In no particular order, here are the ten best filmmaking podcasts of 2022:
Scriptnotes
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Each week, screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, everything from the craft to the business to the best ways to get yourself writing.
The most recent 20 episodes are available for free on this site and Apple Podcasts. The entire 430+ episode back catalog, plus bonus content and episodes, are available to Premium Subscribers.
John August is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films Go, Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, the Disney live-action adaptation of Aladdin, the novels Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon and Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows.
Craig Mazin is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for creating the five-part HBO miniseries Chernobyl, based on the nuclear disaster of the same name in 1986. His work earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special and Outstanding Limited Series. Mazin is also known for his work on the parody film genre, namely Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and Superhero Movie.
Filmspotting
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Filmspotting is a weekly film podcast and radio program from Chicago hosted by Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen. The show originally began as a progression from Kempenaar's film blog Cinemascoped. He and his friend, Sam Van Hallgren, who had become a regular contributor to Cinemascoped began brainstorming when interest in the blog began to wane.
Adam Kempenaar co-founded the show in March 2005 and is co-host and executive producer. Adam has also served as an instructor at the University of Chicago's Graham School. He has a B.A. in English from Grinnell College, plus degrees in film studies (B.A.) and journalism (M.A.) from the University of Iowa, where he wrote movie reviews for The Daily Iowan and hosted a weekly film talk show called Burn Hollywood Burn on KRUI 89.7 FM. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, you can follow him on Letterboxd and Twitter.
Josh Larsen officially joined Filmspotting as co-host in January 2012 following guest appearances on episodes #371 and #376. Prior to that, he spent 11 years as a film critic for Chicago-based Sun-Times Media. Josh writes about movies at LarsenOnFilm and is producer of the faith and pop culture website/podcast Think Christian. He’s also the author of Movies Are Prayers: How Films Voice Our Deepest Longings and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. You can follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd.
MAKE IT
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
The MAKE IT podcast provides a platform where independent filmmakers can get actionable advice, celebrate their creativity, and share their experiences and perspectives with the indie film community. Serving as the platform for the Voice of the Filmmaker Program, the MAKE IT podcast features five unique content series including: Filmmaker Conversations, Indie Talks, Industry Insights, Mistakes in the Making, and the Film Investment Series.
The MAKE IT podcast is hosted by best friends Christopher Barkley and Nicholas Buggs, the co-founders of Bonsai Creative and Executive Producers of three feature films.
Indie Film Hustle
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Indie Film Hustle features weekly interviews with industry professional, legendary filmmakers and everyday indie success stories covering every aspect of the filmmaking process, with a dose of inspiration.
Alex Ferrari has been in the film industry for over 25 years and has worked on well over 1000 feature films, shorts, commercials, music videos, network promos, documentaries, and webisodes. His personal films have been screened in 600+ film festivals around the world.
He created Indie Film Hustle to share what he's learned over the years as a writer, director, producer, and post-production/VFX supervisor. IFH is part truth bomb, part motivation, and part kick in the butt.
Film Riot
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Film Riot is a how-to trip through filmmaking from the hyper-active minds of the Connolly Brothers. From how to make great effects to following us through production, Film Riot explores the art of filmmaking in a way you've never seen.
Josh Connolly is an editor and actor, known for Film Riot (2009), Ballistic (2018) and Proximity (2013). Ryan Connolly is a producer and writer, known for Ballistic (2018), Proximity (2013) and Tell (2012).
IndieWire: Screen Talk
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Each week on Screen Talk, IndieWire's Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson debate the indie film world and beyond -- from film festivals to new releases and the future of the business.
Eric Kohn is the New York-based Executive Editor & Chief Critic at IndieWire, where he has worked since 2007. In addition to overseeing operations for IndieWire's New York film team, he reviews films throughout the year, oversees festival strategy, and reports on the industry. Kohn travels to film festivals around the globe and interviews a wide range of film and TV talent. He also launched the Critics Academy initiative, a series of educational workshops for aspiring entertainment journalists, and teaches film criticism at NYU. Prior to joining IndieWire, Eric contributed to the New York Times and other outlets. He is the editor of "Harmony Korine: Interviews," published by the University of Mississippi Press in 2014. He served as the 2018-19 chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and as a member of the jury for Critics Week at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Born and raised in New York, IndieWire Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood, launched in March 2007. Anne was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column “Risky Business” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate. A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, she has taught film criticism at USC and hosts the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension.
The No Film School Podcast
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
This filmmaking podcast is all about how to build a career in filmmaking. No Film School shares the latest opportunities and trends for anyone working in film and TV with breaking news on cameras, lighting, and apps. The podcast features interviews with leaders in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, and producing. They also have a great Q&A. The podcast is dedicated to sharing knowledge with filmmakers around the globe, “no film school” required.
The Writer's Panel
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
The definitive insider's guide to our current golden age of television, Ben Blacker's The Writers Panel is an ever expanding anthology of live convention panels and intimate in-studio interviews with the writers, producers, and show runners responsible for all the shows you can't stop watching. Over the course of nearly 500 episodes and counting, The Writers Panel has sat across from guests such as Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (Key and Peele), Liz Meriwether (New Girl), and Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) to talk about the art and business of creating great television.
The Director's Cut
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
Brought to you by The Directors Guild of America, The Director's Cut brings you the behind-the-scenes stories of today's most talked about films. Each episode of this filmmaking podcast features a new director interviewed by one of their peers, leading to revealing conversations about the grueling but rewarding process of bringing the most interesting stories to life.
The Business
Best Filmmaking Podcasts 2022
The Business is a weekly filmmaking podcast featuring lively banter about entertainment industry news and in-depth interviews with directors, producers, writers and actors. The show is hosted by award-winning journalist Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter and produced by KCRW. Past guests include Norman Lear, Ava DuVernay, Matt Damon and Ice Cube.
Kim Masters is editor-at-large of The Hollywood Reporter and host of KCRW's The Business. A former correspondent for NPR, she has also served as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, TIME and Esquire, and was a staff reporter for The Washington Post. She is the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else, and co-author (with Nancy Griffin) of Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood. Masters was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2001 and Print Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2012. The Business received Gracie Awards for Outstanding Talk Show in 2012 and 2014. In 2018, the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists gave Masters its Distinguished Journalist Award.
A Few Final Words
Filmmaking is tough enough as an art. It's even tougher as a business. Making it in filmmaking is not, and has never been, a solo affair; it takes a community of people to come together to make anything happen. This is why filmmaking podcasts are so important. They create platforms for filmmakers to speak to one another and to share stories, insights, advice, and lessons learned that can prove invaluable along the filmmaking journey.
I invite you to subscribe to all of the filmmaking podcasts above and to take the time to listen to what each one has to offer. You'll be happy you did.
As always,
Be Better. Be Creative. Be Engaged.
