MUBI, the global streaming service, production company and film distributor has launched a special episode of its award-winning audio-documentary series MUBI Podcast featuring an interview with BAFTA-longlisted and BIFA-winning Aftersun director Charlotte Wells, ahead of the film’s release on MUBI today.
Hosted by acclaimed arts and travel reporter Rico Gagliano, the MUBI Podcast is a documentary-style show available on all major podcast platforms and on MUBI’s online publication Notebook.
In this special episode of the MUBI Podcast, Wells talks about the ‘80s and ’90s-era needle drops laced through the film, from Bran Van 3000 to the accidental discovery of a Queen track that suddenly spoke volumes. She and Rico also dive into Aftersun’s carefully-calibrated performances, its themes of joy and denial, and try to pin down why this intimate, bittersweet story has been embraced by a broad audience, from Gen Z-ers to Barack Obama.
The feature debut of Wells, starring BAFTA Award-winning actor Paul Mescal (Normal People, The Lost Daughter) and 12-year-old Scottish actor Frankie Corio in her debut role, received its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the French Touch Jury Prize.
Aftersun was longlisted today for eight BAFTA awards including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Director, Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, Leading Actor, Original Screenplay, Casting and Editing; it also recently took home seven BIFA awards for Best British Independent Film, Best Director, The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Music Supervision. Wells also won Breakthrough Director for the film at the 2022 Gotham Awards.
In the MUBI Podcast’s second season, available now, guests included filmmakers Barbet Schroeder (Barfly, Reversal of Fortune), Mary Harron (American Psycho), Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy), Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney), and Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Jodorowsky’s Dune). Film writers J Hoberman, Amy Nicholson, Louis Menand, Danny Leigh and more also add insights and commentary.
MUBI Podcast has received international critical acclaim, including spotlighted recommendations in UK outlets The Guardian, Spectator, Sight and Sound and The Radio Times, France’s Les Inrockuptibles, and multiple raves from podcast tastemaker Nick Quah in New York Magazine-Vulture. The show was named Best Arts or Entertainment Podcast twice at the L.A. Press Club’s 2021 and 2022 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. It was nominated for a 2022 Webby Award for Best Individual Podcast Episode – TV or Film, and for Best New Podcast at the 2022 British Podcast Awards.
