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Preview this year’s Oscar race and hear an illuminating discussion on the seismic shifts taking place in Hollywood today, as the Film Institute at Montclair State partners with the New York Film Critics Series for the 2nd Annual Reel Montclair: Academy Award Edition

Director of Programming for the Film Institute, Susan Skoog, will moderate the panel of film critics which include longtime Star-Ledger film critic Stephen Whitty, Alison Bailes (Sirius,) Thelma Adams (Us Weekly, New York Post,) and Dwight Brown (NNPA, Essence, Hollywood Reporter.)  

Reserve your seat here: Reel Montclair: Academy Award Edition

A two-time former chair of the New York Film Critics Circle, Stephen Whitty writes for the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger, nj.com and many other sites, newspapers and national magazines. He has his BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the arts and has taught and lectured at NYU, Rutgers, Baruch, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of the Moving Image and the New York Public Library. He appears regularly as a guest on television and radio, and as a juror at film festivals; his most recent book is “The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia.”

Alison Bailes reviews movies for WOR710 AM radio, Sirius XM Insight, and www.Bestmoviesbyfarr.com. She also co-hosts the New York Film Critics Series and maintains her own film website, www.alisonbailes.com. She has written for More magazine, Parade.com and Fiftyisthenewfifty.com and worked as a correspondent on Roger Ebert presents “At the Movies”. She produced and hosted the BBC.com film series “Flashback”. From 2005-2009 Alison co-hosted the NBC Universal weekly movie review show  “Lyons & Bailes Reel Talk”. She and Jeffrey Lyons shared their different perspectives on the latest film and DVD releases, gave viewers the latest news from the box office and reported on industry trends.

Thelma Adams is the author of the best selling historical novels, The Last Woman Standing and Playdate, which Oprah magazine described as “a witty debut novel.” In addition to her fiction work, Adams is a prominent American film critic and an outspoken voice in the Hollywood community. She has been the in-house film critic for Us Weekly and The New York Post, and has written essays, celebrity profiles and reviews for Yahoo! Movies,The New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Parade, Marie Claire and The Huffington Post.

Dwight Brown is the film critic for the NNPA News Wire, which syndicates his film reviews to over 100 newspapers. His film reviews have also appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, HuffPost and Essence. He’s a past chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and championed its Best First Film Category, which spotlights new directors. He has been a juror or speaker at film festivals in Toronto, Tribeca and Miami. He has appeared as a guest film critic on The Tavis Smiley Show, Channel 4 London, the Town Hall Feature Film Seminar Series NYC and Greenwich Classic Films Series. Brown was the Director of the Film and Talent Evaluation Department at HBO, which scouted films and talent for HBO and Cinemax. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University and a NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program certificate from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at U.C.L.A.

Reserve your seat here: Reel Montclair: Academy Award Edition