Join experts Maria Angelico, Angelica Jade Bastién and Amy Nicholson for a lively chat through the what and the why of pop culture right now. Hosted by Michael Sun.

Each year at the Melbourne International Film Festival, a panel of guests gather to dissect the highs and lows of the zeitgeist. Host Michael Sun, essayist and regular writer for The Guardian, will be joined by actor and writer Maria Angelico, Chicago-based Vulture culture critic Anjelica Jade Bastién and Los Angeles Times film critic Amy Nicholson to discuss the most overrated, underrated and personal-favourite moments in movies, TV, podcasts and books of the past 12 months.

If all goes to plan, there’ll be hot takes, heated discussions and great recommendations to enjoy post-festival.

Amy Nicholson is the film critic of the Los Angeles Times and the host of the podcast Unspooled. She is a current on-air voice at LAist and KCRW, and a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. Her other credits include The New York Times, The Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, MTV News and The Guardian. Her first book, Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor, was published by Cahiers du Cinema, and her second, Extra Girls, will be published by Simon & Schuster.

Angelica Jade Bastién is a Southern-born critic and essayist for New York magazine’s site, Vulture, where she covers film and pop culture. She has written for The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, Criterion Channel Blu-ray releases and many other publications. She was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2022. Her work can also be found on her newsletter, Madwomen & Muses. She lives in Chicago with her two cats.

Maria Angelico is an award-winning actress, writer and artist who stars in Zoe Pepper’s debut feature Birthright, screening this year at MIFF. Maria works extensively on screen, most notably in the popular Binge series Strife, produced by Made Up Stories; Netflix series Sisters; ABC/BBC’s The Newsreader; and Netflix’s Stateless, produced by Cate Blanchett. Maria recently wrapped on the new ABC series adaptation of Sally Hepworth’s wildly successful novel The Family Next Door, which will be released this year.

Michael Sun is a critic, essayist, and editor from China and Australia. His writing on film, music and literature is regularly published in The Guardian, Esquire, ABC Arts, Sydney Review of Books and Art Guide, among many others. He recently contributed a chapter to the Art Gallery of NSW’s Cao Fei monograph.

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