CBC’s film-focused talk show The Filmmakers is back for round two and will devote its entire second season to films directed by women.

Launched in 2017, the 30-minute series hosted by Johanna Schneller and Amanda Parris features candid conversations with the Canadian creatives behind recent films. Each episode also includes a roundtable discussion with a mix of the film’s creatives and is followed by a screening of the film.

Season two of the eight-part series will feature interviews with the likes of Mina Shum, Stella Meghie and Patricia Rozema, focusing on their films, the challenges they’ve faced, and what they are doing to help pave the way for other Canadian women in a male-dominated industry.

The second season of The Filmmakers will premiere on July 28 at 8:30 p.m. on the CBC, the CBC TV app and the pubcaster’s website.

The season will kick off with Shum’s Meditation Park, which received funding through the pubcaster’s Breaking Barriers Film Fund in 2017. The film, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, will make its broadcast and streaming premiere on the CBC – the first of the Breaking Barriers film to do so.

Other features set for broadcast include Rozema’s Into The Forest, Ann Marie Fleming’s Window Horses, Louise Archambault’s Gabrielle, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk, Sadaf Foroughi’s Ava, Rebecca Addelman’s Paper Year and Stella Meghie’s Jean of the Joneses.

Guest panelists for the upcoming season include Lillian Lim, Peter Wunstorf, Joyce Wong, Niv Fichman, Callum Keith Rennie, Chandler Levack, Kevin Landgale, Lillian Chan, Nasim Asgari, Cindy Schwartz, Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory, Nyla Innuksuk, Kiarash Anvari, Tina Hassannia, Grace Glowicki, Christina Piovesan, Avery Plewes, Kris Belchevski and Michelle Hurst.

L to R: Johanna Schneller and Amanda Parris