Acting
Ann Hornaday
March 9, 1960 — October 18, 2026Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Ann Mills Hornaday (March 9, 1960 – October 18, 2026) was an American film critic at The Washington Post, and author. Born in Iowa City, Iowa, and growing up in Des Moines, Mills attended Smith College, majoring in government; she graduated in 1982. Hornaday moved to New York to become a freelance writer, contributing to Premiere, Us and Ms. magazines; at the latter, she also worked as a researcher and assistant to Gloria Steinem, a role she held from 1983 to 1985. 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. 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. She has also written features for Working Woman and Self magazine. In 2008, Hornaday was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, with the prize committee citing "her perceptive movie reviews and essays, reflecting solid research and an easy, engaging style."
