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Certified Fresh: The Untold Story of Rotten Tomatoes

Sponsored Project

  • Carol Paik, Director
  • Shannon Sun-Higginson, Producer
  • Kitty Hu, Producer
A bulky early 2000s computer displays the original Rotten Tomatoes homepage. It sits on a cluttered 1990s-style desk in a bedroom, surrounded by old tech, sticky notes, and personal items.

About the Project

Certified Fresh is a feature documentary about the wild rise of movie reviews, from buried blurbs in the back of newspapers to a single score that can make or break a film. At the center? Rotten Tomatoes, the platform that cracked open the critic's circle. But who really built it and at what cost?

The film uncovers the little-known story of three Asian American founders, Senh Duong, Patrick Lee, and Stephen Wang. They launched the site during the dot-com boom. As studios tried to bury bad reviews, Rotten Tomatoes pulled back the curtain. Over time, the Tomatometer became a powerful (and polarizing) force, shaping a film’s commercial fate, critical reputation, and cultural relevance.