Norman Wilner

Norman Wilner is a Canadian film critic and festival programmer, best known as a longtime film critic for Toronto's alternative weekly newspaper Now.

Previously a writer for a variety of publications including the Toronto Star and Canadian editions of the Metro chain of newspapers, he joined Now in 2008 as its senior film writer. In a 2014 interview with Toronto Star writer Eric Veillette, he attributed his interest in film to the influence of his grandfather Percy, a longtime owner of Toronto's now-defunct Orpheum movie theatre. Following the retirement of Steve Gravestock from the festival in late 2022, he became the festival's lead programmer for Canadian films beginning with the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, before departing the festival programming team in 2025.

He has also served as secretary and vice-president of the Toronto Film Critics Association from 2008 to 2016, and as host of Someone Else’s Movie, a podcast where he interviews a film industry figure about other filmmakers' work that they admire.

His brother, Mike Wilner, is a sportswriter for the Toronto Star and a former play-by-play announcer for Toronto Blue Jays games.