Linda Barnard is a freelance film critic with a career spanning more than 30 years in Canadian daily newspapers. A graduate of Ryerson University (BAA Journalism), she joined the Star and thestar.com in 2002, moving to the Entertainment department in 2005, becoming part of the Star’s team covering film in 2007. Barnard is a 2014 National Newspaper Award (Arts and Entertainment) winner, winner of a Dunlop Award for Feature Writing, and is a member of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. She has participated on film juries, including Canada’s Top Ten and has programmed for the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. Outside the multiplex, she has run three marathons and is passionate about food (spending four months as the Star’s interim restaurant critic), travel writing and New World wines. She goes on tour twice yearly with the stars of Coronation Street as onstage emcee and will always be glad she put herself through school as a bartender. So are her friends.