#122: Hanna Flint, Critic, Author & Broadcaster

Best Girl Grip

This week I’m thrilled to be chatting with film critic, broadcaster, podcaster and now author Hanna Flint, about her path into the film and media industry, as well as how her new book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER was born.

Having started out in various journalism and media roles for the likes of MailOnline, Metro and OK! Magazine, Hanna has since become a prolific film critic and features writer, with bylines at a wealth of outlets, including Variety, Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, Time Out, The Guardian, Esquire, Dazed, British GQ and Stylist, and has also appeared as a critic and commentator on the likes of BBC Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Radio 5 Live and TALKRadio.

She is also a host for MTV Movies and the co-host of the Fade to Black podcast alongside Amon Warmann and former Best Girl Grip guest Clarisse Loughrey.

Her book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER, is out now and weaves together personal memoir with cultural criticism as she reflects on how cinema has been formative to her own identity and the world we live in. The book is sprawling, funny and down-to-earth and manages to traverse topics such basketball, sexuality, sexual assault, colourism, her changing relationship to her Tunisian heritage, eating disorders, social media, family, first crushes and much much more.

Our conversation likewise covers lots of ground as we probe the pros and cons of doing an MA in journalism, how Hanna hustled her way into her career with hard work and persistence, how she established herself as a critic, how the idea for her book developed, the madness of writing it in just under three months and her relationship to it now as it makes its way into the world.