Editing Sight and Sound (section)

==History and content==

''Sight and Sound'' was first published in Spring 1932 as "A quarterly review of modern aids to learning published under the auspices of the [[British Institute of Adult Education]]". In 1934, management of the magazine was handed to the nascent [[British Film Institute]] (BFI), which still publishes the magazine today.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@DavideMastracci/a-guide-to-sight-sounds-film-polls-bdebe18f2c4d|title=A Guide to Sight & Sound's Film Polls|first=Davide|last=Mastracci|date=18 April 2019|website=Medium}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=WP:MEDIUM|date=January 2023}} ''Sight and Sound'' was published quarterly for most of its history until the early 1990s, apart from a brief run as a monthly publication in the early 1950s, but in 1991 it merged with another BFI publication, the ''[[Monthly Film Bulletin]]'', and started to appear monthly.

In 1949, [[Gavin Lambert]], co-founder of film journal ''[[Sequence (journal)|Sequence]]'', was hired as the editor, and also brought with him ''Sequence'' editor [[Penelope Houston (film critic)|Penelope Houston]] as assistant editor as well as co-founders and future film directors [[Lindsay Anderson]] and [[Karel Reisz]].<ref name=90years>{{cite magazine|magazine=Sight & Sound|page=39|last=Williams|first=Mike|author-link=Mike Williams (journalist)|issue=Summer 2022|title=90 Years of Sight and Sound}}</ref> Lambert edited the journal until 1956, with Houston taking over as editor until 1990.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/penelope-houston-vital-commentator-on-post-war-cinema-who-edited-the-bfi-s-sight-sound-film-magazine-a6715811.html|title=Penelope Houston: Influential editor of 'Sight & Sound' magazine|date=2015-10-30|work=The Independent|access-date=2017-08-24|language=en-GB}}</ref> [[Philip Dodd (broadcaster)|Philip Dodd]] became the editor following the merging of ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' with [[Nick James (critic)|Nick James]] taking over in 1997. James was editor until August 2019.<ref name=90years/> It is currently edited by [[Mike Williams (journalist)|Mike Williams]]. The magazine reviews all film releases each month, including those with a limited ([[art film|art house]]) release, as opposed to most film magazines which concentrate on those films with a general release.

''Sight and Sound'' has in the past been the subject of criticism, notably from [[Raymond Durgnat]], who often accused it of elitism, puritanism and snobbery, although he did write for it in the 1950s, and again in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Henry K.|title=Poetry in motion|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/poetry-motion|website=BFI Film Forever|publisher=BFI|access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Gough-Yates|first1=Kevin|title=Raymond Who?|url=http://www.raymonddurgnat.com/|website=Raymond Durgnat.com|publisher=The Estate of Raymond Durgnat|access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref> Until 2020, the magazine's American counterpart was ''[[Film Comment]]'', a magazine that was published by the [[Film Society of Lincoln Center]] in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Journals-and-Magazines-ACADEMIC-JOURNALS.html|title=Academic journals – Journals and Magazines – film, movie, voice, show, director, cinema, documentary|website=filmreference.com}}</ref>