# Stephanie Zacharek

Stephanie Zacharek is an American film critic at Time, based in New York City. From 2013 to 2015, she was the principal film critic for The Village Voice. She was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism. In February 2018, invited to serve as a judge for the main competition unit of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

## Early life

Stephanie Zacharek received a Bachelor of Science degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, in New York.

## Career

In the 1990s, Zacharek worked for The Boston Phoenix and Inc. From 1999 to 2010, she was a film critic and senior writer at Salon.com, where her husband, Charles Taylor, was also a film critic until 2005. She became chief film critic of Movieline in 2010, and left in mid-2012. In April 2013, the Voice Media Group hired her as chief film critic of The Village Voice. In 2015 she left the Village Voice and became the film critic for Time magazine. In February 2018, she was selected to be on the jury for the main competition section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

## Personal life

Zacharek was married to film critic Charles Taylor, but they are now divorced. Zacharek tried to have children when she was younger, but never got pregnant. However, today she has "zero regrets" about not having children. As of 1999, she lives in New York.

## Preferences

When she participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, Zacharek listed her ten favorite films as follows: Breathless, Carlito's Way, The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Lady Eve, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Rules of the Game, Sunrise, Touch of Evil, and The World of Apu. She has also cited Holiday as a personal favorite.

### Best films of the year

| Year | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 |
| 1999 | Three Kings | All About My Mother | The Insider | American Pie | Besieged | South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Dick | Romance | The Limey | Run Lola Run | The Straight Story |
| 2000 | Hamlet | Almost Famous | Quills | Yi Yi | The Virgin Suicides | Set Me Free | O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Jesus' Son | The Original Kings of Comedy | Love and Sex |
| 2001 | Mulholland Drive | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Moulin Rouge! | Together | Sexy Beast | The Gleaners & I | In the Mood for Love | Charlotte Gray | Born Romantic | Donnie Darko |
| 2002 | Y Tu Mamá También | Far from Heaven | About a Boy | Secretary | Femme Fatale | Chicago | The Pianist | Morvern Callar | Possession | CQ |
| 2003 | Lost in Translation | In America | A Mighty Wind | Spellbound | American Splendor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | To Be and To Have | School of Rock | Masked and Anonymous |
| 2004 | Before Sunset | House of Flying Daggers | Hotel Rwanda | Last Life in the Universe | I'll Sleep When I'm Dead | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | The Incredibles and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie | Hellboy | The Aviator | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle |
| 2005 | Kings and Queen | The Best of Youth | Pride & Prejudice | Oldboy | Tropical Malady | The Beat That My Heart Skipped | Breakfast on Pluto | The Skeleton Key and Land of the Dead | Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Corpse Bride | King Kong |
| 2006 | Army of Shadows | Days of Glory | Casino Royale | Pan's Labyrinth | The Queen and Marie Antoinette | Dave Chappelle's Block Party and Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing | Idlewild | The Painted Veil | The Notorious Bettie Page | A Prairie Home Companion |
| 2007 | I'm Not There | Control | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | Persepolis | Away from Her | Ratatouille | Planet Terror and Death Proof | Once | Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten | No End in Sight and Redacted |
| 2008 | Happy-Go-Lucky | A Christmas Tale | Ghost Town | Cadillac Records | The Class | The Visitor | Before I Forget | Trouble the Water | Sparrow | Iron Man and Hellboy II: The Golden Army |
| 2009 | Summer Hours | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Antichrist | The September Issue and Valentino: The Last Emperor | Bright Star | Coraline | The International | Lake Tahoe | Broken Embraces | Star Trek |
| 2010 | Somewhere | The Ghost Writer | The Social Network | The King's Speech | I Am Love | Despicable Me and My Dog Tulip | Vincere | Carlos | Vengeance | The American and The Tourist |
| 2011 | The Artist | Melancholia | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | Midnight in Paris | Jane Eyre | Le Havre | Bill Cunningham New York | Pina | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Drive |
| 2012 | Holy Motors | Zero Dark Thirty | Barbara | Django Unchained | Rust and Bone | Skyfall | This Is Not a Film | Oslo, August 31st | Premium Rush | Hit and Run and Haywire |
| 2013 | Gravity | Blue Is the Warmest Color | Inside Llewyn Davis | Much Ado About Nothing | Frances Ha | The To Do List | Before Midnight | Stories We Tell | 20 Feet from Stardom | Despicable Me 2 |
| 2014 | Under the Skin | Boyhood | Only Lovers Left Alive | Mr. Turner | The Immigrant | Revenge of the Mekons, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets, and 20,000 Days on Earth | Love Is Strange | The Missing Picture | John Wick | Top Five |
| 2015 | Spotlight | Phoenix | I'll See You in My Dreams | Clouds of Sils Maria | Iris | Mustang | Tangerine | Creed | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Ex Machina |
| 2016 | Moonlight | Paterson | Loving | Elle | Silence | Manchester by the Sea | Tower | La La Land | Everybody Wants Some!! | The Shallows |
| 2017 | The Post | Lady Bird | The Lost City of Z | Personal Shopper | Kedi | Call Me By Your Name | Dunkirk | Faces Places | Get Out | Girls Trip |
| 2018 | Roma | Won't You Be My Neighbor? | First Reformed | Eighth Grade | The Favourite | Can You Ever Forgive Me? | A Star Is Born | If Beale Street Could Talk | Bohemian Rhapsody | Paddington 2 |
| 2019 | Pain and Glory | The Irishman | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Marriage Story | Little Women | Parasite | Knives Out | Dolemite Is My Name | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood | Hustlers |
| 2020 | First Cow | Collective | The Trial of the Chicago 7 | David Byrne's American Utopia | Small Axe: Lovers Rock | Emma | Wolfwalkers | Nomadland | Miss Juneteenth | Bill & Ted Face the Music |
| 2021 | The Power of the Dog | The Worst Person in the World | Summer of Soul | The Souvenir: Part II | Parallel Mothers | Passing | The Disciple | C'mon C'mon | The Tragedy of Macbeth | Drive My Car |
| 2022 | The Fabelmans | Aftersun | Armageddon Time | Elvis | Happening | Tár | EO | Il Buco | The Inspection | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed |
| 2023 | Fallen Leaves | Maestro | The Zone of Interest | Priscilla | Revoir Paris | Past Lives | Killers of the Flower Moon | Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. | Dreamin' Wild | Passages |
| 2024 | Babygirl | All We Imagine as Light | The Seed of the Sacred Fig | Anora | A Complete Unknown | Hard Truths | Green Border | Emilia Pérez | Flow | DogMan |