Editor Gavin Smith Leaves Film Comment Magazine

The publishers of Film Comment, the magazine produced by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, have announced that editor Gavin Smith will conclude his run with the publication with the January/February 2016 issue.

No reason was given for his departure. Nicolas Rapold, senior editor of the magazine, was named interim editor. The magazine began in 1962 and was brought under the auspices of the Film Society in 1973. Smith, also a senior programmer at Film Society, had been the editor of Film Comment for fifteen years. (He began as an intern in the 1980s.) Smith was only the fifth editor of the fifty-plus-year-old journal, following founding editor Gordon Hitchens, Richard Corliss, Harlan Jacobson, and Richard T. Jameson.

“Looking ahead, the Film Society is committed to building on the foundation established by the five illustrious editors of Film Commentand expanding a diverse, multiplatform strategy for the publication as we embark upon the search for a new Editor,” the publishers wrote.