Midwest Film Journal was established in 2017 by experienced film critics Nick Rogers (formerly St. Louis Journal Register, FilmYap), Evan Dossey (formerly FilmYap), Sam Watermeier (formerly NUVO Newsweekly), and Aly Caviness (formerly FilmYap). They were joined shortly after by Mitch Ringenberg and Lou Harry (formerly Indiana Business Journal). Each writer is a member in good standing of the Indiana Film Journalists Association.

We have two missions with Midwest Film Journal. The first is simple: we work hard to write thoughtful essays about film that eschew the nitpicking and thoughtless snark that are pervasive in the online critical community. We review new theatrical, video-on-demand, and home video releases.

We’re not afraid to go negative – but we want to add to the experience of watching a film, not meaninglessly deride on someone else’s work. Why waste time with that?

Our second mission is to provide a voice to as many writers as we can. Since our inception we have invited friends, fellow critics, and even complete strangers to contribute essays to our Group Series. Some series are annual, like our No Sleep October horror celebration. Others are limited, like December 2019’s Our Star Wars or Sam Watermeier and Dave Gutierrez’ dueling Tom Hanks columns, Hanks for Everything and Hanks for Nothing. We’ve completed over a dozen different series and are always planning for more ways to bring new and old voices into the fold. You can see a full list of contributing writers at our Writers page. If you are interested in participating, please contact us at midwestfilmjournal@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading!
— The MFJ Team