Anne Thompson is an American journalist covering film and television. She is Editor-at-Large atIndieWire and founder of theThompson on Hollywood blog.[1]
Thompson was born and raised inNew York City. She is a graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies atNew York University. Her writing has appeared in various publications, such asThe New York Times,The Washington Post,The Observer andWired. Thompson covered behind-the-scenes Hollywood as a senior writer atEntertainment Weekly and as West Coast Editor forFilm Comment.[2]
From 1981 to 1984, she was aunit publicist on films such asTerms of Endearment andThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. From 1985 to 1993, she wrote the film industry column "Risky Business" forLA Weekly, a column that was distributed by theLos Angeles Times Syndicate. She was the West Coast Editor ofPremiere from 1996 to 2002, and served as the Deputy Film Editor atThe Hollywood Reporter from January 2005 to March 2007, where she launched the publication's first blog, RiskyBiz.[3][4] She then served as a film columnist atVariety and deputy editor of Variety.com, where she startedThompson on Hollywood in March 2007.[5] After leavingVariety in 2009, Thompson relaunchedThompson on Hollywood as part ofIndieWire.[5][6]
In December 2006, Thompson co-hostedEbert & Roeper, asRoger Ebert was still recovering from illness.[7] In February 2011, she received anAthena Film Festival Award for her distinguished reporting and commentary about women and film.[8][9]
She taught the fall semester of "Sneak Previews" forUCLA Extension until the series shut down during the pandemic.[10] Her bookThe $11 Billion Year was published byHarperCollins in 2014.[11][12]
Thompson participated in the2012Sight & Sound critics' poll, where she listed her ten favorite films as follows:The Apartment (1960),Bringing Up Baby (1938),A Clockwork Orange (1971),High and Low (1963),I Know Where I'm Going! (1945),The Lady Eve (1941),Lawrence of Arabia (1962),Meet Me in St. Louis (1944),Rio Grande (1950),The Wild Bunch (1969).[13]