Steve Pond is TheWrap’s Executive Editor, Awards and has been writing and overseeing awards coverage on the site since 2009. He spent decades writing about film, television, music and the entertainment industry for the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Premiere, New York Times, Playboy and many other publications. He is the author of the L.A. Times bestseller “The Big Show,” a behind-the-scenes look at the Academy Awards based on 15 years of unprecedented access to that show.
Experience:
Resides In:
Los Angeles
Education:
Steve received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from California State University, Long Beach.
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‘Antebellum’ Film Review: Janelle Monáe Stars in Uneasy Hybrid of Horror and Social Commentary
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s movie has a touch of “12 Years a Slave,” a bit of “Django Unchained” and a central twist that’s worthy of a bad M. Night Shyamalan film
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Emmy Predictions in All 23 Major Categories, From ‘Watchmen’ to ‘Schitt’s Creek’ (Photos)
With Emmy favs “Game of Thrones” and “Fleabag” gone, who will take their place?
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How a COVID-Era Toronto Film Festival Found a New Purpose – as a Platform for Unheard Voices
This year’s TIFF wasn’t dominated by awards contenders, but its heart was in smaller films from underrepresented voices who deserve to be heard
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Awards
Available to WrapPRO members
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USC, NYU Lead in 2020 Student Academy Awards
Foreign Student Oscars go to filmmakers from Germany, Norway, Mexico, Belgium and Estonia
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‘Notturno’ Film Review: Middle East Doc Finds Poetry in ‘Rubble and Darkness’
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Director Gianfranco Rosi’s film has elegance and a stillness that makes it one of the most meditative works you’ll ever see about war and strife
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Why Playing Dementia Was Easy for Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Father’ (Video)
Toronto Film Festival 2020: “This sounds like actor talk, but I couldn’t believe my luck at my age to be offered that,” Hopkins tells TheWrap
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‘The Way I See It’ Review: Pete Souza Documentary Throws Major Shade at Donald Trump
TIFF 2020: The film by Dawn Porter showcases photographer Souza’s work in the Obama and Reagan administrations, but it’s also a pointed rebuke to the current president
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‘Nomadland’ Wins Golden Lion Award at Venice Film Festival
Acting awards went to Vanessa Kirby and Pierfrancesco Favino at the scaled-down festival
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‘Fireball’ Film Review: Werner Herzog Looks to the Sky and Brings the Wonder
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Surveying the world of meteorites and asteroids, Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer mix science with a healthy dose of philosophy and mysticism
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‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ Film Review: Byrne and Spike Lee Burn Down the House With Style
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Like all of Byrne’s work, the film is sly performance art masquerading as rock ‘n’ roll, or maybe it’s sly rock ‘n’ roll masquerading as performance art
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Academy on Fallout From New Oscar Best Picture Rules: ‘You Aren’t Creating Change If You Don’t Get Criticized’
“We knew that both sides would come at us,” says Academy governor DeVon Franklin, who co-chaired the committee that came up with the new inclusion and diversity standards
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Awards
Available to WrapPRO members
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Oscars Set New Inclusion and Diversity Standards for Best Picture Eligibility
The standards are designed to nudge the industry in the direction of increased representation throughout all stages of film production, by using the lure of the movies’ most coveted prize
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‘I Am Woman’ Film Review: Helen Reddy Drama Finds the Soft Side of Music Biopics
The film has plenty of affection for its subject, but it lacks the energy of “Bohemian Rhapsody” or the craziness and artistic license of “Rocketman”
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‘Hopper/Welles’ Film Review: Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles Put on Quite a Talk Show
Venice Film Festival 2020: Another posthumous film credited to Welles, this filmed conversation is alternately fascinating and frustrating, as Welles prods and needles Hopper for more than two hours
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‘Pieces of a Woman’ Film Review: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf Explore Shades of Grief
Venice Film Festival: The film from Cannes-winning director Kornel Mundruczó is an extended meditation on coping with unimaginable loss
