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Ann Hornaday

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Ann Hornaday
Hornaday in 2018
Born
Ann Mills Hornaday

(1960-03-09)March 9, 1960
Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.
DiedOctober 18, 2026(2026-10-18) (aged 66)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
EducationSmith College
Occupations
  • Film journalist
  • critic
EmployerThe Washington Post
Spouse
Dennis Greenia
​
(m. 2000)​
Children1
AwardsFinalist, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

Ann Mills Hornaday (March 9, 1960 – October 18, 2026) was an American film critic at The Washington Post, and the author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies (2017). In 2008, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Early life

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Ann Mills Hornaday was born in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 9, 1960, and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa.[1][2] She attended Smith College, majoring in government,[2] graduating in 1982.[3]

Career

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After graduating from college, Hornaday moved to New York to become a freelance writer, contributing to Premiere, Us and Ms. magazines;[2] at the latter, she also worked as a researcher and assistant to Gloria Steinem,[4] a position she held from 1983 to 1985.[5] Hornaday began contributing to the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times, eventually going on to become film critic at the Austin American-Statesman in 1995.[6] In 1997 she moved to The Baltimore Sun, then to The Washington Post in 2002, following the retirement of the Post's previous critic Rita Kempley.[2] She has also written features for Working Woman and Self magazine.[7]

In 2008, Hornaday was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism,[8] with the prize committee citing "her perceptive movie reviews and essays, reflecting solid research and an easy, engaging style".[9]

In 2017, Hornaday published Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies.[10][11][12][13] The book, a 304-page text published with Basic Books,[14] 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.[4] 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".[4] In a review for The New York Times, Lisa Schwarzbaum described the book as "a pleasantly calm, eminently sensible, down-the-middle primer for the movie lover—amateur, professional or Twitter-centric orator—who would like to acquire and sharpen basic viewing skills".[8]

Before her death in October 2026, Hornaday had completed a book about the production of All the President's Men (1976). She had called the film a metonym for the Watergate scandal, which "from the moment it opened seemed to fuse seamlessly with private memory and collective myth".[15] The book is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2028.[1]

Personal life and death

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Hornaday lived in Baltimore.[16] She married Dennis Greenia in 2000, and they had one daughter together and another daughter from a previous marriage.[1] She called herself a "cradle Episcopalian", and served as a Sunday school teacher at her Baltimore parish for a "dozen years".[17]

Hornaday died from glioblastoma at her home in Baltimore on October 18, 2026, at the age of 66.[1]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Schudel, Matt (October 19, 2026). "Ann Hornaday, longtime Washington Post film critic, dies at 66". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Fraley, Jason (August 22, 2017). "How to watch movies like a world-class critic". WTOP News. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  3. ↑ "WordSmith". Smith College Office of Alumnae Relations. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Vancheri, Barbara (September 3, 2017). "A leading critic teaches us how to watch the movies". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  5. ↑ Heilbrun, Carolyn G. (July 20, 2011). Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307802132. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Ann Hornaday". Women's Media Center. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  7. ↑ Dellecese, Cheryl (March 7, 2019). "Film Critic Ann Hornaday '82 Talks Film Trends". Smith College. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  8. 1 2 Schwarzbaum, Lisa (June 2, 2017). "Getting Beyond 'I Love It': How to Understand Movies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Finalist: Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post". Pulitzer.org. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  10. ↑ "TALKING PICTURES by Ann Hornaday". Kirkus Reviews. April 2, 2017. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  11. ↑ Minow, Nell (March 27, 2017). "Illuminating Insight: Ann Hornaday on". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  12. ↑ Barsanti, Chris (June 23, 2017). "Movies Matter in 'Talking Pictures'". PopMatters. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  13. ↑ Brown, Jeffrey (August 18, 2017). "Movies are more than screen deep. Here's how to watch like a critic". PBS NewsHour. Archived from the original on April 7, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  14. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies by Ann Hornaday. Basic, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-465-09423-3". Publishers Weekly. April 3, 2017. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  15. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (May 17, 2026). "'All The President's Men' At 50: Key Players Describe A Prescient Look At Today's Dysfunctional Political Landscape". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 19, 2026.
  16. ↑ Hughes, Bill (July 23, 2017). "Author Ann Hornaday 'Talking Pictures' at the Ivy Bookshop". Baltimore Post-Examiner. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  17. ↑ Hornaday, Ann (April 11, 2014). "Essay: Confessions of a Christian film critic". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2026.
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