Why Does Cinema Makes Us So Obsessed?
Cinema’s dirtiest little secret is that it’s designed to make you want something you can never have. In this…

Cinema’s dirtiest little secret is that it’s designed to make you want something you can never have. In this…

Amadeus (1984, Miloš Forman) is not really about Mozart. It’s a film about the rest of us — the ones who can recog…

Miranda once told Andy she was the greatest disappointment of her career. Twenty years on, the question isn’t whet…

Can a film be more intimate than pornography? Can a film be more intimate than pornography? In Truly Naked (2026), BAFTA…

A note from us: we spent the past two weeks going through your survey responses — thank you to everyone who filled it in…

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done? This week, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom watched Kristoffer Borgl…

Divorce is rarely one story. It’s four, or five — each told from a different room in the same house. In his new fi…

Is this the year of the Skarsgårds? Hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom kick things off with Pillion, Alexander Skarsgå…

When the White House posts a montage of Hollywood blockbusters cut against US drone strikes on Iran, it raises a questio…

From the alien drifter of The Man Who Fell to Earth to the unforgettable Goblin King of Labyrinth, David Bowie built one…

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at nineteen. Cinema has been retelling it ever since – and mainly getting it wrong…

At this year's Berlinale Film Festival, Wim Wenders declared that cinema is not political — so hosts Elliot Bloom a…

Hugo Emmerzael speaks with DJ and composer Kangding Ray about Sirat — a punishing, bass-driven plunge into the borderlan…

With social media hype swirling around Marty Supreme and Wuthering Heights, hosts Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael unpac…

Host Laura Gommans chats with cultural critic Esje Seigfried about the lasting impact of Brokeback Mountain 20 years on,…

In this episode, Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael dive into what might be Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece, No Other Choice,…

The death of French cinema icon Brigitte Bardot has reignited a familiar and uncomfortable question: can we separate art…

Hosts Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael explore Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (yes, a movie about Shakespeare and his family), alon…

2000 Metres to Andriivka is an extraordinary and deeply immersive war documentary. The latest film from Ukrainian direct…

This week, Laura and Hugo dive into films chosen by you. Drawing from our LAB Suggestions programme, where audiences sel…

As the year comes to a close, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom look back on the films that defined 2025. They revisi…

In this final review roundup before the festive season, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom take a look at some new rel…

Host Laura Gommans, an unabashed devotee of festive films, teams up with Kiriko, who prefers her Christmas viewing a lit…

Sex and the City may not be canonical cinema, but as a cultural artefact it charts America’s imperial confidence, and it…

In this review roundup, hosts Laura Gommans and producer Elliot Bloom find themselves divided on Lynne Ramsay’s Die My L…

To mark the 50th-anniversary rerelease of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, hosts Hugo Emmerzael and Tom Ooms revisit the…

This week, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom take on three standout releases. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, a …

The American New Wave, or New Hollywood, launched the careers of some of the United States’ most iconic filmmakers, from…

Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap a powerful CEO, convinced she’s an alien bent …

In collaboration with Eye Filmmuseum’s exhibition Ongoing, celebrating the singular career of Tilda Swinton, Hugo Emmerz…

Few filmmakers explore desire with as much curiosity and elegance as Luca Guadagnino. His cinema doesn’t just show yearn…

Sven Bresser’s debut feature Rietland marks a striking moment for Dutch cinema — the first film in nearly 30 years to be…

A lot can change in a week at the movies. One Battle After Another—the film we crowned as the year’s best—has stumbled a…

Paul Thomas Anderson’s $130 million blockbuster might just be the film of the year. In this episode, Laura and Elliot di…

What ever happened to the chick flick? At the turn of the millennium, this fizzy, unabashedly feminine genre ruled the b…

Coinciding with our Viva Varda retrospective now playing at LAB111 in Amsterdam, Elliot and Kiriko celebrate the life an…

Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is a film made in the urgency of the present. Composed through a ser…

In honor of its 50th anniversary, Jaws emerges from the depths of the cinematic sea to remind us why it remains the arch…

