Talking Movies - Season 16 / Year 2020

In a special edition, Talking Movies reports from Hollywood, previewing the 92nd annual Academy Awards and interviewing many of the stars nominated in the major Oscar categories. The programme will also feature those films from around the world competing in the newly named Best International Feature Film race.

Talking Movies reviews Hollywood's biggest night of the year, interviewing the winners of this year's top Oscar trophies. Will The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese, prevail or will the Academy favour Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? The programme also goes behind the scenes, chronicling the adventures of one Oscar nominee.

Talking Movies travels to Germany. The Berlin Internationale Film Festival is a top event on the calendar celebrating the best of world cinema, but how does it compare to Venice and Cannes? Talking Movies takes a look at its history and what makes the festival different from others. As Germany's capital has risen in popularity over the past years, so are its depictions on screen - we highlight the best films at the festival set in the city. Traditionally, as part of the highly selective Berlinale Talents networking platform, the festival has incubated artists to connect with one another across the globe, many of whom have gone on to become major voices in global cinema. We follow two international film-making teams lucky to have been selected as part of the programme.

In a special pandemic edition of Talking Movies, the programme looks at how the coronavirus has devastated the movie industry in many parts of the world: releases have been postponed, productions closed down and hundreds of thousands in the film business have been left unemployed. But the show also hears from filmmakers, screenwriters and actors who have drawn inspiration from the crisis and plan to use cinema to explore the many pressing issues raised by the pandemic. Plus a survey of critics' picks of the best movies to watch in the midst of these disconcerting times.

In this special edition of Talking Movies, Tom Brook and his team report from home with stories on New York's Tribeca Film Festival, which in the midst of the pandemic has gone virtual with a host of online offerings. The programme also examines the changing nature of other film festivals as many of them struggle to maintain a profile in the midst of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. And from Germany, Talking Movies chronicles the renaissance of the drive-in - an alternative way of viewing movies in these pandemic times.

In a special edition of Talking Movies, the focus is on the challenges faced by female film-makers at a critical time in the movie business, caused by the impact of the global pandemic. With a poll showing that more than 96 per cent of women in the UK film and television industry have lost all their income, we look at the ingenious ways in which women in cinema are continuing their movie-making around the world. Interviews include a conversation with top Indian film-maker Mira Nair, who is putting the finishing touches on her TV adaptation of the novel, A Suitable Boy, while working remotely with her film editor. We also visit the home of Welsh-Egyptian director Sally El Hosaini to find out how she is juggling motherhood with the challenges of completing a film during the pandemic.

A special Festivals and the Pandemic edition of Talking Movies looks at the impact of the cancellation of 2020's Cannes Film Festival - one of the world's most prestigious movie events. The show reports on the fate of several films that were going to be shown at the festival and explores how programmers are trying to ensure their selections now appear at other festivals. Also, with the fate of the Toronto, Telluride, New York and London film festivals uncertain, the Oscars race has now been thrown into disarray. The programme will be hearing from key industry players on what shape the 2021 Academy Awards ceremony is likely to take.

In this edition of Talking Movies, the programme reviews some of the top documentaries of 2020 featuring interviews with leading film-makers and their contributors. Among the films to be featured are Through the Night, which profiles a day care centre in New York City, and For They Know Not What They Do, which looks at the intersection of religion, gender identity and sexual orientation in modern-day America, directed by award-winning film-maker Daniel Karslake.

Talking Movies reports on what could be an exciting blockbuster season, even though it's been severely delayed and curtailed by the pandemic.