Film Solve the Mystery of Kafka?

37:19 Remembering Andrzej Wajda

39:29 Where to See FRANZ

40:14 Closing

Subscribe to INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE on YouTube for more in-depth conversations with the filmmakers shaping independent, international and arthouse cinema:

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Why would a woman pretend to be pregnant for nine months — and how do you tell her story without reducing her to either a victim or a villain?

Two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi joins INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE to discuss A CHILD OF MY OWN, her provocative new Netflix documentary about Alejandra, a woman whose desperate desire to become a mother leads her to construct an elaborate lie — and ultimately cross an irreversible line.

Alberdi takes us inside the film's striking creative process, including its blend of documentary testimony, casting sessions, stylized dramatic reconstruction, and conflicting accounts of what actually happened. She discusses the enormous social pressure placed on women to become mothers, the difficulty of separating truth from self-created narrative, and her determination to understand Alejandra without excusing her actions.

The conversation also explores the ethical responsibility of documentary filmmakers, the relationship between performance and reality, and why Alberdi wants audiences to question their own judgments as the story unfolds.

CHAPTERS

Join us for a thoughtful and revealing conversation with one of contemporary documentary cinema's most distinctive filmmakers.

Follow: @laemmle, @OfficialRaphaelSbarge, @Netflix

Please subscribe to INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE for more in-depth conversations with the filmmakers shaping independent, international, and arthouse cinema. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

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What happens when recognition arrives decades after you’ve stopped waiting for it?

Director Kent Jones joins INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE to discuss LATE FAME, starring Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, and Edmund Donovan.

Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a forgotten New York poet who abandoned his literary ambitions for a steady job at the post office. When an enthusiastic young admirer appears at his door, Ed is welcomed into a circle of twenty-something artists who proclaim him a rediscovered genius.

Suddenly celebrated again—and drawn to Gloria, a magnetic but precariously situated actress and singer played by Greta Lee—Ed begins to wonder whether this unexpected second act might be real.

Directed by Jones from a screenplay by Oscar-nominated MAY DECEMBER writer Samy Burch, LATE FAME is funny, tender, and quietly piercing: a film about artistic ambition, flattery, belonging, lost time, and the elusive question of what makes a life in art authentic.

Jones discusses adapting Arthur Schnitzler’s novella for contemporary New York, Willem Dafoe’s deeply lived-in performance, Greta Lee’s transformation into the flamboyant and vulnerable Gloria, and the film’s unforgettable use of the Brecht-Weill song “Surabaya Johnny.”

He also reflects on capturing present-day New York while allowing the ghosts of its artistic past to remain visible beneath the surface—a city of poets, performers, dreamers, and would-be geniuses searching for a place to belong.

Kent Jones is the director of DIANE and HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT, as well as A LETTER TO ELIA, which he co-directed with Martin Scorsese. A celebrated film critic and former director of the New York Film Festival, Jones brings a lifetime of thinking about cinema to this deeply humane portrait of artists and their illusions.

Episode timestamps:

00:00 What Happens When Fame Comes Too Late?
01:40 Introducing LATE FAME and Kent Jones
02:30 How Samy Burch’s Screenplay Reached Kent Jones
04:50 New York’s Past Living Inside the Present
09:00 Fame, Flattery and the Need to Belong
12:10 LATE FAME Trailer
14:30 Willem Dafoe as Forgotten Poet Ed Saxberger
17:00 Greta Lee’s Transformation into Gloria
18:50 Authenticity, Ambition and Living a Life in Art
22:20 Why Poetry Matters in LATE FAME
25:40 Capturing the Ghosts of Downtown New York
28:00 From Film Critic to Filmmaker
31:00 Kent Jones on Directing Actors
34:20 Art, Illusion and the Search for Recognition
38:20 What Kent Jones Hopes Audiences Take Away
40:20 Closing

LATE FAME is distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

Subscribe to INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Watch the complete filmed conversation on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwB-ioi_dD-Lr8PUjdkBWyw

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Ten states, 10,825 miles, and 123 theaters. Director Rustin Thompson joins Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge to discuss THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS and the people keeping America’s small-town cinemas alive.

