Straight out of college, I found myself working as a film critic.

To this day, I still don’t know how I go so lucky to be the opportunity to work as a Film and Television Critic, but I truly cherish the fact I get to watch movies ahead of time and provide commentary and space for what I’m passionate about.

Although international cinema is considered less profitable in the English speaking movie world due to the fact less people are looking these movies up, I think it’s so important to get global voices into these discussions, especially from the Global South.

I’ve been doing this for about two years now, and have several in-person film festivals under my belt. When I first showed up to the New York Film Festival last year (when writing this), I had no idea what to expect as a young entertainment journalist who was preparing to get myself together for the huge interviews I’d just landed.

When I looked around the crowded rooms, I saw I was one of the few people of color in the audience, and definitely one of the youngest critics in attendance. There’s definitely shifts happening, but my first NYFF taught me that I needed to keep writing because of my training in SWANA, Asian, and gender studies.

Here are some lessons I’ve learned throughout the years.

It’s not all red carpets. There are a lot of Zoom calls!

It really depends on the film festival, but for the ones I have attended, the industry and press screenings actually happen before the film festival begins. New York Film Festival is like this.

We’re usually emailed the schedule of movies and where they’re being screened, you pick up your press badge for the festival, then you scan it whenever you enter. Sometimes there are huge lines for the movies everyone wants to see.

When I went to the NYFF for the first time, White Noise by Noah Baumbach was coming out. The press line was so long that they managed to fill two entire theaters screening the film, and those in the second theater didn’t get the in-person press conference.

This year, I went and the line for The Boy and the Heron was massive. I showed up an hour early and was still scrambling to get a seat because it’s first come first serve.

So when these kinds of festivals happen, the interviews for talent, directors, writers, etc. typically are offsite or on Zoom. Most press interviews in general nowadays are on Zoom, but when I was prepping to interview a certain Academy Award winning director, that was in person. When you get a bigger name, the longer you have to wait as well. I waited an hour and a half in the waiting room for a certain big star one time.

Sometimes press and industry screenings are the most entertaining.

When you see a movie in a room full of people from industry and press, they know what they like in a movie. They also get the really specific references that no one else is probably getting.

There’s a scene in the Cannes award winning film Fallen Leaves that makes a super nice joke, and when I saw it as a press screening, everyone laughed because these are movie people. They get it. Other people definitely would not have gotten that niche joke.

These are the people who are also super passionate about films. When standing in line waiting to be admitted for movies, I like to eavesdrop when I’m writing in my notebook or flipping through a book.

People always have the most interesting stories to tell, and I even managed to figure out when the press screening for Killers of the Flower Moon was just by eavesdropping on other people. This is valuable information, but it’s also funny hearing reactions.

Granted, when I’m writing a review, I refuse to look up any reactions because I really do think that would cloud my own judgement. But it’s always fun when walking out of a movie, with my own opinion already formulated, and seeing the instant reactions and conversations of the same exact other people who are writing about this movie. It’s definitely an experience of its own, like watching a review happen in real-time.

You have to take initiative.

Because I started this straight out of college with no formal journalism experience, I lowkey did not know what I was getting myself into. Especially as a writer and a journalist, you need to be able to advocate for yourself and get the opportunities to be where you want to be in five, ten, or twenty years.

No one asked me to go to the film festivals at first. I found the opportunities that got me into them, and then it’s become a staple in my coverage.

At the same time, the talent isn’t going to come to you. Press contacts are so important when it comes to finding interviews with the people involved with movies.

For festivals, they often give out the PR information and you have to go get it yourself. In the past, I’ve known who I’ve wanted to talk to and asked to meet with them via PR, and have usually been very successful when it comes to landing this interviews.

These are really long days.

With commuting in the city, these can be very long stretches away from home. I was often leaving the house at 8 AM to get to a 10 AM screening, then spend all day in the area trying to catch up on the screenings I need to be at while writing my reviews in between.

Sometimes a movie is really long and there’s a tiny break in between your next screening, so packing snacks and water is an absolute necessity to survive these kinds of days.

I would also find cafes nearby to write in, or a public library. During one film festival I was spending the day in Flushing to meet with friends and had a huge gap in between my meetings and dinners.

So I ended up just finding the local Flushing library, plopped myself down in a chair, and then started cranking out a review for a movie I had screened a day earlier. I also planned my interview questions during this time, knocking out a bunch of core tasks at once.

Coffee also really helps when it comes to these kinds of days. I was constantly getting coffee and boba in order to combat the sleepiness. I swear there was one film recently that I almost fell asleep while watching. My head kept turning to the side, and, to this day, I don’t know how I stayed awake. Back to back screenings can really get you after a while.

But you get to talk to some of the most incredible people.

I’ve talked to directors from all over the world, Academy Award winners, and just some of the most prolific and brilliant people I’ve had the honor to speak to. Film festivals are the perfect opportunity to meet some incredible people, whether it’s through interviews, talking with PR of a company, or simply just chatting with a filmmaker about what their next move is going to be. I’m so privileged to have these opportunities.

As an undergrad going to college in New York, I used to dream of just going to the New York Film Festival to see a movie. Now I’m covering it these days. I think about how I’ve grown often, and am so happy for the broke college student who failed to get tickets to see Parasite or Burning when they first came out.

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