The Frame

You know him from comedies like "Beverly Hills Cop" and "The Nutty Professor," but Eddie Murphy's return to the big screen is the dramatic lead role in “Mr. Church"; Vulture.com senior editor Kyle Buchanan tells us what's hot at the Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off today; Filmmaker Ryan Suffern on his new doc, "Finding Oscar," about the aftermath of the civil war in Guatemala.

"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins adapted the script for his new movie from a Tarell McCraney play, but it's a truly personal story for him. The movie is set in the Miami neighborhood where both he and McCraney grew up and borrows from both men's biographies; A new USC study looks at 800 Hollywood films and finds the same old thing — a lack of diversity both on and off the screen.

Eastwood directs Hanks in the story of the airline pilot who safely landed his damaged plane in the Hudson River with 155 people onboard; the three-day electronic music festival at the San Manuel Amphitheater saw hundreds of arrests, mostly for drug possession or being under the influence.

The new boxing drama "Bleed For This" tells the real life story of Vinny Pazienza's rise in the boxing world, and how a car accident nearly paralyzed him. The film made its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

Amy Adams is at the 43rd Telluride Film Festival for the North American premiere of her movie “Arrival." She's also being honored by the festival for her body of work. This Q&A was recorded in front of an audience and covers a wide range of topics, from how she got started doing dinner theater and her early years struggling in L.A., to her recent run of successful movies like "American Hustle" and "Her."

Casey Affleck is at the Telluride Film Festival for his new drama, "Manchester By The Sea" and a career tribute for his more than twenty years of acting. He had a live Q&A with The Frame's John Horn in which he reflected on a time when he was disillusioned with acting. He also talked about his creative partnerships with directors Gus Van Sant and Kenneth Lonergan and actors Rooney Mara, Christian Bale, and his longtime friend Joaquin Phoenix.

As part of NPR's "A Nation Engaged," project we look at America's changing role as the world's leading exporter of pop culture; David Schwartz writes wacky music for Maria Bamford’s wacky show, “Lady Dynamite”; a San Francisco theater company wrestles with the use of "yellowface" makeup for "The Mikado"

Actress Tika Sumpter was also a producer on "Southside with You," the film about The First Couple's first date; this weekend's Telluride Film Festival once again features Oscar-hopefuls; Melora Marshall takes on an acting marathon every weekend at Theatricum Botanicum.

Matt and Ross Duffer are the brothers behind the hit Netflix show, "Stranger Things"; as part of our Cops on TV series, professor Kathleen Donovan connects the dots between TV dramas and our attitudes about police; there's a new battlefront in the fight for subscribers between Apple and Spotify.

"Complete Unknown," starring Rachel Weisz, is Joshua Marston's third film, but his first in English; in a new epsiode of "Song Exploder," Andra Day dissects "Forever Mine"; more people than ever are canceling pay TV services, and that has networks worried.

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.