Rich Cline’s Biography
A journalist by training, Rich Cline has been obsessed with cinema since he was about 8 years old. Born in Los Angeles, Rich moved with his family to Quito, Ecuador, at age 12, graduating from an international school then returning to Southern California for university. He earned a bachelor of arts in communication arts and journalism.
While a student, he started writing film reviews for a local weekly newspaper, but after graduation he had to get real, paying jobs as a graphic artist, copywriter and as a writer-editor for a variety of charity organisations.
He first published his film review newsletter Shadows on the Wall in Los Angeles in September 1985 for a readership of 120. Even then the readers were located all across North, South and Central America; the Far and Middle East; Africa; Central Asia; and Western and Eastern Europe. The Shadows ezine made its debut in March 1995; the website went live in October 1996. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more followed later.
Meanwhile, Rich had a weekly film review slot on BBC Radio 5 Live for 15 years, and has contributed to a wide range of radio, television, newspapers, magazines and websites over the years.
Rich Cline is the chair of the London Film Critics' Circle, which has 180 of the UK's top critics as members, and heads up the annual London Critics' Circle Film Awards. A Tomatometer-approved critic at Rotten Tomatoes, he is also a voting member of Galeca (Dorian TV & Film Awards), Fipresci and Online Film Critics Society.
He served on Fipresci juries at the Thessaloniki Film Festival 2019, Abu Dhabi 2014, Berlin 2009 and Torino 2006, on the Venice Film Festival's Queer Lion jury in 2016 and 2017, the Iris Prize 2010 jury in Cardiff, and the St Louis Film Festival's New Filmmakers Forum jury 1999-2001.
He has contributed to print outlets (Metro, Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Entertainment Weekly, Heat, Bafta, Grazia, The Face, What's On London, The List, Boyz, QX, Idea, First, Take 1, Man About Town, North Coast Journal); radio (BBC 4, BBC 5, BBC World Service, BBC Asian Network, LBC, Century FM, Classic Gold, HCJB Global); TV (BBC News 24, BBC 1, Channel 4, NBC/Bravo, Reuters, Five, Sky News, PressTV); and online (Film4, Rotten Tomatoes, Contactmusic, Film Threat, IndieWire, IGN, Gay Essential, LGNews, Film Focus, Real Movie News, Filmnet).
When not watching films or writing about them, Rich is a freelance journalist, editor, lecturer and designer. He also covers theatre, dance, concerts and events. In addition, he also worked as a journalist at eight Olympic Games and a range of world sporting championships on six continents.