On direct images of pluricanonical bundles

We show that techniques inspired by Koll\'ar and Viehweg's study of weak positivity, combined with vanishing theorems for log-canonical pairs, lead to new consequences regarding generation and vanishing properties for direct images of pluricanonical bundles. We formulate the strongest such results as Fujita conjecture-type statements, which are then shown to govern a range of fundamental properties of direct images of pluricanonical and pluriadjoint line bundles, like effective vanishing theorems, weak positivity, or generic vanishing.