Back from a summer hiatus, Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom reunite to trade notes on the hot new releases. Zach Cregger’s…

In this episode, Kiriko sits down with Dutch filmmaker Morgan Knibbe to discuss his blistering debut fictional feature T…

This week on Review Roundup, host Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom head south for the summer with a sun-drenched revisit o…

This week, Elliot and Kiriko dive into the legendary world of Akira Kurosawa—Japan’s master filmmaker and, let’s be hone…

With 28 Years Later lurching toward the screen, Laura Gommans and Tom Ooms revisit the undead legacy of the zombie in ci…

With Dogme 95 turning 30 this year, hosts Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom reflect on the radical movement that dared to s…

Reporting from the Croisette, host Hugo Emmerzael is joined by fellow film critic Savina Petkova who together reflect on…

To mark LAB111’s full Wes Anderson retrospective, hosts Laura Gommans and Tom Ooms rank every film in his colorful, quir…

In this edition of Review Roundup, host Laura Gommans is joined by Elliot Bloom to dive into the re-release of Persepoli…

Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) returns to cinemas—a quiet revolution in filmmaking that blends love, loss, a…

Did audiences jump the gun on Alex Garland’s Warfare? Before it's release, the brutally realist portrait of America…

In a moment when Hollywood is once again embracing the comeback—think Demi Moore’s return in The Substance or Pamela And…

Dutch Nazi propagandist Jan Teunissen was once one of the most powerful—and now largely forgotten—figures in Dutch cinem…

In collaboration with Go Short, the Netherlands’ premier short film festival (April 1–6 in Nijmegen), we explore the pow…

Hailed as the Citizen Kane of bad movies, The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) has transcended its origins as an enigmatic vani…

When Parasite won Best Picture, it put Korean cinema in the global spotlight, but it was the result of decades of bold f…

In our latest review round-up, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 has Laura and Hugo at odds, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths steals thei…

In this review roundup, hosts Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael dive into three films that have caught their attention. O…

With a new wave of nostalgia-driven musical biopics—A Complete Unknown, Better Man, Maria—flooding theaters, hosts Laura…

In our first edition of the Review Roundup, a new biweekly cinematic dispatch, Laura Gommans and Elliot Bloom get into t…

Legendary filmmaker Ernest Dickerson joins host Elliot Bloom for a compelling journey through his remarkable career. Fro…

Fresh off winning the Dutch Film Critics’ Choice Award at the Netherlands Film Festival, LAB111 resident filmmaker Jeroe…

A fearless voice against systemic injustice, Raoul Peck has crafted a body of work that interrogates the legacies of col…

This year, vampires emerge from the shadows once more with Robert Eggers’ haunting reimagining of Nosferatu. But why doe…

In a village under constant threat of displacement, where homes and schools are torn down and the land is slowly seized,…

To mark the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, a 40-year passion project with a staggering $120 million pric…

When 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Republic of Benin) would finally be returned from France…

Trigger warning: Please be advised that this episode includes discussions about sexual violence. In this powerful episod…

In Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt delivers a raw and politically charged origin story about JJ, a Belfast teacher, and two self-…

Join us for a cinematic road trip through the films of visionary director Wim Wenders, whose work has redefined cinemati…

Following a packed-out CC Film Club screening of Knight Of Cups, host Hugo chats with Tom van der Linden, the creator of…

Visionary director Tarsem Singh joins Kiriko to reflect on The Fall (2006), once dubbed by the filmmaker himself as “the…

Crafted on a shoestring budget, Kevin Boitelle’s feature debut, Trip-Tych, serves as both a film about the art of …

There is nothing as hypnotizing than the larger-than-life women that we see on the screen—captivating, outrageous, and i…

Fresh off her feature debut opening the Netherlands Film Festival, one of LAB111's resident filmmakers Laura Herman…

Orson Welles stands as a visionary filmmaker, a notorious showman, and an enigmatic storyteller who blurred the lines be…

After his 1980s collaboration with legendary filmmaker Michael Powell on a documentary chronicling Powell’s career, dire…

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the acclaimed stop-motion epic Coraline, Laura Gommans had the distinct pleasure of…

