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.
In this episode, we have a conversation with Entertainment Publicist Amy Prenner. Chris and Amy talk about her documentary ‘Have You Heard About Greg’, her fascination with news as a child, how Zoom helped her have the most successful year of her career, why media training is so important, her work with Ellen DeGeneres, how she would help Alec Balwin and Will Smith, and much more.
The content of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program is distributed in partnership with Women in Film and Television, Nashville who is seeking your support to advance professional development and achievement for filmmakers working in all aspects of film, television, and all other screen-based interactive media. Women in Film and Television, Nashville is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
All of the content we provide is made possible by the generosity and engagement of the film community and those who support it. Please consider showing your support by making a donation to this program.
About Amy Prenner
Veteran publicity executive Amy Prenner is the founder of The Prenner Group (TPG) where she oversees publicity on behalf of the agency. The Prenner Group has been in business since 2007. With offices in Los Angeles and New York, The Prenner Group helps you develop and implement marketing communications strategies by providing expertise in media, trends, and business expertise.
Prenner, who has over 20 years’ experience, develops and executes marketing communications strategies that will help launch and grow your business. She is a leading entertainment publicist in Los Angeles. Services include public relations, communications strategy, and market evaluation. We specialize in taking entertainment campaigns and getting media attention.
Currently, Prenner has been responsible for creating notable campaigns in entertainment and television. Her clients have included the Infinity Film Festival, a 2019 Academy Awards campaign for John Travolta for his leading role in “The Fanatic,” Elf on the Shelf, Riot Games, Studio Movie Grill, Hulu’s “Into the Dark,” (season one) the Blumhouse Anthology, Telemundo’s “La Reina del Sur,” El Rey Networks, the Saudi Arabian venture company Seven, The Golden Screen Awards, Nat Geo’s Sharkfest at Comic Con and Cirque du Solei’s Amaluna, and Luzia.
Throughout her 20-plus year career, Prenner has developed an extensive network of high-level media contacts and has an extraordinary eye for strategy leading her clients to win Emmy and Academy Award nominations and high-profile accolades. As the principal role of her own agency, The Prenner Group, Prenner has worked with many cable networks including Epix, AMC Networks, Starz, Syfy, GSN, Freeform, Travel Channel, USA Networks and Fuse, launching many series on their behalf. She has also consulted on Emmy campaigns for NBC hits such as “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “America’s Got Talent,” and has worked to secure placements and awareness at major film and television festivals for a variety of clients, with presence at The Oscars, the Emmys, Television Critics Tour, Comic Con, The Sundance Film Festival, and Cannes Film Festival. Prenner has also worked with EPIX season 1-unit publicity for the original series “Get Shorty” and handled publicity efforts on behalf of the Lumiere Society including their annual awards event and VR Conference (“VR On The Lot”).
Some of the notable campaigns we have worked on include the 2014 Geekie Awards, the 3D Film Awards, the AMC Dish Networks Carriage Dispute, GSN’s hit series “The American Bible Challenge,” and the rebranding of NUVOtv, an English-speaking Spanish television network spearheaded by Global Superstar Jennifer Lopez.
Amy has worked on numerous high-profile television series including “Wheel of Fortune,” “Extra,” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” She began her career in unit film publicity where she oversaw numerous campaigns for independent features that took her to the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.
In addition to her entertainment clients, Prenner has also worked with hospitality and restaurant brands, including helping to launch restaurants such as The Larchmont Grill and Church & State. She has also worked with national charity organizations including BabyQuest, Life Rolls On, and the Reverse Rett Foundation.
About the MAKE IT Podcast
The MAKE IT podcast is an audio platform for the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. We offer a variety of educational, aspirational, and entertaining content that promotes the success of creatives across the filmmaking community and the film industry. Our Filmmaker Conversations with industry professionals are dedicated to sharing the advice, knowledge, and insights of experienced filmmakers while exploring what it truly means to be an independent creative in the highly competitive world of filmmaking. Each filmmaker conversation is backed by thoughtful research that allows us to uncover the raw, authentic truths behind each filmmaker's journey. Through our Indie Talks, we share our thoughts and perspectives on navigating independent film from the perspective of Advisory and Executive Producers. We discuss topics that are relevant to filmmakers across a wide spectrum of filmmaking perspectives, and we do our best to uncover hidden truths and new developments in the film industry. Our goal is to help filmmakers avoid the pitfalls and obstacles on the business side of film so that their filmmaking creativity can thrive. Our Industry Insights provide bite-sized actionable advice that filmmaking professionals and creatives of all kinds can use to keep their heads up as they continue their filmmaking journeys. With advice sourced from the filmmaking community, we build upon the wisdom of our filmmaking guests to provide our audience with truly aspirational and inspirational content. The Mistakes in the Making series gives our filmmaking friends an opportunity to speak directly to our filmmaking audience to share a specific lesson they've learned through a mistake they've made. We are firm believers that mistakes can be the gateway to success when we open our hearts and minds to learning from them, sharing them, and using them to Be Better.
In this edition of Mistakes In The Making, we hear from Writer, Actor, Author, and Musician Korby Lenker. Korby opens up about a time in his career when he was forced to slow down, take a 9-to-5 job, and rethink his creative path.
The content of the Voice of the Filmmaker Program is distributed in partnership with Women in Film and Television, Nashville who is seeking your support to advance professional development and achievement for filmmakers working in all aspects of film, television, and all other screen-based interactive media. Women in Film and Television, Nashville is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
All of the content we provide is made possible by the generosity and engagement of the film community and those who support it. Please consider showing your support by making a donation to this program.
About Korby Lenker
Korby Lenker is a roots-music Renaissance man. A prolific songwriter for more than two decades, he's spent his entire adulthood in a creative whirl, juggling multiple roles — solo artist, road warrior, published author, actor, screenwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and storyteller — along the way.
Why so many avenues? "I think, at the end of the day, I'm in the 'meaning business,'" he explains. "I come from a long line of preachers, and while I kinda missed the mark there, it’s just in my blood, you know? Everyone wonders why they're here and what they're supposed to do. Art is just the path I've chosen to try and figure it out for myself. Whether I’m writing a song or a story, or acting in something, I'm really trying to touch that place where mystery and the mundane meet. It's incredibly interesting to me, and I just keep trying to get back to that space again and again."
It's been a unique path, beginning in Korby's hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho — where he sang old hymns in church, discovered classic rock and New Wave in his high school, hosted his first band practice in a buddy's basement — and eventually leading him to East Nashville, his adopted home since 2007. Somewhere in the middle, he launched his solo career as a bluegrass-loving, flat-picking folkie, steadily expanding beyond those roots with each album.
As his sound diversified, so did his resume. One year after releasing 2014's Korby Lenker — a self-titled album that combined his love of songwriting craftsmen like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt with updated indie-pop sensibilities — he published the short story collection Medium Hero, which earned warm reviews from such manifold sources as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and National Book Award-winning author Tim O'Brien. Two years later, he began writing Morse Code, a scripted TV series loosely based on his own life. Korby continues exploring new territory with 2021's Man in the Maroon, a record full of wide-ranging Americana that doesn't observe any traditional boundaries. It's his eighth studio album, anchored by distinct arrangements and the same visionary spirit that runs throughout all his work.
"Each song feels like its own little movie," Korby says. "Some artists like to work within a tight palette, but I've always created records that mirror the shows I play, where there's a lot of diversity between songs. I like to take people to the different places I've been. I'm in my 40s, so I've lived a little bit, you know? The longer you’re above ground, the more experiences you have… I try to pepper my shows and albums with little vignettes of those experiences, in as many colors as I can."
The eleven vignettes that comprise Man in the Maroon were recorded during a global pandemic that brought Korby's touring schedule to a halt in 2020. He'd spent his previous years on the road, playing as many as 200 shows annually. Stuck at home with an unprecedented amount of time on his hands, he resolved to make a career-defining album that stretched his limits as a writer and instrumentalist. "I remember thinking, 'Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow?" says Korby, who co-produced the album with Skylar Wilson. "I wanted to create an album as though it were the last thing I'd ever make. A for-the-joy-of-it project."
Two years earlier, he'd spent the summer in Montana after the sudden, unexpected loss of his little sister. It was a period of mourning and slow recovery. “I unplugged," he admits. "Really for the first time in my adult life. Just stopped answering emails. Stopped trying. I had been white-knuckling my way through this crazy career for so long I didn’t know how to not do it. Losing Kenna was a major perspective changer." Isolated in Montana, Lenker rode horses, learned to play the clawhammer banjo, and wrote new songs. Man in the Maroon reflects that work, with tracks like the atmospheric "Crow Country" — written in tribute to his late sibling and featuring contributions from the Grammy-winning Native American songwriter Bill Miller— showcasing his newfound skills on the clawhammer banjo. Other tracks make room for the wider range of Korby's instrumental skills, from piano ballads like "Tri-State Lottery" and "What's Wrong With Us" to the fingerpicked folk-pop song "Soft As Cactus." Elsewhere, "All In My Head" finds Lenker singing about mental health over heartland rock hooks, the instrumental "Billie Louise" nods to his bluegrass roots, and "Moon River" — a reimagined cover of the Great American Songbook standard — mixes classic melodies with a new, explorative arrangement. "I love American roots music," he explains. "There’s something familiar in it. Like, it reminds you of what you already know. But I also have this restless part of me that wants to avoid doing the same thing over and over again. 'Invention' is my favorite word. I’ve always wanted to do something nobody's ever done. The combination of those two spirits — the comfort of the familiar and the restlessness of innovation — is really embodied in that arrangement of 'Moon River.'"
The same duality runs throughout Man in the Maroon as a whole. This is Korby Lenker's eighth studio album, and like the records before it, it mixes the fresh with the familiar, the modern with the classic, the explorative with the traditional. Created during a period of isolation — or, to repurpose the album's title, a time of marooning — it offers a refreshing break from the banal.
About the MAKE IT Podcast
The MAKE IT podcast is an audio platform for the Voice of the Filmmaker Program. We offer a variety of educational, aspirational, and entertaining content that promotes the success of creatives across the filmmaking community and the film industry. Our Filmmaker Conversations with industry professionals are dedicated to sharing the advice, knowledge, and insights of experienced filmmakers while exploring what it truly means to be an independent creative in the highly competitive world of filmmaking. Each filmmaker conversation is backed by thoughtful research that allows us to uncover the raw, authentic truths behind each filmmaker's journey. Through our Indie Talks, we share our thoughts and perspectives on navigating independent film from the perspective of Advisory and Executive Producers. We discuss topics that are relevant to filmmakers across a wide spectrum of filmmaking perspectives, and we do our best to uncover hidden truths and new developments in the film industry. Our goal is to help filmmakers avoid the pitfalls and obstacles on the business side of film so that their filmmaking creativity can thrive. Our Industry Insights provide bite-sized actionable advice that filmmaking professionals and creatives of all kinds can use to keep their heads up as they continue their filmmaking journeys. With advice sourced from the filmmaking community, we build upon the wisdom of our filmmaking guests to provide our audience with truly aspirational and inspirational content. The Mistakes in the Making series gives our filmmaking friends an opportunity to speak directly to our filmmaking audience to share a specific lesson they've learned through a mistake they've made. We are firm believers that mistakes can be the gateway to success when we open our hearts and minds to learning from them, sharing them, and using them to Be Better.