The Frame

On today's show: comedian Hannah Gadsby grew up in Tasmania, where being gay wasn't just dangerous, it was criminalized. Now, she’s sharing her story in a Netflix special; WeTransfer creates a platform for artists and other creatives to showcase their work; Anna Abondolo is a teen musician who's going places.

On today's show: Beyoncé and Jay thrilled their fans by dropping a surprise album over the weekend; playwright Stephen Karam turned a bad family Thanksgiving dinner into "The Humans"; real life paleontologist Jack Horner inspired the Sam Neill character in the "Jurassic" franchise.

On today's show: Lea Thompson didn’t always like the way women were depicted in movies. So she directed a female-positive feature — written by and starring her daughter; mixed news for people who work in Hollywood; Jeff Tomsic, director of the buddy comedy, "Tag."

On today's show: Hanks is spending a good chuck of his summer playing Falstaff in "Henry IV" under the stars on the grounds of the V.A. campus in Brentwood; Spotify's curated playlists are hugely influential, but are they also sexist?

On today's show: Director Domee Shi mined her childhood for the story about a Chinese dumpling that comes to life in the animated short, "Bao"; Fox can only hope for the best as the World Cup kicks of without the U.S. team; between streaming services and countless cable channels, why are there still movies that can't be seen?

On today's show: the British actress has gone from an Oscar-nominated role in "Phantom Thread" to sharing the stage with Jeremy Irons; the E3 gaming convention is not just about guns and bombast; a new episode of Song Exploder features Liz Phair revisiting her 1993 debut album, "Exile in Guyville."

On today's show: Director X (that's what he goes by) says his film is a "re-imagining" of the '70s blaxploitation classic; what does it mean that the major film critics are overwhelmingly white and male?; we take you out to the ol' ballgame with the L.A. Dodgers' organist.

On today's show: actress Toni Collette talks about her intense performance in the new horror film, "Hereditary"; remembering Anthony Bourdain, the author and TV host who had a profound influence on food culture; a preview of the Tony Awards with New York Times co-theater critic Jesse Green.

On today's show: the theater satire trio known as Culture Clash revisits the volatile region in its latest show, “Bordertown Now”; the ReFrame coalition is partnering with IMDbPro to recognize standout, gender-balanced film and TV projects; the L.A.-based American Contemporary Ballet performs at its studio on the 32nd floor of a downtown high-rise.

On today's show: director Brad Bird explains the long gestation between the original and "Incredibles 2"; is the traditionally conservative country music industry changing its stripes?; the PLAY organization helps people tap into their creative, playful selves.

Writer/director David O. Russell has completed a trifecta with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in his latest film, "Joy"; the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild have announced their award nominees, one week before the Motion Picture Academy does the same; there really is a company called Central Casting that's been casting extras for 90 years.

Sarah Silverman's career took a serious turn when she took on the lead role in "I Smile Back," and now she's getting award buzz; Phyllis Nagy worked for 18 years to adapt a Patricia Highsmith novel for the movie, "Carol"; composer and conductor Pierre Boulez had a long connection to the Ojai Music Festival.

Diane Warren's latest success is “Til It Happens to You,” which Lady Gaga performed for the documentary, “The Hunting Ground”; Coachella's headliners include Guns N' Roses and LCD Soundsystem; The Discovery Channel is scaling back on reality shows to get back to its original mission.

HBO chief Michael Lombardo joins us for an intimate chat about what he learned from "True Detective" and more; Then, 2015 was a record year at the box office, but most of the ticket sales came from just a handful of movies. Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal helps shed light on this trend.

We put together a special episode of The Frame, featuring interviews with George Clooney, "Empire" creator Lee Daniels, musician Jenny Lewis, actress Julianne Moore, "Transparent" creator Jill Soloway and the R&B singer Miguel.

Don Randi's memoir, "You've Heard These Hands," details his years with the L.A. studio band that played on hundreds of hits in the 1960s and '70s; Kelly Sue DeConnick revamped the "Captain Marvel" series, but her "Bitch Planet" titles are with a smaller publisher that allows her to control her work.

Comic strip artist Lalo Alcaráz draws on his own border upbringing as a writer/producer on Fox's typically irreverent animated comedy, "Bordertown"; writer/director László Nemes breaks away from the usual Hollywood treatment of Holocaust movies with his debut, "Son of Saul"

The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman wrote a play that ended up being turned into the stop-motion animated film, "Anomalisa"; filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky relied heavily on footage shot by Ukrainian protestors for the documentary, "Winter on Fire"

Carter Burwell had a busy 2015, scoring five films including Todd Haynes' "Carol" and Charlie Kaufman's "Anomalisa"; Haskell Wexler had a long and illustrious career as a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker; musician Blair Tindall's memoir is the basis for the Amazon series, "Mozart In the Jungle."

We put together a show with some of our favorite conversations of 2015. Hear interviews with Meryl Streep, composer Philip Glass, "Orange is the New Black" actors Uzo Aduba and Lea DeLaria, "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner.

After more than 40 years as a recording artist, James Taylor had an album debut atop the Billboard charts for the first time this year; Tom Hooper is getting praise for directing “The Danish Girl," the true story of one of the first gender confirmation surgeries in the world, which took place in the 1920s.

Stacey Sher worked with Quentin Tarantino on “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained,” so she's familiar with his methods and madness; "The Hateful Eight" was mostly filmed on a scenic ranch in Telluride, Colorado; holiday music to enjoy and avoid.