Manohla Dargis

Manohla June Dargis is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for The New York Times. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Career
Before being a film critic for The New York Times, Dargis was a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice, where she had two columns on avant-garde cinema ("CounterCurrents" and "Shock Corridor"). Her work has been included in a number of books, including Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader and American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now, published by the Library of America. She wrote a monograph on Curtis Hanson's film L.A. Confidential for the British Film Institute and served as the president and vice-president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

In 2012, Dargis received the Nelson A. Rockefeller Award from Purchase College; the award is, according to the college, "presented to individuals who have distinguished themselves through their contributions to the arts." She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019.

Favorites
Dargis participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where she listed her 10 favorite films:


 * Au Hasard Balthazar (France, 1966)
 * Barry Lyndon (USA, 1975)
 * Flowers of Shanghai (Taiwan, 1998)
 * The Flowers of St. Francis (Italy, 1950)
 * The Godfather Part II (USA, 1974)
 * Little Stabs at Happiness (USA, 1959-1963)
 * Masculin Féminin (France, 1966)
 * There Will Be Blood (USA, 2007)
 * Touch of Evil (USA, 1958)
 * The Wizard of Oz (USA, 1939)

Best of the Year

 * 2004 - Million Dollar Baby
 * 2005 - A History of Violence
 * 2006 - Army of Shadows
 * 2007 - There Will Be Blood
 * 2008 - Happy-Go-Lucky
 * 2015 - (tie) The Assassin; Mad Max: Fury Road
 * 2016 - No Home Movie
 * 2017 - Dunkirk
 * 2018 - Roma
 * 2019 - Pain and Glory
 * 2020 - Martin Eden
 * 2021 - Drive My Car
 * 2022 - EO
 * 2023 - Killers of the Flower Moon

Personal life
Dargis grew up in Manhattan's East Village, demonstrating an early love of film through regular attendance at St. Mark's Cinema and Theatre 80. She graduated from Hunter College High School and received her BA in literature from State University of New York at Purchase in January 1985. She received a master of arts in cinema studies in 1988 from the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science. Dargis married wine expert Lou Amdur in 1994. They live in Los Angeles.