Andy Hazel

For their acclaimed debut, Sorry, Baby, comedian and actor Eva Victor is the writer, director and star of a film about trauma that is both deeply moving and funny.

Shortly before the premiere of his new film, The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson reflects on his journey to becoming one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival finds room for dissidence, divisive films and a lot of clapping.

Actor Austin Butler leaves the heightened realities of Elvis and Dune: Part Two to star in Jeff Nichols’s high-octane tribute to 1960s motorcycle culture, The Bikeriders.

Jessica Chastain’s acting career successfully straddles critically acclaimed arthouse projects and blockbuster stardom.

In early September, Morocco experienced a devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake. Nearly 3000 people died, more than 50,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and parts of Marrakech’s medina – the engine room of the country’s vital tourism industry – were left in ruins.

“I’m on the fringes of everything. I called one of my albums Fringe Benefits, and people thought I was talking about money,” says Australian folk legend Margret RoadKnight. “I know the benefits of not being part of the mainstream.”

Directors who have worked with Jason Schwartzman are familiar with what they call the “J roll”. After he completes a take, the 43-year-old will fixate on a prop or inanimate object and ramble on. “He’s never going to end a scene where you’re supposed to,” said Alex Ross Perry, who directed the actor in his 2014 film, Listen Up Philip. “He’s always going to add extra stuff.”

It is easy to imagine the Cannes Film Festival as an ugly mashup of wealth, fashion, injustice, misogyny, lies and disappointment. That’s only part of what makes it so fascinating. It is also expensive and governed by infuriatingly inconsistent rules. Despite this, it is almost impossible not to feel optimistic as you walk around the city, or queue, umbrella in hand, waiting for another chance to see what could become one of the year’s great cinematic discoveries.

Screenwriter and director Paul Schrader created some of the most acclaimed films of the 1970s and 1980s, and as he releases his new film, Master Gardener, it’s clear age hasn’t wearied him.

A lifetime of chronic pain has shown celebrated singer-songwriter Martha Marlow the real meaning of beauty.

Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, which just earned the director his second Palme d’Or, builds on a reputation for satirising the social elite that he’s carefully cultivated in earlier works.

Among Australia’s neighbours, Singapore is perhaps the safest and least audacious. Of the millions of travellers who pass through the republic each year, less than half leave Changi Airport’s sliding doors for the languid efficiency outside. It’s the perfect place for anyone who likes their cultural experiences proximal.

Director Goran Stolevski, whose film Of an Age opened the Melbourne International Film Festival, is having a dream year.

The taste of the river mint is difficult to describe. Words I call to mind seem inaccurate, and the harder I try to interpret the bright, fresh and slightly bitter taste, the lazier my attempts seem. “A bit like spearmint but … deeper, edgier, more herbaceous.” As I flail around like a novice sommelier I’m increasingly intrigued: What am I eating?

Long overlooked outside Indigenous communities, the native food industry is poised to transform what is considered Australian cuisine.

The film director has never aimed small – and few figures are bigger than Elvis Presley.

Drawing on his recent experience of a heart attack, as well as his decades-long friendship with director Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas has produced what may be his finest performance in Pain and Glory. “We hadn’t worked together in eight or nine years, but suddenly he calls me and says, ‘Hey, I’m gonna send you something. You’re going to find a lot of references to people that you and I know.’ And I received Pain and Glory. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it because he was there, it was such an opportunity. So, I went to him as a soldier, as a very, very plain soldier, ready to listen. Really listen.”

After releasing three successful albums and winning an ARIA award, indie rock band Art of Fighting all but disappeared. Having returned with their first record in 12 years, Luna Low, they discuss their thoughtful brand of songwriting, their collaborative process and their long hiatus. “Maybe we felt like we’d run our creative course to a point,” says Ollie Browne, “and there was a fear of eroding the artistry even more.”

Rather than worrying about the nuclear threat from his homeland’s northern neighbour, South Korean director and screenwriter Bong Joon-ho has used his latest Palme d’Or-winning film, Parasite, to home in on the country’s increasing economic divide. “Of course we do worry about North Korea and want peace to come and our relationship to improve, but it’s not something that happens right next to me. What we really feel with our skin are economic issues.”