The Criterion Channel Announces Launch Lineup

The Criterion Channel launches on April 8, and we’re excited to share our first month’s lineup! The April calendar of thematic programming highlights an eclectic mix of classic and contemporary films from Hollywood and around the world, many not streaming anywhere else.

The new service will host the Criterion Collection and Janus Films’ ever-growing library of more than 1,000 feature films, 350 shorts, and 3,500 supplementary features, including trailers, introductions, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews, video essays, commentary tracks, and rare archival footage. It will also feature a constantly refreshed selection of films from a wide array of studio and independent licensors including Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, IFC Films, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media, Milestone Film and Video, Oscilloscope, Cinema Guild, Strand Releasing, Shout Factory, Film Movement, and Grasshopper Films. Additional licensors will be added in the coming months.

Films in the permanent streaming library will be continuously available to all Criterion Channel subscribers at all times, regardless of whether they are being spotlighted in thematic programming. Films licensed specifically for featured thematic programming may be available for shorter periods, but all films will be available for a minimum of ninety days unless otherwise noted.

The Criterion Channel will launch in the U.S. and Canada and will be available on desktop browsers as well as through apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android and Android TV devices.Subscribers who sign up by April 7 will enjoy an extended, 30-day free trial (starting April 8), reduced fees for as long as they remain subscribed, and immediate access to a new pre-launch, members-only Movie of the Week every Wednesday between now and the April 8 launch.

Create your Criterion Channel account before launch to secure your Charter Subscriber benefits!

There will be something new in the spotlight every day of the week. Tuesdays will offer Short + Feature pairings. Wednesdays are dedicated to women filmmakers. On Fridays there will be a double feature, and on Saturdays, a family-friendly matinee. Criterion Collection editions will let fans dig deep into individual films. Thematic programming will help viewers explore and discover new movies in new ways. Sundays will spotlight the biggest series, such as director or star retrospectives, guest curator selections, long-form cinematic epics, or large thematic programs, while the 10 Minutes or Less section will offer short-form delights for cinephiles on the go.

Check out this video for a rapid-fire look at the kind of programming we have in store for you:


Looking forward to planning your April viewing? Here’s a calendar to get you ready for next month:

MONDAY, APRIL 8

Spotlight: Columbia Noir
Eleven dark gems from the studio that epitomized the hard-boiled essence of film noir: 

My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945); So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946); The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953); Human Desire (Fritz Lang, 1954); Drive a Crooked Road (Richard Quine, 1954); Pushover (Richard Quine, 1954); Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1957); The Burglar (Paul Wendkos, 1957); The Lineup (Don Siegel, 1958); Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958); Experiment in Terror (Blake Edwards, 1962)

Plus: Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
Criterion Collection Edition #860

TUESDAY, APRIL 9

Short + Feature: Yearbook and Y tu mamá también
A short film by Bernardo Britto paired with Alfonso Cuarón’s beloved road movie

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

Screenwriter: Suso Cecchi d’Amico
Seven classics from the Italian screenwriter behind some of the greatest films of all time:

Bicycle Thieves
(Vittorio De Sica, 1948); Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954); Le amiche (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955); Le notti bianche (Luchino Visconti, 1957); Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1958); Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960); Salvatore Giuliano (Francesco Rosi, 1962)

Plus: Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)
Criterion Collection Edition #965

THURSDAY, APRIL 11

Directed by David Lynch
Visions of terror and salvation from contemporary cinema’s master of the surreal: 

Eraserhead
(1977); The Elephant Man (1980); Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992); Mulholland Dr. (2001). Plus six shorts: Six Men Getting Sick (1967); The Alphabet (1968); The Grandmother (1970); The Amputee Version 1 (1974); The Amputee Version 2 (1974); Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1995)

Plus: Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
Criterion Collection Edition #396

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

Double Feature: Last Hurrah for Chivalry and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
John Woo finds unlikely inspiration in Jacques Demy’s candy-colored musical

Plus: Jubal (Delmer Daves, 1956)
Criterion Collection Edition #656

SATURDAY, APRIL 13

Saturday Matinee: Bugsy Malone
Pint-sized wise guys battle it out in this irresistible all-kid gangster spoof.

SUNDAY, APRIL 14

Julie Taymor’s Adventures in Moviegoing
Our guest-programmer series, which has previously featured such luminaries as Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins, and Mira Nair sharing their lives as moviegoers and presenting favorite films, returns with this acclaimed stage and screen director.

Her selections: Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933); Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946); Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950); Sawdust and Tinsel (Ingmar Bergman, 1953); Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957); The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)

MONDAY, APRIL 15

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
Criterion Collection Edition #946

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

Short + Feature: The Silence and Taste of Cherry
Two soul-searching Iranian films grapple with mortality

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17

Directed by Susanne Bier
Three intimate and explosive dramas from an auteur specializing in emotional extremes: Brothers (2004); After the Wedding (2006); In a Better World (2010)

THURSDAY, APRIL 18

Kaili Blues
Bi Gan introduces his audacious feature debut, along with a related short film The Poet and Singer.

FRIDAY, APRIL 19

Double Feature: Hamlet and To Be or Not to Be
Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare adaptation meets Ernst Lubitsch’s wartime farce.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20

Saturday Matinee: The Kid
Charlie Chaplin pairs his lovable Tramp with a child companion in one of his best-loved films.

SUNDAY, APRIL 21

Meet the Filmmakers: Charles Burnett
In the latest installment in this series of original documentary profiles, the director of To Sleep with Anger revisits Watts with filmmaker Robert Townsend in an intimate portrait paired with a selection of his films.

The features: My Brother’s Wedding (1983); To Sleep with Anger (1990); Hollywood Shuffle (Robert Townsend, 1987)

The shorts: Several Friends (1969); The Horse (1973); When It Rains (1995); The Final Insult (1997); Quiet as Kept (2007)

MONDAY, APRIL 22

David Simon on Paths of Glory
The creator of The Wire introduces Stanley Kubrick’s wrenching antiwar film.

TUESDAY, APRIL 23

Short + Feature: Fauve and The Wages of Fear
An Oscar-nominated short precedes Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterful suspense film.

Plus: The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
Criterion Collection Edition #116

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24

The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999)
Criterion Collection Edition #920

THURSDAY, APRIL 25

Killer Couples x 3
Three couples you definitely don’t want to meet at a party

The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1969); Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 1982); Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012)

FRIDAY, APRIL 26

Double Feature: Murder by Contract and Le samouraï
Irving Lerner’s pared-down film noir, followed by Jean-Pierre Melville’s minimalist thriller

SATURDAY, APRIL 27

Saturday Matinee: Mon oncle
Jacques Tati’s first color film is a slapstick sendup of modern technology.

SUNDAY, APRIL 28

Spotlight: Simone Signoret
A salute to the French actor who brought unforgettable complexity to every performance

La ronde (Max Ophuls, 1950); Casque d’or (Jacques Becker, 1952); Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955); Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959); Adua and Her Friends (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1960); Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969); The Widow Courdec (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1971)

MONDAY, APRIL 29

Observations on Film Art No. 26: The Revolutionary Subjectivity of Memories of Underdevelopment
The Channel’s fifteen-minute-a-month film school returns with its twenty-sixth episode as Professor Jeff Smith digs into the revolutionary subjectivity of Cuban classic Memories of Underdevelopment.

TUESDAY, APRIL 30

Short + Feature: Surface Tension and News from Home
Hollis Frampton and Chantal Akerman’s experimental portraits of New York City

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