Carolyn Giardina, award-winning journalist and author, has joined Variety and Variety VIP+ as Senior Entertainment Technology & Crafts Editor as Variety expands its coverage of the fast-evolving production technology landscape as well as the Artisans sector.
Giardina has devoted her career to covering the art and science of entertainment and brings to her new role a wealth of knowledge of entertainment technology and the creative arts, as well as film history. She has covered such industry inflection points as the digital television and digital cinema transitions; entertainment technology including production and post, exhibition, immersive media and consumer electronics; the crafts including cinematography, editing, animation, sound and VFX; and related topics such as labor.
Giardina comes to her new role from The Hollywood Reporter, where she served as tech editor and was an active member of the awards team covering the crafts categories. In her new role at Variety, Giardina will work in collaboration with Jazz Tangcay, Variety’s award-winning senior Artisans editor, to expand the brand’s activity in the vital production technology and crafts sectors.
“Variety is fortunate to have a journalist of Carolyn Giardina’s stature join our masthead,” said Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh, Variety’s Co-Editors in Chief. “The contributions of Hollywood crafts and emerging production technologies have never been more essential to content creation than they are today. We’re excited to expand the depth and breadth of our coverage in these important areas.”
At Variety VIP+, she joins a team of industry analysts dedicated to coverage across all platforms of entertainment, media and tech sectors. Giardina will add a new area of specialty for the team, focusing on the latest advances in production and post-production for cameras, editing systems, visual effects, software, theatrical distribution, cinematography, audio and projection systems.
“There is simply no one in journalism that can match the wisdom and industry respect Carolyn brings to the table in her areas of expertise,” said Andrew Wallenstein, president and chief media analyst at Variety Intelligence Platform. “She is the ideal person to attract an influx of subscribers to our Variety VIP+ offering.”
During her long run at Hollywood Reporter, she helped to launch Behind the Screen in 2013, writing what started as a blog focused on technology and the crafts, and later expanded to include a magazine column, which she wrote, and podcast, which she hosted. She also moderated THR’s annual animation and cinematographer roundtables.
Giardina has been honored with American Cinema Editors’ Robert Wise Award for journalistic illumination of the art of film editing, the International Cinematographers Guild’s Technicolor William A. Fraker Award for journalistic contributions to cinematography, and the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Lumiere Award.
She is a frequent conference speaker and moderator who has served on numerous industry boards, committees and award juries. She is a past member of the Hollywood Professional Association’s Board of Directors and a co-founder of the HPA Awards.