We profiled the expanding career of American filmmaker and October Film of the Month judge Ira Sachs at the beginning of the month. Here he tells us his side – how he got his start, how he’s maintained his independence, and how he has been giving back.

Ira Sachs is an intelligent, cine-literate director born in Memphis, Tennessee, later based in New York. His subtle, smart dramas echo his experiences of living in these two places, as well as drawing wider from his collaborators and influences.

In July we hosted Apichatpong Weerasethakul, one of the all time great modern arthouse directors. A filmmaker’s filmmaker, Apichatpong won the Palme d’Or for his 2010 film Uncle Boonmee, having won prizes at Cannes for two features before that, Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, and has been a critical and festival favourite since his debut feature Mysterious Object at Noon. Some warm and incisive words from the brilliant Thai director on the three finalists in July’s Film of the Month competition, below. These were…

Briony Hanson has been the Director of Film for the British Council since 2011, and is responsible for overseeing promotion of British films and filmmakers across the world.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is one of the world’s most revered modern arthouse directors. Almost all of his wide reaching body of work has been met with critical acclaim, and three of his features (Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady and Uncle Boonmie) won prizes at Cannes Film Festival. We spoke with the director (who was our Film of the Month judge for July), about his relationship with filmmaking and his homeland.

Artist filmmaker turned feature director Omer Fast provides some insightful feedback to this month’s winning Film of the Month entries.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a prestigious, multi-award winning arthouse filmmaker from Thailand, who is best known for his 2010 Palme d’Or winning feature Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

As his narrative feature debut Remainder opens in London to no small acclaim, we speak with artist-filmmaker turned feature director Omer Fast, about transitioning from the art world to feature filmmaking and adapting fiction for the screen.

British comedy innovator Alice Lowe provides her insight on your submissions for the June Film of the Month.

Omer Fast is a Israel born, Berlin based video artist turned feature filmmaker. Born in Jerusalem, he spent much of his youth travelling back and forth between Israel and the United States. Much of his art builds from this dual-identity. “I grew up with two identities and two languages that I had to speak fluently, and so what is always connected to my work is this notion of being perceived as authentic, and how much that is a performance.” His films work…