While audience interest in the Oscars varies from year to year, the interest of Irv Slifkin, a renowned movie maven from Camden County, has held steady. At 7 pm on Sunday, March 2, he’ll be tuned into ABC, as usual, for the 97th annual Academy Awards. He’s never missed a show.
He’ll be familiar with the statuette contenders, having watched more than 250 movies in 2024. Even after 30 years of teaching courses at Rowan College at Burlington County in Mount Laurel and Temple University in Philadelphia on the production, reviewing and history of films, the 67-year-old Cherry Hill resident says he’ll watch “any type of film, from the cheapest and dumbest to the most sophisticated.”
Among his favorites for the 2025 Academy Awards: Anora (which was written and directed by Jersey’s own Sean Baker), Conclave, The Brutalist, Wicked, The Apprentice and A Complete Unknown.
Slifkin gives free presentations on his favorite films at two Burlington County public libraries, Moorestown and Mount Laurel, and oversees a free Zoom movie club organized through the Mount Laurel Library. He and fellow film historian Laurence Lerman of Jersey City periodically offer FilmShul, which delves into the American Jewish history of filmmaking. These live Zoom presentations are requested by organizations like libraries, synagogues, and women’s and men’s groups.
Slifkin’s all-time favorite movies are the 1960 version of The Time Machine, and Citizen Kane, which Slifkin has viewed more than 100 times. “Each time, I see something I hadn’t noticed before,” he says.
He’s authored two books, co-produced and cowrote a documentary, and is executive producing and cowriting a second documentary. He’s the author of numerous movie critiques for the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly and other publications. He even had an acting role in the 2012 film Changing the Game.
Sometimes, Slifkin even provides snacks to moviegoers. When the lights went on following a recent screening of 1933’s King Kong, his audience was tickled to discover a huge pile of bananas on a table by the exit. “Help yourselves,” their host invited his guests.
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