How To Become A Film Critic: What It Is and Career Path

What is a film critic and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a film critic. For example, did you know that they make an average of $38.62 an hour? That's $80,326 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -10% and produce -5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFilm CriticUS Average

Salary

6.3

Avg. Salary $80,326

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate -10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%

Asian 9.53%

Black or African American 6.24%

Hispanic or Latino 12.28%

Unknown 4.35%

White 67.30%

Gender

female 18.77%

male 81.23%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.1

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.1

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a film critic

Explore film critic education requirements

Most common film critic degrees

Bachelor's

79.7 %

Master's

10.4 %

Associate

5.4 %

Start to develop specific film critic skills

Skills	Percentages
Video Games	33.80%
Facebook	19.40%
DVD	18.49%
Local News	14.58%
Feature Stories	13.72%

Complete relevant film critic training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New film critics learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a film critic based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real film critic resumes.

Research film critic duties and responsibilities

Report to managing editor as member of editorial staff, contribute to newspaper editorials.
Report to managing editor as member of editorial staff, contribute to newspaper editorials.
Report to managing editor as member of editorial staff, contribute to newspaper editorials.

Prepare your film critic resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your film critic resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a film critic resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable film critic resume templates

Build a professional film critic resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your film critic resume.