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Ann Hornaday, Washington Post Film Critic, Dies at 66
· Confirmed
In Short: Ann Hornaday, a pioneering film critic for The Washington Post, died Sunday after a battle with glioblastoma.
Ann Hornaday, a respected and passionate voice in the world of cinema, died Sunday at her home in Baltimore following a battle with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, her husband Dennis Greenia told the Baltimore Banner.
Hornaday was the chief film critic for The Washington Post, where she wrote hundreds of reviews and was known for her accessible, insightful, and warm voice.
She was a 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist for criticism and authored 'Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies,' a practical guide for movie lovers.
Hornaday was born on March 9, 1960, in Iowa City and raised in Des Moines. She graduated from Smith College in 1982 with a major in government.
Before joining The Washington Post in 2002, Hornaday worked as a freelance writer in New York, contributing to publications including The New York Times and Premiere magazine.
Hornaday was a parishioner and Sunday school teacher in Baltimore and a longtime regular on PBS's 'NewsHour,' sharing her love of film with viewers.
She was also a parishioner and Sunday school teacher in Baltimore and appeared on WYPR’s Midday at the Movies program.
Hornaday's final book, about the production of 'All the President’s Men,' is set to be published posthumously in 2028.
Matt Murray, the Washington Post Executive Editor, said in a statement, “For many years, Post readers were blessed by Ann’s informed, insightful, warm, accessible, and totally unique voice.”
Hornaday was a pioneering woman reviewer who raised a family and wrote well for decades with thoughtful finesse, outlasting many of her peers.
She was known for her ability to write about films with a unique blend of fabrication and reality, making cinema a third thing entirely.
Hornaday's work was celebrated for its accessibility and lack of pretension, making her a beloved figure in the film criticism community.
What this adds
Hornaday's legacy as a film critic is marked by her accessible and insightful reviews, her contributions to film literacy, and her enduring impact on the film criticism community.
What's confirmed
- She was the Austin American-Statesman’s film critic from 1995 to 1997, followed by the Baltimore Sun, before joining The Washington Post in 2002.
- Hornaday is survived by her husband Dennis, daughters Victoria and Leila, and brother William.
What's still developing
- Today, he studies film in college and is interning with a studio.
- I mean, this has been such a great year for first-time filmmakers.
- It's just a superb exercise in restraint on almost every level, written and directed by Tom McCarthy, who's just a fantastic filmmaker, and just his choices throughout this film are at spot on in terms of never really putting too much spin on the ball.
- Daily newspaper film criticism is dying, we agreed.
- She published the enjoyably readable “Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies” (2017), in which she talked to filmmakers about their art, among them wordsmith Kenneth Lonergan on dialogue, Robert Altman, the master “of realism in sound,” Jack Lemmon on acting, and Spike Lee on cinematography.
- So when I joined The Washington Post in 2017 from The Los Angeles Times, it brought no change in our dynamic.
- “You guys know each other, right?” he said to me, I still feeling like a cub in the clubby world of Cannes journalists.
- An OG indie-film publicist named Jeff Hill introduced us.
- It was at the Cannes Film Festival in the early 2010s, at one of those anonymous townie apartments where talent interviews were being conducted.
- “Reading her work was like talking with a close — if much more knowledgeable — friend.” Popular on Variety Hornaday was a 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism, submitting her review of “There Will Be Blood,” among other works, in her finalist package.