The National Society of Film Critics counts among its members many of the country’s leading film critics. Its purpose is to promote the mutual interests of film criticism and filmmaking.
Founded in l966, the Society differs from other critical associations in a number of significant ways. In the first place, it is truly national. Its 61 members include critics from major papers in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Its members also include the critics not just of Time, Newsweek, and The New Yorker, but also of The Village Voice, The Boston Phoenix, and Salon.com. Second, membership is by election.
The Society represents movie criticism in the United States by supplying the official critic delegate to the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and abroad as the official American representative to FIPRESCI, the international federation of members of the film press.
Besides responding to specific issues, such as colorization, film preservation, or the ratings system, the Society regularly meets early in January to vote on the Society’s awards for the finest film achievements of the year.
The Society’s latest anthology, published in 2008, is The B List: The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love. Prior to that The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On was published as a follow up to The A List: 100 Essential Films (2002). In the 1990’s, the Society published Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You’ve Never Seen (1990); Foreign Affairs, its counterpart for foreign films (1991); Love and Hisses, a guide to the most controversial films and issues (1992); They Went Thataway: Redefining Film Genres (1993); and Flesh and Blood (1995). Earlier, the Society published six volumes of annual reviews, as well as The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy (l977) and The National Society of Film Critics on the Movie Star (1981). The group can genuinely be said to represent the best of contemporary American film criticism.
The group’s currently active members are:
SAM ADAMS – Philadelphia City Paper, LA Times
JOHN ANDERSON – Variety, Newsday
MELISSA ANDERSON – Village Voice
DAVID ANSEN – Newsweek
SHEILA BENSON – Seattle Weekly
JAMI BERNARD – Movie City News
RICHARD BRODY – The New Yorker
TY BURR – Boston Globe
JAY CARR – Turner Classic Movies Online
ELEANOR RINGEL CARTER – Atlanta Business Chronicle
JUSTIN CHANG — Variety
GODFREY CHESHIRE – Metro Magazine
MIKE CLARK – Home Media Magazine
RICHARD CORLISS – Time
DAVID DENBY – The New Yorker
MORRIS DICKSTEIN – Dissent
ROGER EBERT – The Chicago Sun-Times
DAVID EDELSTEIN – New York magazine
STEVE ERICKSON – L.A. Magazine
SCOTT FOUNDAS – Film Comment
CHRIS FUJIWARA – Boston Phoenix
OWEN GLEIBERMAN – Entertainment Weekly
MOLLY HASKELL – Town & Country
J. HOBERMAN – Village Voice
RICHARD T. JAMESON – Queen Anne & Magnolia News
BEN KENIGSBERG — Time out Chicago
DAVE KEHR – www.davekehr.com
LISA KENNEDY – Denver Post
PETER KEOUGH- Boston Phoenix
STUART KLAWANS – The Nation
ANDY KLEIN – L.A. Times Community Papers, KPCC-FM
NATHAN LEE – Film Comment
EMANUEL LEVY – Financial Times, EmanuelLevy.com
DENNIS LIM
TODD McCARTHY -Hollywood Reporter
JOE MORGENSTERN – Wall Street Journal
WESLEY MORRIS – Boston Globe
ROB NELSON – MinnPost.com
GERALD PEARY – Boston Phoenix
JOHN POWERS – Vogue NPR
PETER RAINER – Christian Science Monitor NPR
STEVEN REA – Philadelphia Inquirer
CARRIE RICKEY – Philadelphia Inquirer
RICHARD SCHICKEL – Truthdig
LISA SCHWARZBAUM – Entertainment Weekly
HENRY SHEEHAN – KPCC-FM
MICHAEL SRAGOW – WYPR Maryland Morning
CHUCK STEPHENS – Film Comment
DAVID STERRITT – Tikkun
JAN STUART –
AMY TAUBIN – Film Comment
CHARLES TAYLOR – Newark Star-Ledger
ELLA TAYLOR – NPR.org, Village Voice Media
KEVIN THOMAS – L.A. Times
PETER TRAVERS – Rolling Stone
KENNETH TURAN – L.A. Times
JAMES VERNIERE – Boston Herald
MICHAEL WILMINGTON – Movie City News
WILLIAM WOLF – Wolfentertainmentguide.com
STEPHANIE ZACHAREK – Movieline.com