The Future Of /Film: A Long-Awaited Redesign, A Newly Expanded Writing Staff, And Saying Farewell To An Old Friend

Change is hard. Change is exciting. Change is an opportunity for us to break out any number of cliches to talk about change, because it can be ecstatic and painful and bittersweet and thrilling. This is especially true when it comes to the places you love – including the movie websites you visit on a regular basis.

/Film is in the midst of its biggest change since it was founded back in 2005. And we get it. Change is weird. But it's also exciting. Lots of things are changing for this website right now, both behind the scenes and on the front page, but this is our promise to you: /Film will always be /Film, your smart, honest, enthusiastic, occasionally a bit snarky (but never cruel) source for all things movie, television, and pop culture. We're not going anywhere, even as we welcome a brand new look and a bunch of new faces, and as we say goodbye to one of our oldest friends.

Here's what lies ahead for /Film in the weeks and months ahead.

When I first joined /Film back in 2015 (was it really that long ago?), there were already discussions of when and how to redesign the site. But today, we can reveal that the site is finally getting the overhaul it deserves.

In the very near future (exact date to be determined), /Film will relaunch with a spiffy new design that will do away with our current look entirely and change the way you read and enjoy the site. The desktop redesign will launch simultaneously with a new mobile site. In addition to aesthetics, the new design will load much faster, and it will be easier to navigate and find articles as they are published. It's a total overhaul, and one that will benefit everyone.

However, the writing will still be /Film through and through. But now, it'll be presented in a shiny and modern package, and we can't wait for you to see it.

There is one element of the redesign that we understand will be controversial: the comments section will no longer exist in the relaunched /Film. This was a major point of conversation for the team, as we understand many friendships were formed in our comments section over the years. So if you have any internet friends you want to stay in touch with, please use the comments section under this article to let your fellow commenters know where they can find you, and arrange ways to stay in touch after the relaunch.

If you want to remain an active member of the /Film community, our social media feeds are currently undergoing a major overhaul and are ready for your participation, but we'll talk about that in a moment.

Even as things change, plenty will remain the same...even though everyone has new titles. /Film founder Peter Sciretta is now editorial director, and I am now senior news editor. We're still doing a lot of the old things – but also a lot of new things, too.

Meanwhile, the core crew is more active than ever. Hoai-Tran Bui has accepted a promotion to news editor, while Bradford Oman (AKA Ethan Anderton) and Chris Evangelista have joined Ben Pearson as senior writers. Chris has also taken on the title of chief film critic. All titles reflect what they have brought to the site over the years and how they will continue to lead the charge in how /Film reads and sounds, even as our look changes.

If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed a number of new names contributing on a regular basis. That's because, in addition to our regular contributors and columnists (who also aren't going anywhere), we have expanded our news desk with names both new and familiar to /Film.

We'd like to officially welcome Jeremy Mathai, Shania Russell, Danielle Ryan, Vanessa Armstrong, Joshua Meyer, Marisa Mirabal, and Eric Vespe to the /Film news desk. What this means is, well, more. More news articles on a daily basis, more articles during the evenings and weekends, more deep-dives into your latest obsessions, and more feature writing in general.

In addition, Chris Gates is our new features editor, overseeing a new section of the site focused on lists and longform posts. Ariel Fisher has joined the site as our evening editor, taking care of late-breaking news after the daytime crew has shuffled home. We have also handed theme park coverage over to regular contributor Josh Spiegel, who has transformed the Theme Park Bits column into an ongoing beat.

As /Film heads into its next generation, having a passionate, diverse, and talented staff of writers of all tastes and backgrounds remains vital. This is just the beginning, and we hope you enjoy reading them as much as we do.

If you read /Film but don't follow us on social media, this is the perfect time to start. Our Twitter feed has been overhauled and now acts as the feed for the site itself (it stopped being Peter's personal feed a little while back, but you can still follow him here). Twitter is still one of the best places to track new /Film articles, but it will now include updates on movie and TV news not covered in full posts, as well as cool movie trivia and looks back at some of our favorite moments in cinema history. Our goal is for it to be a feed that entertains as much as it offers links to our stories.

Meanwhile, the changes continue to our Facebook page, and our brand new Instagram page is just waiting for /Film readers to start following it.

And now we get to the bittersweet part. As you may have already seen in a previous post written by David Chen, The Slashfilmcast is rebranding to The Filmcast and is parting ways with /Film. There is no bad blood here and we remain great friends with that crew – this is an amicable separation and we expect to continue collaborating in the future. You will even hear /Film writers still guesting on The Filmcast! That post linked above will have the in-depth answers you need, but the podcast will keep on moving without a hitch, just as its own independent entity.

However, the /Film Daily podcast is not going anywhere, and will continue to arrive every weekday, with the same regular cast.