From screwball comedies to the golden age of 90s and early 00s romcoms, our love for romance remains strong. In this epi…

Lukas Moodysson shares with Hugo his experiences of making Fucking Åmål, how a story close to his heart has taken on a l…

For a country known for wholeheartedly consuming cinema from abroad, the Netherlands has never been great at celebrating…

Collectively known as The Ross Brothers, Bill and Turner Ross are utterly unique in their approach to filmmaking. In a c…

A film’s success often rests on the shoulders of its most bankable stars. But have stars once born to seduce the silver …

Sean Price Williams, a stalwart in American indie cinematography, has boldly embarked on his directorial debut with The …

Liberated from the arthouse cliches of cinema, Bertrand Bonello is a rare kind of director. Our host Hugo Emmerzael spok…

Baloji is a prolific francophone rapper, known for his visually striking and poetic style. So his turn to filmmaking onl…

Do AI portrayals in film predict a future of robotic overlords or simply offer a chance to innovate cinema? Artificial I…

Amidst the abundance of parodies, memes, and impersonations, there exists an undeniable uniqueness to the American actor…

If you don’t know already, Molly Manning Walker’s feature debut How To Have Sex (2023) has taken the world by storm. Thi…

After a steamy winter featuring Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, the internet was sent into a frenzy over – a fairly me…

"Obviously Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl." (Cecilia, Virgin Suicides) Affectionately known…

“I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive".”― Hayao Miyazaki It's hard to…

“Hope is political. If you have hope then you have confidence you can change things” After 60 years of filmmaking, Briti…

Movies have always been a way to understand the world around us, and so, confronted with the brutal horrors of both Hama…

For this edition of Future Frames, you can hear from our rising filmmakers who we’ll be screening at Volk’s Hotel Sunday…

For this edition of Future Frames, you can hear from our rising filmmakers who we’ll be screening at Volk’s Hotel Sunday…

Passages (2023) by Ira Sachs sets the tone for the cold change in seasons – a people’s favourite that has got us …

"What's the first rule of Fight Club?" — "We do not talk about Mank." Refusing to be call…

Widely regarded as one of the most influential directors of our time, Martin Scorsese has made some of the most exciting…

A rare cultural moment in cinema, the release and aftermath of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie certainly had us all talking. Shari…

Set against the rise of Russia's authoritarian regime, filmmaker Marusya Syroechkovskaya paints an homage to both a…

With the latest installment of the Mission Impossible franchise in cinemas now, we pose the question if Tom Cruise, the …

With an oeuvre-spanning exhibition in Eye Filmmuseum, and multiple classics like Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Aguirre, Wrath …

With the multidisciplinary film program Witch Way Now: Recasting A Feminist Icon heading into its second month of film s…

For the final Future Frames episode, filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus talks with fellow filmmaker and good friend Razan Hassa…

Sitting down with filmmaker, screenwriter, chef, and all-around powerhouse Amira Duynhouwer for a Future Frames intervie…

Inspired by the experiences of a close friend, Davy Chou decided to make a film about her non-stereotypical adoption sto…

Recognizing herself in Stefanie Kolk’s journey towards a career in film that started out in a different place entirely, …

For the second interview in our Future Frames series, Head Of Program Tom Ooms and his good friend, Amsterdam-based writ…

After watching Ashley Röttjers’ short film Celestial Spaces: A Liberation on Meditation Practices at an IDFA Meets event…

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alejandro Jodorowsky's mystical magnum opus The Holy Mountain, three classics b…

Following our first live and very animated podcast recording, our hosts, along with our audience, discussed the relevanc…

In anticipation of our first live podcast event where we will be revisiting the iconic Twilight (2008), we had the absol…

Very few director’s have their own adjective: Lynchian. But then again, there are very few directors like David Ly…

Take a trip down the dark alleys of Film Noir, filled with unscrupulous men, state corruption and crimes waiting to be s…

As part of our new partnership with Mubi, we had the exclusive chance to speak with Artist-turned-filmmaker Amalia Ulman…

