Dale Pollock

Dale M. Pollock received a BA in Anthropology from Brandeis University in 1972 and MS in Communications from San Jose State University. In 1977, he became the head film critic for the Daily Variety until he was hired by the Los Angeles Times to be their chief entertainment correspondent. In 1984 he wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, which has sold more than 150,000 copies. In 1985, Pollock joined David Geffen’s company as a development executive. 

He joined A&M Films as vice president in charge of production and was named president in 1990, producing such films as The Beast, A Midnight Clear, and Mrs. Winterbourne. Pollock ran his own film company Peak Productions, for 10 years, producing the box office hit Set It Off. In 1999 he became Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, stepping down in 2006 to become Professor of Cinema Studies at UNCSA. 

He was awarded the Emeritus status in 2019 and served as Interim Dean for nine months in 2021. Pollock was awarded an Endowed Professorship in Film in his name at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking and is the 2016 recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence. He received the 2020 Arts Council of Winston Salem’s Annual Award, its highest honor. Pollock's first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, will be published in February 2023, and he is at work on a book about how Hollywood has treated aging in the movies.