Arco, The Good Boy, Glasgow Short Film Festival and an Oscars debrief

On this week’s show, we pick over the ashes of the 2026 Academy Awards and ask, why are they so boring? Also Oscar-related, we review the new French animation Arco, which was competing in those awards, but left empty-handed, losing to Netflix sensation KPop Demon Hunters. Did voters make the right call? We also review the curious Polish-British confinement thriller The Good Boy, starring Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough. And finally, we take a look at three films screening in Glasgow Short Film Festival’s Scottish Competition – an experimental animation (Existential Greg), a poetic documentary (Community Theatre) and an intimate drama (Monogamy) – to get a flavour of the work being made on Scotland’s lively short film scene.  TIMESTAMPS: Oscar debrief (1:22) Arco review (14:28) The Good Boy review (26:41) Glasgow Short Film Festival taster: three Scottish shorts (39:29) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-

Everybody To Kenmure Street tells the true story of a community coming together to resist a Home Office immigration raid in Glasgow's Southside in 2021. For this episode, Jamie caught up with its director, Felipe Bustos Sierra, earlier this year to discuss the making of the film, and to talk about the power of solidarity and protest. Everybody To Kenmure Street is out in UK cinemas on Fri 13 March, and Felipe is taking the film on tour for a series of Q+A screenings – details at conic.film/kenmurestreet Interview recorded in Jan 2026. If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

With the return of Glasgow Film Festival, we review a quartet of films from the programme. Listen in for our thoughts on Gus van Sant’s 70s crime thriller, Mark Jenkin’s existential fishing boat time-hopper, Pauline Loquès’ small but well-formed debut drama, and Jim Jarmusch’s award-winning ‘parents eh what are they like’ anthology. As a little treat, Anahit slags off "Wuthering Heights", also we get interrupted by some building work in the office and we all become very cold to the point that Peter gets the sniffles at one stage. We’re talking the full Slavoj Žižek, but we think we caught them all in the edit…  TIMESTAMPS: "Wuthering Heights" review (1:50) Dead Man’s Wire review (10:00) Rose of Nevada review (21:00)  Nino review (32:20) Father Mother Sister Brother review (45:00) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-

A packed ep of the pod this time – we look at the recent sudden closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow, and what it means for Scottish arts in general, and Scottish cinema in specific. Then, we review! The Secret Agent is a knotty, complex sun-drenched conspiracy thriller from Brazil; If I Had Legs I'd Kick You sees Rose Byrne go full power no brakes 100% as a mother at the end of various tethers. Both very good. Finally, we look back on the career of the one and only Catherine O'Hara, and some of her best roles and funniest deliberate mispronunciations. Enjoy your Cineskinny, bebés. CHAPTERS: The CCA has closed: how did this happen and what's next? (01:50) The Secret Agent review (13:45) If I Had Legs I'd Kick You review (29:10) Catherine O'Hara tribute (44:25) CCA news: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/news/glasgow-cca-centre-for-contemporary-arts-to-close Jamie's GFF top ten/11: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/opinion/glasgow-film-festival-2026-11-unmissable-films  If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

We've a bumper show for you this week. The soul-destroying crush of capitalism is laid bare in Park Chan-wook's sharp and deliriously funny black comedy No Other Choice. Two of our favourite pretty white boys, Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, find a deep connection over folk music in 1910s America in The History of Sound. And fresh from the Glasgow Film Festival press launch, the team pick out some of the titles that jump out to us ahead of our full GFF preview in a few weeks' time.  CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching: Marty Supreme (again), Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (5:05) The History of Sound review (14:32) No Other Choice review (32:21) GFF 2026: First Look at the Programme (44:23) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

The Cineskinny rides again, kicking off 2026 with Josh Safdie's excellent Marty Supreme, Chloe Zhao's slightly-less-excellent Hamnet, and the oh-my-no-that-ain't-right finale of Stranger Things. All that, plus Peter Hujar's Day, Blue Moon, a tribute to the late great Rob Reiner and an introduction to the perils of recording in front of a big window. Put the word out there, The Cineskinny is back up. CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching: Oh. What Fun., Gosford Park, Bring Her Back and more (2:30) Ellie Robertson vs Stranger Things, TKO rd. 1 (12:30) Marty Supreme: a very good film starring a very bad boy (19:30) Hamnet, Peter Hujar's Day, and Blue Moon reviews (29:05) A tribute to Rob Reiner (38:30)  If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

It's the final episode of The Cineskinny for 2025! And it's the top ten films of the year!  Peter Jamie and Anahit talk through a list with some surprising thematic links, some personal favourites, and a whole bunch of those Good Films we love to talk about. Then, once the dust has settled on the 'proper' part of the podcast, a coda in which we relitigate the whole thing by talking about Some More Good Films. Feliz navidad to all Cineskinny listeners, we will be back in 2026. Part 1: How The Top Ten sausage Gets Made (1:30) Part 2: Films 10-4 (10:20) Part 3: Die My Love redux (24:10) Part 4: Sinners and One Battle After Another (28:55) Part 5: Our personal faves, performances of the year etc (42:05) Epilogue: Anahit chatting about sexy vampires (1:05:00) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Anahit’s chat with Jafar Panahi: https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/16828/jafar-panahi-interview-it-was-just-an-accident Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

On the penultimate CineSkinny episode of the year, we've got three absolute bangers for you. First up, we take a look at Palme d'Or-winner It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi's powerful moral drama that just got him another unjust jail sentence from the Iranian regime.  Another moral crusader who's been a thorn in his corrupt nation's side is journalist Seymour Hersh. His extraordinary career as an investigative reporter is documented by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus in Cover-Up. And finally, we review Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s exquisite and expansive drama examining generational trauma and burning resentment within a Norwegian family.  CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching: The Running Man, Field of Dreams, RoboCop (2:45) It Was Just an Accident review (12:50) Cover-Up review (30:05) Sentimental Value review (47:33) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

You’ve had your Jamie and Ellie episode. You’ve had your Peter and Anahit episode. Now it’s a Peter and Jamie combo – possibly sponsored by everyone’s fave streaming service, Tubi. They’ll be discussing the sub-dom-rom-com Pillion, which stars Alexander Skarsgård as a dom biker who takes a shine to Harry Melling’s shy traffic warden. They also dig into the third film in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, which sees Daniel Craig’s detective investigating some strange goings on at an Upstate New York church.  And in honour of Wake Up Dead Man, we take a look at what’s required to create a good whodunnit.  CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching: Pennies from Heaven, Speed Racer, Hard Boiled (1:40) Pillion review (12:05) Wake Up Dead Man  review (20:30) The art of the whodunnit (31:05) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

It's a fresh new config this week, as Peter and Anahit review a trio of new films – the feral, intense Die My Love; the melancholic, Malick-esque Train Dreams; and Alpha, which is also out soon :| We're a lean, mean reviewin' machine, so strap in for talk about The National, us being infatuated with and scared of Jennifer Lawrence, Peter getting Gene Wilder and Billy Wilder mixed up, and lots of chat about a film we didn't much care for. CHAPTERS: What We've Been Watching (1:30) Train Dreams review (8:25) Alpha review (15:00) Die My Love review (27:55) If you like The Cineskinny, tell your pals! Leave us a five-star review! Share the episode on socials! Follow us on Instagram @thecineskinny, email us at [email protected] Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license