New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO) is one way of becoming recognized as a legitimate film critic. Becoming an online film critic is easier than a newspaper or magazine film critic as the latter might require a University degree in journalism of some kind just to get your foot in the door. Becoming a online film critic requires patience and time to develop your craft and the number of the film reviews you have written. Once you have written film reviews for awhile and published them online, you may be ready for the New York Film Critics Online. New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO) is “an organization composed of [33] Internet film critics based in New York City. The group meets once a year, in December, for voting on its annual NYFCO Awards.”
As was mentioned in our Rotten Tomatoes, Your Movie Reviews, Recognition, and Website Traffic post, you have to be part of a recognized film critics society to be accepted into Rotten Tomatoes as a film critic as well as other film review aggregators. The following is the admittance criteria for NYFCO:
NYFCO is open to considering occasional new applications from those whose websites exemplify unique qualities, such as the writers’ prestige in the film community, special points of view by which critics analyze and rate movies, and those who would add to NYFCO’s standard of cultural diversity that acknowledges and reflects the NYC movie audience.
Invitations require the unanimous vote of our 3 directors. You may Apply For Admission To NYFCO if at the time of your application:
1.) You live in the New York City area.
2.) You get invited by Manhattan studio publicists to new films in advance of opening day.
3.) During the past 12 months, you personally (not you and your web staff) post 50 or more reviews of films newly released to New York theaters ( DVD reviews count only of current films). Each review should be posted by New York opening day, but never later than two weeks after opening. Capsule reviews (under 300 words) will not count for admissions purposes. Members must continue to fulfill these requirements to retain NYFCO affiliation.
4.) You are willing to link your URL to http://rottentomatoes.com (having an author number on Rotten Tomatoes already is a plus)
5.) You are principally an online critic as opposed to a print or broadcast critic with an online presence.
6.) Your reviews should be easily to find, preferably with a page that includes all your links in much the way that Rotten Tomatoes author pages list them.
7.) You do not belong to other online critics organizations.
8.) You are not affiliated with a website that already has a current member.
Note: If you are from an under-represented group in the critics’ community (e.g. women, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans), that’s a plus. If you write for a prestigious site, e.g. Salon, Slate, Film Journal, that’s a plus.
How To Apply To NYFCO
If you answer is YES to all of the above, please send an E-Mail to [email protected] and state the following:
1.) Your name.
2.) Your home address.
3.) Your phone number.
4.) Your website URL.
5.) Your E-Mail address.
6.) A one-paragraph biographical sketch.
The New York Film Critics Online website can be found here.
