Harlan Jacobson

Harlan Jacobson became WBGO's film critic in 2010, covering the international film scene for the "WBGO Journal," with reports from film festivals around the world about films arriving on the scene in the greater New York-New Jersey metroplex.

Jacobson covered the entertainment industries for VARIETY, edited FILM COMMENT for a decade and for over 30 years has written worldwide on film and pop culture, including extensive coverage of independent film and international festivals for major news media. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Toronto Globe & Mail, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, The New Democrat, Interview, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Phoenix, Le Point, on NPR´s "Morning Edition," the CBC´s "The Arts Tonight," and more.

Jacobson's interview with Michael Moore ("Michael & Me") for the film ROGER & ME, appearing on the cover of FILM COMMENT, sparked the U.S. and European press to debate Moore's misrepresentations of fact in the film Roger & Me, and was widely hailed in print (Pauline Kael, David Denby, The NY TIMES).

For 20 plus years, Jacobson wrote on film and pop culture and regularly covered major international films and festivals for USA TODAY and other key news media. Recent subjects for his "Brief Encounters" interview column in Film Comment, where he continues as Contributing Editor, include Francis Ford Coppola, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Anthony Hopkins, Ridley Scott, Larry David, Agnes Jaoui, Jason Reitman, Mike Leigh, Robert Duvall, Tilda Swinton, Abbas Kiarostami, Ben Kinsgley, and more.

Jacobson was film critic for WFUV 90.7 FM Public Radio in New York for 15 years, served as the Artistic Director of the PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL and directs the national TALK CINEMA screening and lecture series on critically important new films at Lincoln Center in New York, and in a dozen locations around the US.

An Ohio native, Jacobson lives in Croton on Hudson, NY. He's a member of the BROADCAST FILM CRITICS ASSN., FIPRESCI (The INT'L FILM CRITICS ASSN) and PEN. He graduated from Haverford College, is married, the father of three children, and the Mighty Alpha Male to two dogs, both mutts from the local pound.