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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‘It Was Just an Accident’ Review: Jafar Panahi Returns to Cannes in Person, and in Fine Form
Cannes 2025: The Iranian director, who spent most of the last two decades imprisoned or muffled, marries humanism and anger
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‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Review: Denzel Washington and ASAP Rocky Are Foes to Remember in Spike Lee’s Slick Drama
Cannes 2025: Lee’s update on Akira Kurosawa’s film is an urban thriller that feels different than the work that has defined him
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‘Eagles of the Republic’ Review: Movies and Politics Don’t Mix, Says This Movie About Politics
Cannes 2025: Tarik Saleh’s drama is less interested in the process of filmmaking than in its use in propaganda
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Cannes’ Message So Far: The World’s Going to Hell, but We Love Movies!
Cannes 2025: The overall tone of this year’s offerings is dark, just as it would be if festival-goers left the theaters, went back to their rooms and switched on the TV news
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Wes Anderson Calls Trump’s Proposed Tariffs ‘Fascinating’: ‘I Feel Like He’s Saying He’s Going to Take All the Money’
Cannes 2025: “Can you hold up the movie in customs?” Anderson asked. “I want to know the details first.”
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‘Peak Everything’ Review: Offbeat Canadian Rom-Com Finds Love in the Face of the Apocalypse
Cannes 2025: Director Anne Émond takes the anxieties that underlie any romantic comedy and blows them up to global proportions
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‘My Father’s Shadow’ Review: Cannes’ First Nigerian Movie Mixes Autobiography and Mystery
Cannes 2025: Akinola Davies Jr.’s drama is a rhapsody of sorts, but a rough one that ends in political turmoil and unanswered questions
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‘The Secret Agent’ Review: ’70s Brazilian Romp Includes Wagner Moura and a Rampaging Severed Leg
Cannes 2025: Cohesiveness or coherence are not high on the list of the attributes of Klebel Mendonça Filho’s film, but its messiness is part of its charm
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‘Orwell: 2+2=5’ Review: Angry Documentary Is as Much About Us (and Donald Trump) as About George Orwell
Cannes 2025: Raoul Peck’s film is an artful balancing act that dips in and out of Orwell’s life and work and swings from history to art to the most current of events
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‘Renoir’ Review: Quiet Japanese Drama Looks at Death Through a Young Girl’s Eyes
Cannes 2025: You could call Chie Hayakawa’s understated second feature a coming-of-age film, except that its lead character doesn’t really learn anything
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‘Bono: Stories of Surrender’ Review: U2 Frontman’s Life Story Is Grand and Bombastic, the Way We Like It
Cannes 2025: The singer and his director, Andrew Dominik, use startling visuals and reimagined songs to make this glorious mashup of life and music
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‘Amrum’ Review: Can This Poignant Drama Make You Ache for a Member of the Hitler Youth?
Cannes 2025: Director Fatih Akin does a wonderfully understated job of setting the innocence and the cruelty of childhood against the fall of fascism
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‘Sirât’ Review: Techno-Fueled Road Movie Is ‘Mad Max’ Without the Stunts or the Fun
Cannes 2025: Oliver Laxe has made one of a growing number of Cannes films that suggest that we live in dark, dangerous and troubled times
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‘Two Prosecutors’ Review: Film About Russian Corruption Is Set in 1937, But You Know It’s Timely
Cannes 2025: Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s drama is a quietly horrifying descent into a Kafkaesque nightmare where doing the right thing might be the riskiest choice of all
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Cannes and the Oscars: Why the French Film Fest Now Has More Clout With the Academy
TheWrap magazine: Since the double win of “Parasite,” Cannes has premiered more Best Picture nominees than any other festival