Independent movie theaters, small-town cinemas, and the fight to preserve theatrical moviegoing are at the heart of THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS, a new documentary from filmmaker Rustin Thompson.

Ten states. 10,825 miles. 123 theaters.

Thompson traveled across the American West searching for what remained of a once-essential center of small-town life: the local movie theater. He encountered abandoned cinemas, theaters struggling to survive, and devoted owners working against extraordinary odds to keep their screens—and their communities—alive.

What began as an elegy for a disappearing American institution became something more hopeful: a story of resilience, connection, and the people who still believe that gathering together to watch a movie matters.

The documentary draws inspiration from Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic THE LAST PICTURE SHOW—singular—while THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS—plural—turns its attention to the real movie houses confronting streaming, consolidation, changing audience habits, and the lingering effects of the pandemic.

Join Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge for a conversation with director Rustin Thompson about his 10,825-mile journey, the future of independent movie theaters, and the people determined to keep the lights on.

CHAPTERS

00:00 What Happens When the Last Theater Goes Dark?
01:30 THE LAST PICTURE SHOWS
02:00 Meet Director Rustin Thompson
05:30 Journeying Through America’s Cinema Deserts
09:25 The People Keeping Theaters Alive
12:55 From an Elegy to a Story of Hope
16:25 Finding 123 Small-Town Movie Theaters
19:55 Why These Theaters Matter to Their Communities
26:20 The Struggle to Keep the Lights On
29:20 Abandoned Theaters and Vanishing History
33:20 Streaming and the Future of Moviegoing
35:00 Ten States, 10,825 Miles, 123 Theaters
36:35 Why the Big-Screen Experience Still Matters
39:05 Closing Thoughts

Follow @laemmle and @OfficialRaphaelSbarge.

Subscribe to INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE for more conversations with the filmmakers, artists, and exhibitors keeping independent cinema alive. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

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Luis Valdez, LA BAMBA, ZOOT SUIT, Chicano cinema, and El Teatro Campesino take center stage in AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ, director David Alvarado's documentary about a groundbreaking American artist.

From performing on flatbed trucks for farmworkers with El Teatro Campesino to bringing ZOOT SUIT to Broadway and directing LA BAMBA, Luis Valdez transformed American theater and cinema — creating space for Chicano stories, history, humor, and identity.

In this episode of INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE, hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge speak with David Alvarado about making AMERICAN PACHUCO, tracing Valdez's extraordinary career, and examining the cultural movement that grew alongside his work.

It is more than the story of one pioneering artist. It is the story of who gets to be seen, who gets to belong, and whose experiences become part of the American canon.

Find screenings and learn more about AMERICAN PACHUCO: https://www.americanpachuco.com/

CHAPTERS

Follow the film and filmmakers on Instagram:

Hosts: @laemmle and @OfficialRaphaelSbarge

Please subscribe to INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE for more in-depth conversations with the filmmakers shaping independent, international, and documentary cinema. Like, comment, and share — and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

#AmericanPachuco #LuisValdez #ChicanoCinema

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Celebrate Bastille Day with highlights from four filmmaker conversations featuring Rebecca Zlotowski, François Ozon, Louise Courvoisier, and Laura Piani—and the films A Private Life, The Stranger, Holy Cow, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

To mark Bastille Day, we’re revisiting four conversations from the INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE archive—highlights from interviews with the filmmakers behind some of the most compelling contemporary French films.

Director Rebecca Zlotowski discusses family, memory, identity, and the mysteries hidden within our closest relationships in A Private Life, starring Jodie Foster.

Director François Ozon reflects on reimagining Albert Camus’ L’Étranger for a new generation in The Stranger.

Director Louise Courvoisier explores the warmth, humor, and lived-in authenticity of rural France in Holy Cow.

Director Laura Piani discusses love, literature, creative ambition, and writing a heroine whose aspirations matter as much as her romances in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Four films. Four distinctive voices. One enduring tradition: French cinema’s appetite for stories that are bold, intimate, provocative, and deeply human.

Celebrate Bastille Day with this special selection from the INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE library of filmmaker conversations.

Follow INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and please leave us a rating and review. It helps other film lovers discover the show.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Celebrating Contemporary French Cinema
01:24 A Private Life — Director Rebecca Zlotowski on Memory, Mystery & Identity
10:14 The Stranger — Director François Ozon Reimagines Albert Camus
19:10 Holy Cow — Director Louise Courvoisier on Rural France, Family & Authenticity
24:28 Jane Austen Wrecked My Life — Director Laura Piani on Love, Literature & Self-Discovery

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David Wain joins us to talk about his new comedy, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass — a Sundance 2026 Official Selection starring Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, and John Slattery, from Sony Pictures Classics.

The premise is deliberately, gloriously absurd: a Midwestern bride-to-be discovers her fiancé has used his "celebrity pass" to cheat — and sets off for Los Angeles to even the score with her own pass, Jon Hamm. What follows is a full-tilt Hollywood comedy that never apologizes for being exactly what it is.

We talk with Wain about writing the film with longtime collaborator Ken Marino, assembling a cast that spans three generations of comedy, shooting an original comedy entirely on location in Los Angeles, and why comedy for comedy's sake has become an increasingly rare thing to see on screen.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is directed by David Wain, written by Ken Marino & David Wain, and releases in theaters July 10, 2026, from Sony Pictures Classics.

0:00 Intro: David Wain on Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE is an in-depth conversation series with filmmakers across independent and arthouse cinema. Hosted by Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge in partnership with Laemmle Theatres.

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Documentary filmmaking, indie films, and arthouse movies take center stage in this special Fourth of July episode of Inside the Arthouse — a film podcast dedicated to independent film, indie cinema, and the voices that define American storytelling.

While much of the industry turns to reboots, sequels, franchises, and superheroes, we're turning to a different kind of American story — films driven by voice, risk, authenticity, and the courage to see the world differently.

In this special edition, we revisit a curated selection from our library of more than 100 filmmaker interviews — five films that remind us why independent film remains essential to American film culture.

These are the films that don't just entertain us. They ask us to look closer, feel more deeply, and think beyond the familiar. From arthouse movies rooted in character and place to indie films powered by pure creative vision, this is the American cinema that matters.

As America marks its 250th birthday, we celebrate the documentary and independent storytellers who prove that American cinema is at its best when it dares to be independent.

Join us for this special Fourth of July edition of Inside the Arthouse: American Independents.

0:00 Introduction: American Independence in Cinema

Inside the Arthouse is a digital series featuring in-depth conversations with filmmakers across independent and arthouse cinema. Hosted by Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge in partnership with Laemmle Theatres, the series explores film distribution, the creative process, and the evolving landscape of cinema.

Find Inside the Arthouse on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

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Carla Simón’s new film ROMERÍA follows Marina, a young woman who travels to Galicia in search of the truth about the parents she never really knew. What begins as a practical errand becomes something harder to name — an excavation of memory, silence, and the stories families carry across generations.

In this conversation, Simón reflects on the autobiographical roots of the film, the challenge of transforming private history into cinema, working with young performers, and the delicate balance between grief, imagination, and discovery.

Following the international success of SUMMER 1993 and ALCARRÀS, ROMERÍA may be her most personal film yet.

INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE is hosted by Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge in partnership with Laemmle Theatres. New episodes every week — follow wherever you listen.

Episode Guide:

0:00 Introduction: The Inspiration Behind ROMERÍA
2:17 Exploring Personal Grief and Memory
5:51 Historical Memory and the Heroin Crisis in Spain
7:09 Connecting with Biological Roots
8:34 Clip: Investigating the Past
11:34 The Mystery of Memory and Family Secrets
14:01 Using Personal Letters as Narrative Tools
15:51 The Casting Process: Mixing Non-Actors and Professionals
18:01 The Benefit of Three-Month Rehearsals
26:01 Trailer Analysis and Cinematic Approach
30:05 Defining the Title: ROMERÍA as Pilgrimage and Celebration
33:04 Cinema as Personal Therapy
34:03 Audience Reception and Future Projects

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