Ann Hornaday

Washington, D.C.

Movie critic

Education: Smith College, BA in government

Ann Hornaday grew up in Des Moines and graduated cum laude with a degree in government from Smith College. After working at Ms. magazine as a researcher and editorial assistant, she became a freelance writer in New York City, where she eventually began to write about movies for the New York Times Arts & Leisure section and other publications. In 1995 she became the movie critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas, where she stayed for two years before moving to Baltimore to be the movie critic at the Baltimore Sun. She left the Sun in 2000 and began working at The Washington Post in 2002
Latest from Ann Hornaday

William Hurt was a serious actor, with all the baggage the term entails

Hurt, who died at 71, embodied the focus, commitment and occasional self-indulgence that make a great actor.

March 14, 2022

New state education laws threaten to make some films taboo in the classroom. That’s a huge loss.

Movies like ’12 Years a Slave’ and ‘Selma’ have been valuable teaching tools. Now they’re imperiled.

March 11, 2022

Filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and why it might take an actor to end the Soviet empire once and for all

The director of “Maidan” and other Ukraine-themed films reflects on art, war and the need for reckoning.

March 3, 2022

Moving yet meticulous, ‘After Yang’ is a movie about a robot that unfolds with the cold precision of one

Koganada’s sophomore feature is a futuristic fable about what it means to be human.

March 2, 2022

In joyless ‘The Batman,’ Robert Pattinson channels the vampire Edward Cullen

The “Twilight” star delivers a lugubrious take on the cowled crime-fighter in this underlit, overlong bore.

March 1, 2022

In sidelining eight Oscar categories, the academy announces its own irrelevancy

The 94th Oscars gets it wrong on optics and substance, before it’s even broadcast.

February 24, 2022

Peter Dinklage stars in a heart-rending, haunting ‘Cyrano’

Director Joe Wright’s film adaptation of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ revitalizes the classic love story.

February 23, 2022

Is it safe? In the movie theater business, the question is how much to promise older audiences.

As omicron ebbs, exhibitors grapple with communicating vs. over-communicating.

February 17, 2022

Strangers on a train connect, in wry, heartfelt film ‘Compartment No. 6’

Finland’s Oscar submission is a funny, generous-hearted road movie.

February 16, 2022

‘Marry Me’? The only rational response to this J-Lo rom-com is ‘I don’t.’

Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson get together under preposterous circumstances.

February 10, 2022