Phillip Lopate (born November 16, 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher.

[2] Lopate worked as a writer-in-the-schools for twelve years and his memoir Being With Children came out of his association with the artists-in-the-school organization Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

He has served as a committee member for the Municipal Art Society and as a consultant for Ric Burns' PBS documentary on the history of New York City.

A volume of his selected movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically, was published by Doubleday-Anchor in 1998.

[1] Lopate has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants.