Awards math, festival heat, blunt film talk.
IndieWire: Screen Talk tracks Hollywood from the angle of people watching the business, not just the movies. Its episodes move quickly between Cannes speculation, Oscar logic, studio maneuvering, festival dispatches, and candid reactions to what just opened.
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IndieWire: Screen Talk is film talk with the showroom lights turned off and the campaign machinery still humming. It follows Hollywood through the pieces that shape reputation: festival lineups, award-season math, studio sales, guild voting, box office surprises, embargo culture, and the uneasy afterlife of big industry nights. The pace is brisk. The assumptions are advanced. Recent episodes move through Cannes lineup expectations, Warner sale drama, BAFTA controversy, Berlin political debates, Spirit Awards disappointment, SAG and PGA predictions, Oscar rule changes, and the strange anticlimax after the Academy Awards. New releases are treated as arguments waiting to happen. A movie’s quality, its budget, its weekend drop, its distributor, and its awards path all get pulled into the same frame. The show can be dryly amused, openly skeptical, or briefly exasperated, but it usually lands on a concrete industry read. That is its rhythm. It does not linger in fan-service recap. It asks what a movie’s reception means, who is benefiting, who misjudged the room, and which precursor might actually predict the final vote. The Oscar episodes are especially deep in the weeds, weighing Best Picture sentiment against PGA, DGA, BAFTA, ACE, SAG, and old exceptions to the usual rules. Festival coverage works similarly, using Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Sonoma, SXSW, Santa Barbara, and TIFF references as part of a larger map of momentum. Interviews appear, but they keep the same trade-and-craft pulse. Christopher Abbott’s segment moves from Death of a Salesman to East of Eden and audition process. Jeremy O. Harris’s live appearance turns toward festivals, collaboration, and the community around making television and film. The result is a sharp weekly read for people who do not just watch movies, but follow how the industry decides what matters.
Made for: For film-industry watchers, Oscar pool obsessives, festival followers, and serious moviegoers who already know the names and want sharper context. It suits listeners who enjoy candid judgment backed by trade logic.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is the combination of critical reaction and industry mechanics. It treats taste, box office, guild momentum, festival positioning, and campaign narrative as one connected conversation.
Each week on Screen Talk, IndieWire's Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio debate the indie film world and beyond -- from film festivals to new releases and the future of the business.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Screen Talk connects film judgment to the festivals, awards bodies, business decisions and working relationships that shape Hollywood.
Screen Talk turns Hollywood's moving parts into a lively argument between Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio. Their conversations connect Cannes selections, box-office results, studio sales and Oscar predictions, with disagreements left visible instead of tidied into a single…
A Best Picture prediction meets the room's love for Sinners, and your ballot gets interesting.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Box office chatter and Jeremy Harris give the live Lincoln Center hour its shape.
Screen Talk starts loose, with Anne Thompson and Ryan Latanzio easing into box office talk while Jeremy Harris is still on his way in. The A24 drama's 28 million run and 28 percent second-weekend drop give the opening a useful frame, and the reminder that a twisty premise is…
Cannes gets a sharp morning-after start, then the episode moves to Christopher Abbott.
Ryan Lattanzio opens Screen Talk after the break by heading straight into this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup with David Ehrlich, and the exchange lands with an easy, dry humor.
A grounded Oscar forecast weighs precursor wins against voter behavior, room feeling, and the chance of a Sinners upset.
Screen Talk frames the Oscar race as a tug between hard industry signals and the looser pull of voter instinct. Live from New York, Ryan LaTonzio and Ann Thompson move through the Academy's expectation that voters watch every movie in every category, while acknowledging that…
A Warner Bros. Discovery shock runs into BAFTA fallout, guild signals, and Oscar math.
Screen Talk opens on a Hollywood week where dealmaking and awards season collide. Paramount's declared win over Netflix in the Warner Bros. Discovery bid sets the tone, with the hosts also dwelling on Ted Sarandos' White House meeting with Pam Bondi and the look he carried…
A clear industry check-in on the Spirit Awards, Berlin's politics, and films still chasing awards-season attention.
Screen Talk catches independent film at an uneasy point, moving from a flat Spirit Awards weekend to Berlin's political arguments and an Oscar race that still has room to shift.
A Cannes lineup check-in gives way to Christopher Abbott's thoughtful account of finding Biff in Death of a Salesman.
Screen Talk starts with the Cannes Film Festival lineup, as Ryan Lattanzio and chief film critic David Ehrlich sort through the latest activity in France before the episode turns to Christopher Abbott.
A pointed Oscar postmortem on backstage access, press-room hierarchy, and the odd quiet after awards night.
IndieWire's Screen Talk ends its Oscar coverage by treating the awards-season comedown as more than fatigue. Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio move from the numb feeling after months of Oscar fixation into the practical grind of backstage reporting: tracking the show, catching…
New Orleans film talk from the working room.
Strength talk for body and identity.
Career retrospectives with Hollywood memory and context.
Ryan Lattanzio and David Ehrlich analyze the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lineup, noting its anti-commercial, art-house focus with few big American films.
This episode of Screen Talk reviews the film '28 Years Later,' discusses Oscar race updates, and previews the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.
IndieWire's Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio review the Oscars from inside the Dolby Theatre, analyzing wins for 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another.' They critique Conan O'Brien's monologue and discuss Timothée Chalamet's loss.
Screen Talk goes live at Lincoln Center.
Screen Talk is back after a well-earned break last week.
This episode of Screen Talk discusses Warner CEO David Zaslav's exit, analyzes the box office success of 'Project Hail Mary', previews potential Cannes Film Festival movies, and shares reactions to new releases like Steven Soderbergh's film.
This episode of Screen Talk provides an insider review of the Oscars from the Dolby Theatre, discusses issues with Oscars press coverage, and explores what's next for this year's winners.
This episode of Screen Talk features hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio discussing recent Hollywood news including praise for 'Project Hail Mary', Oscar short film predictions, and a SXSW preview.
Screen Talk opens live in New York with reactions to the major release opening that week.
IndieWire's Screen Talk opens with Paramount Skydance's higher bid for Warner Bros.
Screen Talk opens with the Independent Spirit Awards, which Anne Thompson and Ryan LaTonzio call "dispiriting" after a livestream peak of about 6,000 viewers.
This episode of Screen Talk reviews Edgar Wright's 'The Running Man', discusses how box office impacts the Oscar race, and previews the upcoming Governors Awards in Hollywood.
This episode discusses the growing significance of regional festivals like Middleburg in the awards season, featuring insights from Anne Thompson's recent experience at the festival.
This episode of Screen Talk reviews 'The Fantastic Four First Steps', analyzes fall festival lineups, and discusses Stephen Colbert's exit from late-night TV.
This episode discusses the Primetime Emmy nominations, reactions to Ari Aster's film 'Eddington', and previews the upcoming Venice Film Festival lineup.