This MK3D (our 65th!) was the first of the show’s seventh year in residence at the BFI Southbank.
Mark Kermode answered questions from the audience on subjects ranging from stage adaptation of classic movies to film scores.
Look out for Neil Brand’s orchestral score to South, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Glorious Epic of the Antarctic, which screens at the IMAX on 27 January with live accompaniment.
In the news section Here’s the Thing, Mark paid tribute to the iconic actor Sidney Poitier who passed away in January aged 94 – the first black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field in 1964 – and to Peter Bogdanovich who we lost on the same day, best known for this BAFTA-winning The Last Picture Show.
Actor-turned-director, horror fan Romola Garai came to talk about her terrifying feature Amulet starring Imelda Staunton – and about her Guilty Pleasure, the film Point Break, which she discovered aged 11 and has loved ever since.
Himesh Patel came to talk about the runaway success Netflix feature Don’t Look Up and Station Eleven, the HBO series about a post-pandemic society. He talked to Mark about the films that influenced his view of life: Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight.
Finally Mark welcomed Joanna Hogg who was last on the show to talk about The Souvenir and returned to talk about The Souvenir Part II, which has been longlisted for this year’s BAFTAs. She and Mark bonded over her choice of Guilty Pleasure: she chose not one film, nor a trilogy, but an entire genre – disaster movies. Favourites include The Poseidon Adventure and The Day After Tomorrow – and anything by Roland Emmerich, including the much-awaited Moonfall.
We closed the show with Sound & Vision, and a tribute to Get Back, the eight-hour epic series by Peter Jackson, culminating in the rooftop rendition of Get Back.
