How to become a film critic: Real talk from an industry insider

In this episode, we sit down with acclaimed film critic Anna Smith as she shares her path into journalism and film criticism. From Minx to Cannes, Anna tells us about navigating a male-dominated industry, gives us a glimpse into her day-to-day activities and explains how her acclaimed podcast Girls on Film came to be

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ
• Anna Smith - film critic

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You. The podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts prospects. I'm your host, Emily Slade. And in this episode I chat to Anna about being a film critic.

Anna Smith: I'm Anna Smith, I'm a film critic and broadcaster, and I have supercar school girls on film.

Emily Slade: Amazing. So let's go right back to the beginning. What does your educational journey look like?

Anna Smith: Well, I was always a big fan of languages and English language in school, so I ended up going to Leeds University studying English literature language, which I loved. After that, I decided to train to become a journalist. So I went to Cardiff Journalism School post-graduate course and that took me to London.

Emily Slade: Perfect. So you're a film critic, how did you become a film critic?

Anna Smith: So once I came to London, I fell into various different journalism jobs. I think Cardiff was a really good grounding in journalism. It meant you could fall into anything, any kind of genre. And I actually started off in navigation magazines, which is not my area at all. I have no sense of direction. But, you know, when you were a teenager analyst, you can edit any magazine, so they say. And I did, I then fell into dance music magazines. And the case it was, it was the 90s. I was very into rave culture. That was fun, but very chaotic, quite stressful, very understaffed. I edited a couple of magazines there that I would see to women's magazines. That was kind of where I wanted to be. There was a magazine called Minx again in the late 90s, which was, I think feisty is an overused words, but back then that's kind of what it was. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't a Cosmo. It was a bit more edgy, a bit less girly, you might say. And it has a very thought provoking pieces. So Minx was great. I was assistant editor there, and one day someone said, oh, there's a film. Do you want to review it? Because no one else can go. Do you want tickets to the screening? I went along and I just fell in love with it, and I thought sitting there watching a movie, getting paid for your opinion about this movie, what a dream. And I realised that I loved writing about that more than I loved writing about music, more than I loved writing about even lifestyle and travel, which I still enjoy, you know, up to a point. But writing about film, which takes you to so many different places, I love.

Emily Slade: Yeah, wonderful. So that's fascinating that you weren't sort of. Were you a big film fan growing up?

Anna Smith: Interestingly, I was slightly deprived of film growing up, and I have actually found this to be the case with quite a lot of people that work in the film industry. Not everyone, but I was once had a quite a swishy dinner and funnily enough, we all and all my parents wouldn't let me watch TV. You know, they were very strict about my goes to cinema. And you know, I did love guided cinema on the rare occasions I got to go. But as a child it would be quite rare. And certainly as a teenager noticed weakness. Some other people, I think at university I sort of sat around and watched horror movies with, you know, friends as everyone kind of did. But I was never like a movie buff. I think it probably started, the germ of it started when I studied gender and popular culture at university. It was one of the strands that you could do as part of your English course. And this is make drinks to me, because you got to examine gender and popular culture and to look at advertisements, to look at TV shows, and to look at film from a feminist perspective. And then you can see some of the threads of that later my career. So I think the thing is, I, you know, I was a film fan, but I wasn't as literate or as trained as I would have liked. So I when I decided to go freelance to become a film critic, I played catch up.

Emily Slade: Yeah. So tell me about that journey. How did you become a freelancer?

Anna Smith: So Minx eventually folded. By that time, I'd built up quite a good body of reviews and cards, and, I had good contacts in the industry. I knew how good the screenings I knew not the players. I knew how it all worked, really. So that was really helpful. And then I started to do some work for Empire magazine, which is obviously fantastic film magazine and, get to know people there. I eventually started writing for them and then started spreading the word. It was a very, very slow process, especially as a woman in those days in the early 2000s trying to get a reputation, trying to persuade people to take you seriously as a film critic when it's very much a man's world. Was a bit of a challenge. But through persistence and hopefully really good writing, I'm sure is largely, yeah, I got there. I remember a time out, I was working in the TV section for quite a long time, which was is a very similar skill, of course, you know, writing about television, but for some reason there's there's maybe slightly different attitudes towards it. Or there were them and the TV, the, the film editor said to me, okay, Foyle, I've been, I've been asking them persistently, can I watch film of you? And he said, okay, I'll give you Stuart Little 2. This is out after like six months. But I just made sure that was the best film review that I could possibly deliver at that point. You know, I worked so hard on that. And he was surprised and he kept giving me work and then Sight and Sound went, oh, okay, we've seen her work and time out. She's good. Now we will answer her emails. And there was a lot of unanswered emails at first. And then you get on their radar and then they think, okay, she's serious.

