By Daniel Howat 

Rob Marshall has become the go-to director in Hollywood for lavish productions. With his Best Picture winning musical "Chicago," to his other musicals "Nine" and "Into The Woods" to the newly released Disney sequel to "Mary Poppins," titled "Mary Poppins Returns," Marshall has cemented quite a legacy for himself in both theatre and film. Rob was kind enough to take a few minutes to talk about his work on "Mary Poppins Returns" with us here on the Next Best Picture Podcast.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Will Mavity 

Marco Beltrami has been developing film scores since the 1990's. Exploding onto the scene with the iconic music for "Scream," and a 2-time Academy Award nominee for "3:10 To Yuma" and "The Hurt Locker," his latest film is John Krasinski's horror hit "A Quiet Place," for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for. With Oscar voting currently underway for nominations and "A Quiet Place" showing up throughout the guilds, we decided to take a moment to talk to Beltrami about his work on "A Quiet Place."

By Daniel Howat 

Brad Bird has become one of the most successful directors in recent memory. He has given us instant classics such as "The Iron Giant," "The ​Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and now "Incredibles 2." He has also directed the live-action films "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" "Tomorrowland." With such a prolific career, we were lucky enough to get a few minutes of his time to talk about his past and upcoming work here on the Next Best Picture Podcast.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Will Mavity 

One film that is currently shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and had a strong showing at the 2019 Visual Effects Bake-Off is Robert Zemeckis' new film "Welcome To Marwen."

​Despite a less than enthusiastic critical reception, the heavily computer generated film is receiving high remarks for its visual effects. Here to tell us a little bit more detail on how those effects were achieved, we were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Baille.

By Daniel Howat 

Michael P. Shawver has had a long collaboration with writer/director Ryan Coogler going all the way back to their years in film school together. Michael has served as an editor on all of Ryan's films so far including "Fruitvale Station," "Creed" and now their biggest film to date, "Black Panther." What is their collaboration process like and how has it evolved over the years? How was the experience of working on a large Marvel property any different than what the two had done before? And what's it like being a part of a huge critical, financial success and now, awards hopeful? We discuss all of this and more here on the Next Best Picture Podcast.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Nicole Ackman ​

For weeks there has been a debate over how much of "The Favourite's" much awarded (and Oscar hopeful) production design was actual production design and how much of it was simply very good location scouting. Here to put the debate to rest is production designer Fiona Crombie who's previous credits include 2016's "Macbeth" and the hit show "Top Of The Lake." Fiona was kind enough to give us a few minutes of her time to talk about the lush, detailed and vast work on Yorgos Lanthimos' new film.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Daniel Howat 

Justin Hurwitz has in a short amount of time, through his collaborations with Damien Chazelle on "La La Land" and "First Man," made a huge impact on the cinematic landscape with his memorable film scores for both movies. An Oscar-winner for the former and now, recently shortlisted for this year's Oscar for the later, the 33 year old composer was kind enough to chat with us about his work on "First Man" and take us into his creative process behind one of the year's most celebrated film scores.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

David Magee has already earned himself a reputation in Hollywood as being a go-to man for adapting stories for the screen receiving an Oscar nomination in 2012 for "Life Of Pi" and now he's back with a new film, a sequel to a movie that is over 50 years old, "Mary Poppins Returns." How did he go about writing the story for the much anticipated sequel? What was it like working with Rob Marshall, Disney and the other close collaborators on such a beloved project? Find out all of this and more in our in-depth interview below.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

Łukasz Żal earned an Oscar nomination for his first feature length film as the director of photography on Paweł Pawlikowski's Academy Award winning film "Ida." Five years later, the two have re-teamed for another stunning black and white Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contender with "Cold War." The film premiered at Cannes to great acclaim and has been making its way around the fall film festival circuit. Amazon Studios is releasing the film on December 21st 2018 but we were lucky enough to sit down with Łukasz Żal to talk about his work on the film.

