New year, new us. Or the same old us. Which we're hoping is how you like it, because we have no plans to change. Or do we? You'll have to keep listening to find out.

Enough with the mysterious foreshadowing, because we're kicking off 2019 with Glasgow's finest ever export, Stephen A Russell! Stephen is a writer and critic who has called Melbourne home for more than a decade.

You've likely seen his film writing in SBS Movies, Metro magazine, The New Daily, Fairfax and The Saturday Paper, amongst others. And if you haven't read him, you've certainly heard his dulcet Scottish brogue and rogue snort during his fortnightly movie review spot on queer radio station Joy 94.9 FM, or his occasional cameos on Radio National. And if you've been in Melbourne recently, you may have seen him during one of the many post-film Q&As he's hosted for major distributors and film festivals including MIFF and MQFF.

But all of that is was merely prologue to Stephen's greatest role to date: Hell Is For Hyphenates guest host!

So which filmmaker has Stephen selected to talk about on the show?

None other than Xavier Dolan!

It's been hard to ignore the work of the French-Canadian prodigy whose directorial debut, 2009's I Killed My Mother, was released when he was only 21. The film was critically-acclaimed, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival and winning awards all around the world.

Since then, he's been the most prominent voice in queer cinema, averaging a new film almost every year with Heartbeats (2010), Laurence Anyways (2012), Tom at the Farm (2013), Mommy (2014), and It's Only the End of the World (2016) all receiving rave reviews and cementing Dolan as a dyed-in-the-wool talent.

With The Death and Life of John F Donovan on the verge of release, and Matthias & Maxime wrapped filming, he's clearly got a lot ahead of him. And he's still months off turning 30. That's a lot to process.

But what is it about his films that Stephen loves so much?

Join us on January 31 when we find out!