Ann Hornaday is an American film critic. She has been film critic at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' since 2002 and is the author of ''Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies'' (2017). In 2008, she was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by ...

Early life

Hornaday grew up in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

. She attended

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...

, majoring in government; she graduated in 1982.

Career

After graduating from college, Hornaday moved to New York to become a freelance writer, contributing to ''Premiere'', ''Us'' and ''Ms.'' magazines; at the latter, she also worked as a researcher and assistant to

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

, a role she held from 1983 to 1985. Hornaday began contributing to the "Arts & Leisure" section of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', eventually going on to become film critic at the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internationa ...

'' in 1995. In 1997 she moved to ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'', then to ''

'' in 2002, following the retirement of the ''Posts previous critic Rita Kempley. She has also written features for '' Working Woman'' and ''

Self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...

'' magazine. In 2008, Hornaday was a finalist for the

, with the prize committee citing "her perceptive movie reviews and essays, reflecting solid research and an easy, engaging style." In 2017, Hornaday published ''Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies''. The book, a 304-page text published with

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. H ...

, draws on a series Hornaday began writing in 2009 for the ''Post'', aimed at explaining the various specialized crafts in filmmaking – like sound, editing, cinematography – to a general audience. Hornaday approached it as a journalistic project, interviewing people working in a variety of roles in film to ask them to describe what they do as well as "what they wished audiences appreciated more about their work". In a review for ''The New York Times'',

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mo ...

described the book as "a pleasantly calm, eminently sensible, down-the-middle primer for the movie lover — amateur, professional or

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

-centric orator — who would like to acquire and sharpen basic viewing skills."

Personal life

Hornaday lives in Baltimore.

References

External links

Archive
at ''The Washington Post''
Ann Hornaday, "The 34 best political movies ever made" ''The Washington Post'' Jan. 23, 2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornaday, Ann Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Smith College alumni The Washington Post people The Baltimore Sun people Austin American-Statesman people Writers from Des Moines, Iowa American women film critics National Society of Film Critics Members American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists Journalists from Iowa American film critics