As the line between professional criticism and audience engagement continues to blur, who gets to be a “critic”? This panel brings together voices from across the critical landscape to examine how film criticism is evolving in an era of social media, subscription-based platforms, and fragmented audiences.

Together, our panelists will debate the pressing questions shaping criticism today: Has the gatekeeper model given way to something better—or just something louder? What’s lost when long-form reviews compete with 30-second video essays? How do algorithmic platforms and audience scores influence not only what gets seen, but what gets made? And in a landscape where everyone has a rating and a take, what does real critical authority look like now?