The Film Stage Presents

Take one step into the world of festivals and you'll understand that making a movie isn't just "making a movie." Even if one has the fortune to get some money for the script they've slaved over, get some actors in front of a camera, and survive the labyrinthine editing process, a veritable mountain of tasks faces those hoping to actually get the thing up and running. I might not know anybody who's better-learned in these spaces than my friend Gabe Klinger, who has worked in festivals, programming, criticism, and filmmaking, with his third feature, Isabel, debuting at this year's Berlinale.

Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today, however, we talk about Oscar movies (!), or better yet, movies that remind us of Oscar movies!

Conor and I welcome back the great Chris Feil, co-host of This Had Oscar Buzz! Today, we dive into defunct Academy Awards categories! 

The movies include In Old Chicago (which won the Oscar for Best Assistant Director, a category that was discontinued after this 1938 ceremony), The Americanization of Emily (which was nominated for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) in its final year of competition), the much-maligned film adaptation of A Little Night Music (which won for, deep breath, Best Music, Original Song Score, and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score), and finally Sleepers (which was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score, back during the time when there were two categories for music, Original Dramatic Score and Original Musical or Comedy Score).

We talk about the upcoming (or just-aired, depending on when you listen) 2026 Academy Awards, the recent Oscar season and its surprises, changes that could be made to the format to make it more interesting, and personal favorites from the 2025 movie year.

Additionally, we talk about Elizabeth Taylor singing in A Little Night Music, the endurance of the animated film Shrek (which won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature back in 2002), and that time James Garner and Steve McQueen had a falling out because Garner starred in Grand Prix.

Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Last month brought suitable mourning for Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman, whose legacies are so enshrined that the lengthy obituaries published by major outlets could have—likely were—written years ago. But immediately after came a quieter announcement that hit me hardest: Tom Noonan, the actor best-known for his collaborations with Michael Mann and Charlie Kaufman, and a filmmaker who made formally elegant and emotionally lacerating features based on his own plays. (As discussed in my 2021 interview with him.) While his passing may, to various film institutions, not seem so notable as Duvall or Wiseman, I noticed that the online reaction was essentially as instant and admiring. It’s perhaps impossible to experience a Noonan performance, with that tall frame and mellifluous voice, and come away feeling like you’d seen any other actor.

My friend, the critic Keith Uhlich, had known Noonan closely, working with him in both theater and cinema. I considered here and now the proper time to reminisce on Noonan’s work, and a unique opportunity to Keith tell intimate stories of him as both an artist and friend.

Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.

Welcome back. After a brief hiatus, I am so happy to bring you episode 19 of this podcast project. Few subjects make a better benchmark than Werner Herzog, who quite literally needs no introduction and to whom I will accordingly not grant such.

He is presenting his new film, Ghost Elephants, a documentary concerning South African naturalist Steve Boyse and his quest for a near-mythical species of elephant. (Our own appreciative review, from the film's Venice premiere, can be found here.) Those who’ve seen Herzog’s previous documentaries will be familiar with certain of its formal traits, but this is less a work about obsession, or pain, or even failure than many of those. As he brings up in our interview, it poses an interesting question: how does one live with success?

On our call we were joined by his producer, Ariel Leon Isacovitch. There is a belief that to win friends and influence people, it can be useful to refer to people by their first name. I forgot to change my Zoom display name from Jordan Raup, this website’s editor in chief, which is why Isacovitch—surely someone who has found success—kindly calls me such. Lest you be distracted amidst a conversation with one of cinema’s truest legends.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. 

Today we celebrate one of our great Welshmen: Anthony Hopkins! Our B-Sides include When Eight Bells Toll, Juggernaut, Spotswood, and Instinct.

Our guest is the great Brian Raftery, whose new book Hannibal Lecter: A Life “traces the many lives and crimes of Hannibal Lecter: his disturbing debut in Thomas Harris’s 1981 novel Red Dragon; his rise to infamy in beloved films like Michael Mann’s Manhunter and Jonathan Demme’s Academy Award–winning The Silence of the Lambs; and his unexpected comeback in the cult-hit TV series Hannibal.” 

We discuss Hopkins’ iconic voice, his tumultuous early years and struggle to become a leading man. There’s his honest and interesting autobiography, his incredible range, his Wales-connection to the great Richard Burton, and his incredibly practical outlook to the acting profession.

Brian, Conor, and I go long on the actors that have played Hannibal, the movie Freejack, Hopkins’ directorial efforts August and Slipstream, and that time Hopkins played a working man’s James Bond named Phil (When Eight Bells Toll). There’s love paid to Bill Forsyth, Jodie Foster, Kate Burton, and The Edge.