HOST RICO GAGLIANO SURVEYS FILM CULTURE ACROSS THE WORLD IN SEASON 8: TRAVELLING SHOTS, FEATURING GUESTS GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, FIONA SHAW, EVAN GOLDBERG, RICH PEPPIATT & MORE
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26 JUNE, 2025 – MUBI‘s multiple-award-winning audio-documentary series, MUBI Podcast, returns for an epic eighth season on 3 July. Titled Travelling Shots, it consists of five freewheeling episodes about the fascinating film history and culture of different locations around the world. New episodes release on Thursdays over seven weeks this summer.

Part travelogue, part deep-dive storytelling, the latest season sees host Rico Gagliano jet off to Ireland, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Istanbul, to learn about their cultures through the lens of cinema. Season 8’s guests include actors Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros) and Fiona Shaw (Hot Milk), writer/directors Rich Peppiatt (Kneecap), Evan Goldberg (The Studio) and Halina Reijn (Babygirl), producer Ed Guiney (Poor Things, Normal People), production designer Eugenio Caballero (Roma, Pan’s Labyrinth) and a host of other filmmakers, programmers, academics, cinema owners, critics, tour guides, and festival directors.

EPISODE LIST: 

Episode 1: IRELAND TELLS ITS OWN TALES 

Rico travels to Dublin and Belfast, and hangs with an epic lineup of local moviemaking heroes, to learn how Ireland went from a backdrop for Hollywood rom-coms… to one of the hottest film cultures on the planet.

With the help of Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt, actor Fiona Shaw (My Left Foot, Hot Milk), producer Ed Guiney (Normal People, Poor Things), director John Crowley (Brooklyn, Intermission) and actor Carrie Crowley (The Quiet Girl), Rico traces a path from Ireland’s first dedicated cinema — opened by James Joyce in 1909 – to the country’s ongoing juggernaut of Oscar wins and nominations.

Episode 2: KRAAKING OPEN THE DOORS OF AMSTERDAM CINEMA

Why is the Netherlands so underrepresented when it comes to global cinema?  And why, despite it all, is the country’s capital city one of the best cities in the world to watch global cinema? In a whirlwind trip around Amsterdam, Rico learns how squatters (aka “krakers”) of the ‘80s and ‘90s left their mark on Amsterdam’s movie-crazy culture.

Guests include director Halina Reijn (Babygirl); New York Times contributor Nina Siegel; the programmer of OT301 cultural centre, Ivo Schmidt; Tom Ooms, Head of Cinema at LAB111l; and veteran “underground cinema” programmer Jeffrey Babcock.

Episode 3: THE GOLDEN AGES OF MEXICO CITY  

Rico cruises around Mexico City’s sprawl to learn about the local movie industry’s many golden ages, starting in the glamorous 1930s… through the gritty nuevo cinema of the ‘90s that birthed auteurs like Alfonso Cuaron… to the age of Netflix.

Along the way, Rico meets up with production designer Eugenio Caballero for a tour of exteriors from the modern classic Roma, and sits down with a cross-section of Mexican filmmakers, from superstar actor/producer Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros, Coco), to indigenous indie director Luna Marán (Chicharras).

Episode 4: LOS ANGELES — UP FROM THE ASHES

A story of revival – the resilience of the city that’s been synonymous with movies for more than a century. From the exodus of film productions to a surprising renaissance of repertory cinemas, we hear from locals about how important movie culture is to L.A.’s sense of itself, and what’s being done to keep it alive.

Guests include The Studio co-creator Evan Goldberg, critic Sean Fennessy (The Big Picture); legendary indie director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep); and Maggie Mackay of the east side rep theater Vidiots.

Episode 5: ISTANBUL AT THE EDGE

How do you make great movies in a country where state censorship’s increasingly a fact of life?  Rico meets up with acclaimed Turkish directors Emin Alper (Beyond the Hill) and Özcan Alper (Autumn), to find out. Meanwhile, he visits the sites of local cinemas old, new, and demolished… and is on the ground to capture filmmakers’ reactions when the country’s opposition leader is suddenly jailed.

*BONUS Episode*: RICH PEPPIATT on KNEECAP

We’ll release the entire extended conversation with Kneecap’s’s BAFTA-winning director Rich Peppiatt, as a special bonus episode. Rich tells Rico how he met the movie’s titular hip-hop band and how moving to Belfast as an adult gave him an unique outsider’s perspective on the region, its history, and its movie industry.