Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz
Name	Matt Zoller Seitz
Occupation	Film critic; writer; editor; filmmaker; professor

Matt Zoller Seitz is an American film and television critic, author, editor, and filmmaker known for his work in criticism, scholarship, and audiovisual projects. He has written for major publications, edited anthologies, and produced video essays, contributing to discourse on cinema and television through essays, books, podcasts, and teaching. His work intersects with film history, television studies, and contemporary criticism, engaging with directors, showrunners, and platforms across the entertainment industry.

Early life and education

Seitz was raised in the United States and pursued studies that led him into journalism and film criticism, following career paths similar to critics associated with publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. His formative influences included critics and historians such as Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, David Thomson, and James Agee, and he studied film and media practices resonant with programs at institutions like New York University, Columbia University, University of Southern California, and University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Seitz built a career that spans print, online, and audiovisual media, moving through outlets and organizations including Salon (website), The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, Variety (magazine), Entertainment Weekly, Vulture (website), The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate (magazine), Time (magazine), Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and GQ. He served in editorial and leadership roles at outlets comparable to The New York Press, The Washington Post Book World, NPR, and independent criticism sites, collaborating with editors and publishers such as Roger Ebert, A. O. Scott, Anthony Lane, David Denby, and Stephanie Zacharek. His professional network connects him to film festivals and institutions including Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Center, American Film Institute, and British Film Institute.

Writing and criticism

Seitz authored books and edited collections that analyze directors, series, and cinematic movements, publishing work about auteurs and shows related to figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Hayao Miyazaki, Andrei Tarkovsky, Satyajit Ray, John Ford, Sergio Leone, Billy Wilder, John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, Terrence Malick, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Kathryn Bigelow, Greta Gerwig, Ava DuVernay, Jordan Peele, Bong Joon-ho, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, and Ang Lee. He wrote criticism and long-form essays that engaged television creators and series such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Crown, Twin Peaks, The Leftovers, Succession, Fargo (TV series), The Simpsons, Seinfeld, M*A*S*H, ER, The West Wing, Deadwood, Lost, Better Call Saul, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His editorial projects often placed criticism alongside scholarship referencing journals and critics connected to Film Quarterly, Sight & Sound, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Journal of Film and Video, and Cinema Journal.

Film and television work

Seitz produced video essays, short films, and multimedia pieces in formats similar to projects by practitioners like Every Frame a Painting, Nerdwriter1, Kogonada, Tony Zhou, Mark Cousins, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, and David Lynch. He collaborated with filmmakers, cinematographers, composers, and editors whose careers intersect with studios and companies such as A24, Netflix, HBO, AMC, Showtime, FX, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, BBC, PBS, Criterion Collection, Sony Pictures Classics, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate. His audiovisual criticism engages with cinematic techniques connected to figures like Roger Deakins, Emmanuel Lubezki, Janusz Kamiński, Roderick Jaynes, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan.

Teaching and speaking

Seitz has taught and lectured in settings comparable to film schools, university departments, and festival panels involving institutions such as New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Boston University, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has presented talks and participated in panels at events and venues including Sundance Institute, Cannes Classics, SXSW Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Cineteca Nacional, Royal Film Commission, and institutions like Film Forum (New York), MoMA, LACMA, BFI Southbank, and The Paley Center for Media.

Awards and recognition

Seitz's work has been recognized by critic circles, professional organizations, and festival juries; comparable honors and acknowledgments include awards and nominations from groups like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle, Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, Critics' Choice Television Awards, Online Film Critics Society, National Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and institutions such as The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Lincoln Center. His books and essays have been cited and anthologized in collections published by presses like University of California Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, Yale University Press, Princeton University Press, Rutgers University Press, Verso Books, and Bloomsbury Publishing.

Category:American film critics Category:American writers