Emily Slade: Yeah, yeah. Incredible. So what does a typical working day look like for you?

Anna Smith: Not really. Such a thing is typical is very varied, which is I love because I really enjoy being freelance. I really love working from home. I haven't worked in an office for a very long time. I might have a daytime screening, for example. So I would go into Soho, where they usually held, and go to a screening room with a bunch of other journalists. Sometimes two, sometimes 200 depends on the movie or how early, and sometimes they're quite so secretive. Aren't screenings?So I'd sit there, watch the movie, and then I might give feedback about that film to the publicist. I would then go to one of my several editors who I file for regularly and say, I think this might be a fit for us. Let's bear in mind for that issue. And I'd also have considered that for Girls on Film, my podcast. So any screening I go to, I'm thinking about it from lots of different levels, and I'm also thinking about it in terms of awards consideration. You might this be something I'd be talking about on TV when it comes to the Oscars? That kind of thing.So that would be part of my day. Another part would be having meetings with the Girls on Film team. There's three of us at the moment or working part time, but very hard. And we have a lot of freelancers as well. On the audio side. So we again, would be meeting talking about what events you've got coming up, trying to get sponsorship. That's a really big one. You know, having meetings with people about sponsorship, planning future episodes, that kind of thing. And another big part of my day is being responsive to breaking film news. So, you know, for example, recently, you know, there was a news story about James Bond, about Amazon. And, suddenly my phone's ringing off the hook. Because I'm on the rolodex, as we used to call it, for all these different radio stations and TV channels. And, you know, sometimes you're busy. You can't oblige. But when you can, it's great to jump in there. You don't get paid much, but it all adds up. And it's also good for the profile.

Emily Slade: Absolutely. Tell me more about Girls on Film. How did that come to fruition?

Anna Smith: So I thought of the name in the year 2000 that it was going to be a TV show that I did with my friend, and it was just one of those ideas. We had two women talking about film. Wouldn't that be great? And it just was a germ of an idea. And then in 2016, 2017, my agent, Hedda Archbold, and I, started pitching it seriously as a TV show. My friend had since moved on to other things and gave a blessing. So, you know, she said, let's do this together. Let's pitch it. No one was interested as a TV show. Then we thought, let's do a podcast. Because people were approaching me about podcasts. Had a thought it would be a great idea to try its podcast. So that's what we did. And that was in 2017. And really, it's it's evolved from there. The original idea was partly to show that women talking to other women about film isn't a niche activity. I was being asked to go on TV alongside men, but very, very rarely alongside women. And of course, you see two men talking about films together all the time. There was some kind of assumption that, oh, must be a girls show. Now, we do have a lot of male listeners and Girls on Film. It covers all sorts of topics. It is it does focus on gender representation, because it is the kind of discussions that a lot of women and those of us discussing it are really interested in. So we wanted to tackle films from a different perspective, whether they are mainstream, you know, blockbuster hits, lovely little documentaries that no one else has heard about, some indie film we want to champion, you name it. And what we found is that it's evolved from being film critics chatting to each other very quickly into getting, you know, really big name, actors and directors on there. I think we've had 15 Oscar winners on now. By episode three, Carey Mulligan and Andrea Riseborough were coming on. It was just it was very surprising and exciting to us. The level of industry and interest that we had from women in the industry. So what we decided to do was to open it out and have more practitioners, more filmmakers on the podcast. Well, having film critics or men, we can as well.

Emily Slade: Yeah. Fantastic. I mean, you've essentially provided a a space, haven't you, where everyone can talk about things that they're, they usually don't get the opportunity to do.

Anna Smith: Exactly. We do find that a lot of women come on, they say, oh gosh, no has asked me that question before. I've been doing that. What we call the junket trail, you know, going to loads and loads of interviews with journalists and no one has asked me that. And that's brilliant. If they then feel that, that freedom to talk about it from a slightly different perspective.

Emily Slade: Absolutely. So anyone looking to enter into this world, what skill sets would you say that they should possess?