Widely regarded as the bald bad boy of contemporary French cinema, Gaspar Noé has been disrupting movies and polarising …

Have you ever wondered what made French director Jean-Luc Godard so great? Or did you never quite understand what exactl…

Director Martijn de Jong joins producer Elliot to discuss his feature debut Narcosis. Selected as this year’s Dutc…

As longtime admirers of Mia Hansen-Løve’s body of work here on the podcast, producer Elliot hosts a very candid an…

Directors Sarah Blok & Lisa Konno join to discuss their short trilogy of non-traditional immigrant story of fathers.…

Joined by the programmers of Imagine Film Festival, the largest celebration for fantastic film in the Netherlands, showc…

If a loved-one decided they had enough of life and wanted it to come to an end, how would you respond? Director, Floor v…

Are we witnessing the end of American mainstream cinema? Diving deep into this topic, Hugo invites filmmaker, film criti…

Find out how a particular holiday experience led director Christian Tafdrup to write his latest film Speak No Evil (2022…

Here to discuss the mesmerising nature of volcanoes captured through the lens of Katia & Maurice Krafft, director Sa…

Here to discuss her latest film Splendid Isolation (2022) and the poetry of cinema, Urszula Antoniak candidly shares why…

With Joanna Hogg’s sequel to her highly autobiographical film The Souvenir (2019), we take a look at one of its st…

Listen to Uberto Pasolini’s journey to becoming a filmmaker. After leaving the banking industry early on to pursue…

Recorded live from the French airport Nice, Hugo & Tom recap their rollercoaster experience of Cannes Film Festival.…

With David Cronenberg’s latest film Crimes of the Future (2022) out now in cinemas, we delve deep into the Cronenb…

Once proclaimed the most beautiful boy in the world by Italian director Luchino Visconti, former teen star Björn Andrése…

A teenage girl discovers an egg that starts to hatch… Finnish director Hanna Bergholm joins Hugo to discuss …

“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” It’s about time we celebrated one of the greatest films in cinema ̵…

Back for season 2 and here to grace you with a two hour special all about writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson! Licorice…

With Paul Schrader’s must-read book Transcendental Style In Film – suggested by director Viktor van der Valk…

With both the festive season upon us and new restrictions imposed on cinemas, the mack is back and we’re here to d…

It’s about time we absolve ourselves of the guilt we feel when enjoying our personal favourites! Writer Basje Boer joins…

With the release of their feature debut Gagarine (2020) in cinemas here in The Netherlands, we spoke with directors Fann…

To “celebrate” the release of Clint Eastwood’s latest film Cry Macho and maybe his final swan song, Hugo & Tom get t…

In conjunction with the upcoming Camera Japan Festival at LAB111, a celebration of upcoming and contemporary Japanese fi…

It’s the big bang of both our 10th episode and the origins of the summer blockbuster, although this episode is not…

Before our Celebrating Cinema podcast takes a summer hiatus, we had the chance to check in with our film critic Hugo, fo…

A director is much like a chef, and it is no surprise that directors often use cooking analogies when describing their o…

We are back in business! Cinemas have finally reopened and we are here to celebrate. 4 proclaimed cinephiles and yet onl…

Eroticism should be found in balance! Now isn’t it about time that women in cinema got to look back, shifting the gaze b…

Western cinema has mostly defined our movie crushes to be predominantly white, often leaving non-white characters to be …

The month of May is always a period of remembrance, commemorating all those who lost their lives during the Second World…

What should be a light-hearted reflection on the films of nightmares & nostalgia, which helped form our presenters a…

That’s right people, it’s Oscars time! We’ve certainly got that Oscar fever, but more a fever of chaotic distress. Inste…

We are delighted to welcome Miriam Guttmann, director of the recent VPRO documentary Seeds of Deceit (Het Zaat Van Karba…

After celebrating our love for cinema, we turn to the question of whether cinema is actually all a lie. Do the fictions …

To kick off this new podcast series we thought it would only be right to reflect upon the very thing that has brought us…

An introduction to the podcast series produced by LAB111, outlining our vision and intentions for all future episodes. M…























































































































































