Former LA Times Film Critic Wins Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

LOS ANGELES, CA — Former Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism Monday.

The award recognized his work from last year with The Times. Chang left the paper in January to become the film critic for New Yorker magazine. He previously worked for 12 years at Variety.

"The only job I ever wanted was to be a film critic," Chang, 41, told The Times Monday. "And to get to do it at the L.A. Times -- I grew up in Orange County reading The Times -- was just a dream come true."

According to The Times, Chang's win was the sixth consecutive year the paper has won at least one Pulitzer, bringing its overall total to 52.

"Justin dives deep into his ideas with a rigor that's not only rare, but singular," Times Film Editor Joshua Rothkopf, who edited most of Chang's columns, told the paper. "His clarity of thinking and creativity are beacons to all of us who love movies and well-considering writing on them. Our work together was immensely enjoyable."

In his interview with the paper, Chang said, "People have a lot of ideas and assumptions about what a critic should be, what a critic should cover, what they should prioritize and sometimes those agendas are very much tied to the agendas of the American commercial movie industry. While I love the American movie industry, I'm really interested in other kinds of movies, too. I'm interested in the whole cinematic spectrum. And I'm so grateful to The Times because they've just always let me explore that spectrum to the fullest."

City News Service