Rise of the Critic-Turned-Programmer?
by Brian Brooks (November 10, 2009)
With the appointment of Newsweek critic David Ansen as Los Angeles Film Festival’s new Artistic Director yesterday, the programming ranks at fests are swelling with people who have made their names in film criticism. The New York Film Festival’s programming committee is packed with critics, who took a bit of a lashing earlier this Fall from one of their own, A.O. Scott in the New York Times. AFI Fest’s new programmer this year, Robert Koehler, hails from film criticism, and there may be more to come. As Anne Thompson noted in her write up on the Ansen appointment, LA Weekly’s Scott Foundas is among those in the mix to take former Film Society of Lincoln Center Kent Jones’ old job (after he left to work with Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation). The Film Society, which produces the annual NYFF, should reveal its ultimate choice soon. One has to look toward Europe to find a notable exception to this migration. The Edinburgh Fest’s former Artistic Director Shane Danielsen left his gig a few years back, and is now focusing his attention to criticism (he has written about several events for indieWIRE in the past two years in addition to numerous other outlets). The serious decline in film criticism Stateside has meant a lot of industry professionals, many of whom are veterans of the film festival circuit, have looked to other aspects of the industry in order to remain within the business. “If this were a few years ago when I was a full time critic, I seriously doubt I would’ve taken the job, but then again, I doubt they would’ve come to me,” Ansen told indieWIRE on Monday afternoon in a phone conversation. “I had a buy-out of my contract, [and] obviously it’s not a good time to be a film critic.” Though Ansen will take the reins as LAFF’s Artistic Director, working with the fest’s Director Rebecca Yeldham, who is also relatively new to the organization, he will continue to work for Newsweek occasionally. He will also moderate the publication’s annual Oscar roundtable in January. “I have not totally hung up my hat as a critic,” Ansen added, “but it’s nice after all these years sitting alone in a room in front of the screen to now be working with a team.” In addition to his work at Newsweek, Ansen also served on NYFF’s selection committee for eight years, and even served on LAFF’s doc jury this past year.
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