Aaron Hillis

Aaron Hillis
OccupationsFilm critic, writer, director, curator
Known forFilm critic for The Village Voice

Aaron Hillis is an American writer, film critic, director and film festival programmer.[1][2]

As of June 2026, he publishes a weekly newsletter ("The Secret Screening") and offers consulting for filmmakers.[3]

Career

Hillis has been active in independent film, especially within the fields of exhibition, festivals, distribution and programming,[4] filmmaking, marketing, and journalism.[5] As a film journalist, he has written film reviews[6] and features articles and conducted hundreds of interviews with celebrities. He wrote, among others, for The Village Voice, Vice, Variety, Vanity Fair, LA Weekly, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine, GreenCine Daily (editor from 2009 to 2013),[7] and Spin. Furthermore, Hillis is a frequent moderator of panels in the indie film world.[8][9][10]

Between 2006 and 2009, Hillis was the vice-president of Benten Films, a boutique DVD label, founded by Andrew Grant.[11][12][13] Responsible for acquisitions, art direction, disc production and marketing, releases include Joe Swanberg's LOL (2006), Aaron Katz's Dance Party USA and Quiet City (2007), Matthias Glasner's The Free Will (2008).

In 2007, Hillis co-directed the documentary feature Fish Kill Flea (with Brian M. Cassidy and Jennifer Loeber).[14][15] The film premiered at SXSW[16] where it was positively praised as "one of SXSW's pleasant surprises, with a great, early Errol Morris feel for American weirdness" (Premiere Magazine) and "a wistful, thought-provoking rumination on the cost of progress" (Film Threat).[17]

Hillis is a senior programmer for the Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, North Carolina), where he curates the adults-only "Convulsions" program he created in 2013.[18][19] In 2025, Convulsions was voted one of the Top 40 genre programs in the world by Dread Central's panel of industry experts.[20]

Between 2012 and 2018, Hillis owned Video Free Brooklyn, a DVD and Blu-ray rental boutique.[21][22][23][24] The store was awarded the title of "Best Video Store in NYC" on three occasions between 2012–2013, by Time Out NY, The Village Voice, The L Magazine. In 2016, Hillis sold the library to the Alamo Drafthouse.[25][26] The 2019 documentary At the Video Store by James Westby features a conversation with Hillis about his time as a video rental store owner.

From 2020 to 2025, Hillis curated and hosted "Playtime with Hillis," a Zoom screening series of rare cinema. Live on-camera guests included Paul Schrader, Alice Cooper, Steve Buscemi, Rian Johnson, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Robert Townsend, Heather Matarazzo, Joe Dante, Robyn Hitchcock, Guinevere Turner, Alessandro Nivola, and band Sparks.[27]

References

  1. ↑ "The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture" (Brooklyn Magazine, March 11, 2014)
  2. ↑ "Movie Lovers We Love: Aaron Hillis, the Cinephile's Underdog" (IndieWire, June 22, 2012)
  3. ↑ "The Secret Screening" (by Aaron Hillis, est. June 2026)
  4. ↑ "Our Dated Model of Theatrical Release Is Hurting Independent Cinema" (by Richard Brody, The New Yorker, April 26, 2016)
  5. ↑ "The Need for Doc Criticism" (edited transcript from a panel held May 8th at UnionDocs Purchase on Documentary Criticism; January 7, 2011)
  6. ↑ Aaron Hillis on Metacritic
  7. ↑ "GreenCine: Onward" (December 19, 2008)
  8. ↑ "Cannes: American Pavilion Announces 25th Anniversary Programming Lineup" (by Beth Hanna, IndieWire, May 14, 2013)
  9. ↑ "Cannes: Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Pete Docter Set for American Pavilion Lineup" (by Gregg Kilday, Hollywood Reporter, May 11, 2015)
  10. ↑ A Conversation with the Duplass Brothers at SXSW Film 2016
  11. ↑ "A Start-Up Label for Indie Films, Lost Souls" (by Kenji Fujishima, The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009)
  12. ↑ "Aaron Hillis and Andrew Grant, Benten Films" (by Karen Wilson, Gothamist, September 4, 2007)
  13. ↑ "Getting to Know... Benten Films" (on TribecaFilm.com, November 13, 2007)
  14. ↑ "FISH KILL FLEA—Interview With Jennifer Loeber, Aaron Hillis and Brian Cassidy" (by Michael Guillen, ScreenAnarchy, July 21, 2007)
  15. ↑ "Emerging Visions Class of 2007: Aaron Hillis ('Fish Kill Flea')" (by Matt Dentler, IndieWire, October 8, 2007)
  16. ↑ Austin Film Society Documentary Tour: 'Fish Kill Flea' (by Anne S. Lewis, Austin Chronicle, April 6, 2007)
  17. ↑ Fish Kill Flea (Film Threat, March 16, 2007)
  18. ↑ "Convulsing Cucalorus: Curator Aaron Hillis talks about the Convulsions block of movies at the 21st film festival" (Encore, 2015)
  19. ↑ "MovieMaker: Dan Brawley and Aaron Hillis (Cucalorus Film Festival)" (in MovieMaker; November 18, 2020)
  20. ↑ "The 90 Best Genre Film Festivals on Earth" (Dread Central, 2025)
  21. ↑ "In Brooklyn, Buying a Video Store May Not Be Insane" (by Steve Dollar, The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2012)
  22. ↑ "Film Programmer Aaron Hillis Buys Brooklyn Video Store" (by Scott Macaulay, in Filmmaker Magazine, May 28, 2012)
  23. ↑ "Do You Have Total Recall? Also, Do You Have a Smaller Box of Whoppers?" (by Dana Stevens, in Slate, November 7, 2013)
  24. ↑ "Paul Dano, Doug Liman and Zoe Kazan Mourn the Death of the Video Store at NYC Event" (by Aubrey Page, IndieWire, September 25, 2015)
  25. ↑ "Video Free Brooklyn Heads to the Alamo Drafthouse" (IndieWire, December 9, 2016)
  26. ↑ "The Battle For New York City's Video Store Culture" (by Max Kyburz, Gothamist, March 4, 2016)
  27. ↑ "The Dantes - the playtime with hillis awards show" (October 3, 2021)
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