Anna Smith: I think mine is a very specific world, because, some film critics just write, where is it broadcast? I do podcasting, so I suppose it depends. I might break those down a little bit because, some people might just want to focus on the one. I would say, if you've got the skill set to do all three grades, and the rest I also host Q&A is on stage. There's another one can get to that more if you want. But yeah, to be good at all those things is, I would say, almost one of the only ways to make a living as a film critic. Now, unfortunately, being really honest with you, it is not a pretty picture in terms of earning a living being a film critic these days. So the more strings to your bow that you can have, the better. So number one, be a journalist. You don't have to be train journalist, but I think you have to have the skills of journalism, and you have to have the discipline of journalism. It's not necessarily to me just about kind of, you know, saying what you think about a film. You obviously have to think very carefully about how you structure a review, how you reach your audience. You have to be very good at writing, obviously. And, and I think to hone your opinion over many years is a really valuable thing because you might start out, I look at some of my early reviews and I sort of wins, you know, the more I watched, the more I saw, the more kind of knowledge I amassed, more comparison points. I had, you know, with you, if you're saying this is if people go and say, this is the best romcom ever, I was like, well, how many rom coms have you seen? You know, you got it. You got to be careful of the sweeping statements. So, yeah, great writing. In terms of the skills for broadcasting and podcasting, a lot of that is practice and confidence, which can be learned. And I think listening to, the people that you love listening to and watching them, but also a really important thing is remembering to be yourself. I think, like many people, when I started out, I was too self-conscious trying to think, oh, who's a really successful broadcaster? And should I sound like them? Should I be like them? Well, you don't want to be doing an imitation. You have to be you. Especially if you're a film critic, because it's about your opinion. And I think there was certainly a weight on me early on, again, to sort of follow in the footsteps of, of, of very serious male film critic broadcasters. And my style tends to be a bit lighter and maybe a bit humorous, and it's not always necessary to kind of try to be someone else. I don't think that's a very good skill.

Emily Slade: Absolutely. I'm so glad you said that. There's nothing more frustrating than reading a review and thinking, have you considered that Bridget Jones 4 is not for you and therefore you don't like it? And that's okay. But other people might.

Anna Smith: Very good example, that one. I got quite cross with a couple of those reviews, but for me the book I need talking about, albeit they're friends of mine, I just think, why didn't you give this up? Well, I think given the review to someone that, you know, is in the target market, which is what we fight for, and Girls on Film in many ways, and especially in terms of diversity on screen and diversity in film criticism. But also, you know, yeah, if you are that critic that has to write it, please be generous to the people that might go and see it and love it.

Emily Slade: Yeah, 100%. So are you able to talk a bit more of you mentioned Q&A hosting.

Anna Smith: That's something I've loved doing, which wasn't necessarily on my agenda to start with, because I think increasingly in the last decade or so, journalists have been asked, film journalists have been asked to host Q&A after screenings, whether it be a public screening. So you buy a ticket to a movie, and then the star comes on afterwards and you spend 20 minutes there things and talk about the film. Maybe there's some questions from the audience or it's the private screenings for BAFTA members, for example, or for Oscar voters. So it's easy to give people a good idea about film, give them some context, and to have an expert journalist moderating those who's seen the film, maybe several times. He's written about the film, he has a very strong presence on stage and can also moderate. Sometimes a tricky crowd can be, you know, if you've got a very famous person on stage with you, you get a lot of very desperate hands on, you know, and people trying to ask questions off topic sometimes personal questions, that kind of thing. So it's important that you've got a strong hand moderating that. But I think, what I really enjoy is just taking the hoping to kind of take the conversation in an unguarded direction, like, you don't necessarily know where it's going to go. And I love if you've got a set of questions, but they come up with something really interesting and you just follow that thread and the audience learns something is

Emily Slade: 100%, I love that. Do you get starstruck?

Anna Smith: I don't anymore, you know, I'm trying to think who, if anyone. I don't think so. I mean, I think when it's a really big gig, like hosting Kate Winslet on stage at the BFI, you know, Southbank. It was her first big one. I wasn't starstruck at all. I've met her several times. She's lovely. Nothing to worry about. But I guess there's just a sense of it's important that this goes well. Yeah. It's not. It's not like nerves or starstruck. It's just. Okay, I need to make sure everything is prepared. So it's just about really preparing everything from from your, you know, questions in your research actually, to just to your wardrobe. Make sure there's nothing that's going to distract you or the audience or anything, you know, while you're on stage so that you and the person you're talking to, other people, you're talking to a super relaxed

Emily Slade: Amazing, are there any myths about being a film critic that you would like to debunk?

