He completed his B.A. at the State University of New York at Binghamton and his M.F.A. at Columbia University. At Binghamton, prominent experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs both instructed and influenced him.

After completing his MFA he worked for The Village Voice as third-stringer under Andrew Sarris. There, he specialized in examining experimental film. Indeed, his first published film review appeared in 1977 for David Lynch's seminal debut film Eraserhead. Since 2009 Hoberman remains senior film editor at the Village Voice. In addition, he contributes regularly to Film Comment, The New York Times, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

Since 1990 Hoberman has taught cinema history at Cooper Union. Additionally, he's lectured on film at Harvard University and continues to lecture at New York University.

In addition to his academic and professional career, Hoberman is an author of several eminent books on cinema, including a collaboration with prominent film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, entitled Midnight Movies, published in 1983.

In the 2002 Sight & Sound film poll, Hoberman indicated that Flaming Creatures is his choice for best film ever made. Other films included in his top five, listed by ranking, are The Girl from Chicago, Man with a Movie Camera, Pather Panchali, La Règle du jeu.

In 2008 at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Hoberman was honored with the prestigious Mel Novikoff Award: an annual award "bestowed on an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema."

As author

• The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2003.
• The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties. The New Press, New York, 2003.
• On Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures:(and Other Secret-flix of Cinemaroc). Granary Books/Hips Road, 2001.
• The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1999.
• 42nd Street. BFI Publishing, London, 1993.
• Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds. New York: The Museum of Modern Art/Schocken Books, 1992.
• Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Film and Other Media. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1991.
• Dennis Hopper: From Method to Madness. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1988.
• Home Made Movies: Twenty Years of American 8Mm & Super-8 Films. Anthology Film Archives, New York, 1981.

As co-author

• Midnight Movies (with Jonathan Rosenbaum)