Kristin Thompson

She co-wrote the film textbook, Film Art: An Introduction, with husband David Bordwell. Film Art, with a tenth edition published in 2013, was originally published in 1979 and has become a standard in the field of film aesthetics. To date, it has been translated into seven languages.

In the mid-2000s, Thompson's interest in Hollywood norms led her to write a monograph about the popular fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. According to Thompson, the book "[...] examine[s] the larger phenomenon of this hugely successful franchise, examining the film's making but also its marketing via the Internet, its merchandising (particularly DVDs and video games), and its impact on world cinema." It is based on the author's interviews with many of the artists, writers, and business people who participated in the making of The Lord of the Rings motion pictures.

In 1994, she co-wrote another textbook with Bordwell, Film History. In early 2001 she did a series of lectures at Oxford University. She holds an honorary fellowship in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Thompson earned her master's degree in film studies at the University of Iowa (1973) and a Ph.D. in film studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has held teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa, Indiana University, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Stockholm.

Kristin Thompson (born 1950) is an American film theorist and author whose research interests include the close formal analysis of films, the history of film styles, and "quality television," a genre akin to art film. She wrote two scholarly books in the 1980s which used an analytical technique called neoformalism. As well, she has co-authored two widely used film studies textbooks with her husband David Bordwell.