--- title: David Thomson | TIME description: Thomson is a film historian and the author of more than 25 books, including How to Watch a Movie, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, The Whole Equation, and biographies of Orson Welles and David O. Selznick. His new book is Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances. canonical: https://time.com/author/david-thomson/ og:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/author/david-thomson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 300 og:image:height: 300 og:image:alt: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:type: profile twitter:card: summary twitter:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # David Thomson ## David Thomson Thomson is a film historian and the author of more than 25 books, including [_How to Watch a Movie_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/250417/how-to-watch-a-movie-by-david-thomson/), [_The New Biographical Dictionary of Film_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178394/the-new-biographical-dictionary-of-film-by-david-thomson/), [_The Whole Equation_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178395/the-whole-equation-by-david-thomson/), and biographies of Orson Welles and David O. Selznick. _His new book is_ [_Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670308/acting-naturally-by-david-thomson/)_._ ## David Thomson *  Mar 7, 2023 ### [The Case for Adding an Oscar for Best Scene Stealer](https://time.com/6260790/oscars-best-scene-stealer-category/) Film historian David Thomson argues the case for the one Oscar category the Academy should consider ... [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/david-thomson/","name":"David Thomson"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/david-thomson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/david-thomson/"},"name":"David Thomson","jobTitle":null,"description":"Thomson is a film historian and the author of more than 25 books, including How to Watch a Movie, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, The Whole Equation, and biographies of Orson Welles and David O. Selznick. His new book is Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances.","url":"https://time.com/author/david-thomson/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```