Los Angeles Times' former film critic Justin Chang wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism

LOS ANGELES — Former Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for criticism on Monday.

Chang was honored for his work published last year, led by an August article that defended director Christopher Nolan’s controversial decision to avoid depictions of the horrific atomic bombings of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Nolan’s epic movie “Oppenheimer,” which went on to win the Academy Award for best picture.

Chang was a critic with The Times for nearly eight years; he left the paper in late January to become a film critic for New Yorker magazine. He began his career at Hollywood trade magazine Variety, where he spent 12 years, starting as an intern and working his way up to become the publication’s chief film critic before segueing to The Times.

“The only job I ever wanted was to be a film critic,” Chang said in a brief interview Monday. “And to get to do it at the L.A. Times — I grew up in Orange County reading The Times — was just a dream come true.”

The Times’ staff was selected as a Pulitzer finalist for breaking news for its coverage of the January 2023 mass shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park that left nearly a dozen people dead. About 20 minutes after the Lunar New Year shooting, the suspect walked into another studio in nearby Alhambra but a young man disarmed him and he ran away.

An enormous manhunt began and ended when law enforcement officers converged on a strip mall parking lot in Torrance, where the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In addition, Times staff writer Keri Blakinger was named a finalist in the features category for a report she authored, in conjunction with the Marshall Project and New York Times Magazine, before joining the paper last year to cover criminal justice and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

Chang’s award marked the sixth year in a row that The Times won at least one Pulitzer, bringing the newspaper’s all-time Pulitzer total to 52.

“Justin dives deep into his ideas with a rigor that’s not only rare, but singular,” said Times Film Editor Joshua Rothkopf, who edited most of Chang’s columns. “His clarity of thinking and creativity are beacons to all of us who love movies and well-considered writing on them. Our work together was immensely enjoyable.”

Last year, The Times won the Pulitzer for breaking news for its coverage of a secret audio recording that exposed L.A. City Council members scheming in crude and racist ways — a jarring look at the city’s political factions and power struggles.

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