You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Will Mavity 

After composing the scores on "Bug," "Tropic Thunder" and "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty" Theodore Shapiro is receiving some of the best notices of his career for the Karyn Kusama directed thriller "Destroyer," starring Nicole Kidman. Theodore was kind enough to sit down with the Next best Picture team and talk about his work on Karyn Kusama's latest.

Click below to read our interview with him.

By Edward Douglas 

Arguably, one of the most interesting actors working today, Ben Foster may have been laying low in recent years, but he returned this year by starring in Debra Granik’s fourth film “Leave No Trace,” which has been earning raves since it debuted at Sundance.

In the film, Foster is teamed with young New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie, as father Will and daughter Tom, who has been living in the woods of Oregon, surviving on instinct and not much else when they’re discovered by the authorities and forced to conform to society.

This interview with Foster was done a few weeks back as the film was about to be released to home entertainment, and if you haven’t seen the film yet, there are very slight spoilers about the general plot towards the end.

By Will Mavity 

Patrick J. Don Vito is a name in film editing you may not have heard of much but after seeing Peter Farrelly's hit comedy film "Green Book" you will understand that this once assistant editor, now feature length head editor is one to watch out for. With a natural flow, good sense of pacing, economic storytelling and a few other tibits you may not have noticed, Patrick was kind enough to talk to us about his work on Farrelly's film.

You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Edward Douglas 

​Before becoming a filmmaker, Peter Hedges was a playwright and novelist, but his own adaptation of his novel “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” first got him attention in Hollywood as it helped launch the career of a certain Leonardo Dicaprio, the actor receiving his first Oscar nomination in 1994. Eight years later, Hedges was nominated himself for adapting Nick Hornby’s “About a Boy.”

In 2003, Hedges went behind the camera to direct the indie dramedy “Pieces of April,” which received raves out of Sundance, allowing him to do a bigger dramedy through a studio with his next film “Dan in Real Life” with a cast that included Steve Carell, Juliet Binoche, Norbert Leo Butz, Amy Ryan and more. (Even Emily Blunt had a small role in the movie just as she was breaking big.)

Now Hedges is back with his new movie “Ben is Back,” starring his son, Oscar-nominated actor Lucas Hedges, as Ben, a young man who has returned home from rehab on Christmas Eve, much to the concern of his mother, played by Julia Roberts. Courtney B. Vance plays Ben’s stepfather who is struggling to keep the family together despite the disturbance Ben’s return causes, especially with his teen sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton).

“Ben is Back” is a powerful but warm drama about a tough subject that allows you to understand how drug addiction can throw a family into disarray but also how one mother’s love for her son overcomes any trepidation about accepting that son back into the family. It begins as a family drama but turns into a race-against-time thriller as Ben tries to recover the family dog and his mother tries to prevent him from slipping back into his addiction.

Next Best Picture sat down with Peter Hedges earlier this week for a wide-ranging interview that included talk about a lot of other great movies that came out this year, but it’s pretty clear that he’s also a proud father about the work his son Lucas has been doing.

By Matt Neglia 

Richard E. Grant is a character actor who has been acting in Hollywood since his debut performance in 1987 for "Withnail And I." He has also starred in "Spice World," "Gosford Park," "Logan" and now most recently, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" for which we recently won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor and this morning received his first Golden Globe Nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Richard was kind enough only minutes after receiving the news of his nomination to talk to us about his role in Marielle Heller's stupendous drama-comedy, what it was like working with Melissa McCarthy and the awards season so far, his role in the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode IX" and much more.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Liam Heffernan​ 

Rolfe Kent has composed films for Alexander Payne ("Downsizing" & "Sideways") and Jason Reitman ("Thank You For Smoking" & "Up In The Air"). His latest work might be his best yet as he transports us to the the time of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy with "Stan & Ollie." Rolfe was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about his whimsical work on Jon S. Baird's wonderfully delightful film.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.