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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‘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
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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
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‘All In: The Fight for Democracy’ Film Review: Stacey Abrams Documentary Is Timely and Terrifying
Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus’ doc focuses on Abrams’ campaign for governor of Georgia but expands far past that to encompass nearly 200 years of voter suppression
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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Film Review: Rom-Com Is a Pleasant Diversion in a Tough Situation
One of the first studio films released back into theaters, the breezy romance with Geraldine Viswanathan and Dacre Montgomery is coming out at an odd time for a movie that celebrates community and connection
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‘Mulan’ Film Review: Epic Disney Remake Ditches the Songs and the Dragon but Has Heart
The expensive Disney+ release veers further from its source than any of the studio’s other recent live-action remakes of its animated films
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‘The Owners’ Film Review: Maisie Williams Is in Big Trouble – Again
Based on a French comic book, “The Owners” escalates from creepy to ludicrous over the course of 92 deliberately unpleasant minutes
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Fall Film Festivals Struggle for Relevance in the Year of Coronavirus
Scaled-down Venice and Toronto festivals and MIA movies will likely mute the impact of the events that usually launch awards season
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Awards
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Chadwick Boseman’s Manifesto: ‘I Want to Break Barriers in Every Way I Can’
“As an African American artist and filmmaker, that’s my goal, every time,” the actor told TheWrap
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‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ Film Review: Armando Iannucci Meets Charles Dickens
The creator of “Veep” and “The Death of Stalin” has fun with a color-blind take on Dickens’ large and wacky cast of characters