Anna Smith: I think some people in the industry, and I've run into some, they think that, it's by the word critic and by some reviews they might think that we're out to get them, that we're deliberately like being negative. Now, I can't speak for all film critics. I used to be president of the Critics Circle, and I still couldn't speak for film critics in that regard because we all, by nature, are all very different. We all have different opinions. But for me, I think, I'm in this because I love film and I always say that, you know, if if actors go, who goes, you know, a critic? And I say, you know, I don't dig the knife in deliberately. I try to be fair. I try to be balanced. And I would say I've become increasingly more. So again, I look back at some of my earlier reviews and I think if I was the actor reading that, I might find that a bit hurtful. I try not to do anything like that now. I think there are ways of writing it that can be funny and true without really hurting someone. So,I know a lot of people don't read the reviews anyway, but if they did, yeah. So yeah, I think it's about loving film and what I'm happy about now. Really. So even though occasionally I get the opportunity to do negative review, most places I write for, which are like saga, Waitrose, Weekend, Time Out, I'm only really asked to do things that I'd recommend. So and Girls on Film the same. So I'm generally praising things and analysing them and analysing their appeal rather than trashing them, which obviously was what I was saying a lot earlier my career, because I was asked to review a lot of the teeny tiny, low budget films that unfortunately weren't very good.

Emily Slade: No, that make sense. And any advice that you have for people entering into this world?

Anna Smith: I think knocking on as many doors as possible. Don't badger people, but don't be afraid to ask or chase people up because they're everyone's really, really busy. Make friends. You know, you could say network, but it's not necessarily a cynical thing. It's about connecting with as many people as possible. Stay passionate about what you do. Remember how privileged you are if you get to do anything. And after certain appointments, you've made your name doing a few free things. If you have to always ask for pay, because this is a big problem in our industry that a lot of film critics, and other critics and journalists are being asked to appear on TV and radio or write for online without being paid. And that's not on.

Emily Slade: Out of interest. Have you seen a shift over the years? You've been working from the early 2000s to here in 2025 of, as you say, it's been harder to become an official film critic as a full time gig. And have you noticed that with the birth of the internet and everybody has a letterboxd, everybody has a Rotten Tomatoes account, is that what we're fighting against a lot of time?

Anna Smith: I think there are a number of issues. Yeah. Some of it's the declining pagination in newspapers, and advertising as a result of the rise of the internet, of course. And the, the lack of sort of full time roles for critics in papers and magazines. But yeah, I mean, there is that kind of everyone's a critic thing, and I, I actually love looking at letterboxd. I think it's great. And, you know, why not? Why should we be the only ones with opinions that that's, you know, that makes perfect sense, that it's lovely for everyone to share. But at the same time, I think it's great to have people with that wealth of knowledge and experience who are paid to do it. And if that's another important thing, is that you know, that we are balanced, you know, and that we're not being paid to be nice about it. So I think, I think a lot has changed. I think I'd say watch this space with Girls on Film because we've got some, issues we're going to be talking about quite soon that relate to that question, that kind of reveal yet, but in terms of how things have changed for criticism, where we are at the moment in terms of the all important diversity, and I think, I hope that's one thing that has changed, even though there may not be as many opportunities as is, that people are hopefully more aware that we need a variety of voices because everyone watches films if we want to see and and, you know, encourage these films to be made, we need the right people reviewing them as you were leading to earlier. So we need a whole lot of people with different life experiences reviewing films.

Emily Slade: Wonderful. And just to close, I'm going to letterboxd you, if that's okay? What are your top 4 film?

Anna Smith: I haven't prepared, but I'll give it a whirl. Portrait of a Lady on Fire Céline Sciamma. I was at the premiere in Cannes for that, and I just get goosebumps just thinking about that, because what a beautiful film. Listeners, if you have not seen Portrait of a Lady on Fire, check it out. It swimmingly romantic and it's a wonderful female led film. The film that turned me on the film when I was a kid. Back to the Future. Just absolutely wonderful film. I was lucky enough to introduce, the IMAX screening of the trilogy of that recently, and I just was pinching myself again because of, you know, what a way to come from having watched it at home on Christmas Day and a little telly. I love Mike Leigh's films. So I think I'd pick out Secrets & Lies for Mike, these films. Yeah, because that is one that had a profound effect to me in terms of, its portrait of British culture and also the strength of the female characters. We have Girls on Film awards. And we recently awarded Mike Leigh our Ally Award, which is men make great films about women because that's just so important, isn't it? You know, it's and I'm not saying only one person could tell one person's story. I'm not trying to think of another good one. I wonder if I can come up with the. Yeah, it is for the different one, The Last Seduction. Oh, and this is one is it's quite obscure. But Linda Fiorentino started it in the 1990s. It's a brilliant, again, female led film noir sort of femme fatale phone. Definitely check that one out. If you're old enough,

Emily Slade: Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Anna Smith: It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Thank you.

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Anna for that time. For more information on becoming a film critic. You can head to Prospect.ac.uk or check out the show notes below. For more information on Anna and Girls on Film, you can check out the show notes below. For a full length video version of this episode head to our YouTube channel @Future You Pod. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you, as always for listening and good luck on your journey to Future You.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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