Last Chance to Stream: The Criterion Collection
It makes us as sad as it makes you to announce that the Criterion Collection will no longer offer video streaming services to libraries, starting June 29, 2018. We know how much you loved being able to watch their huge selection of cinema classics; but the vendor has chosen not to renew their license with public libraries.
But don't despair. You can still stream any film in the Criterion collection for the next week – and we have some other options for you as well:
You can still borrow Criterion films on DVD from the library – 619 of them, to be exact.
And our newest video streaming service, Kanopy (which is worth exploring in its own right), still offers 50 of the most popular Criterion movies. Here's a list:
8 1/2, by Federico Fellini
Ashes and Diamonds, by Andrzej Wajda
Beauty and the Beast, by Jean Cocteau
Bicycle Thieves, by Vittorio De Sica
Black Orpheus, dir. Marcel Camus
Breathless, dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Cleo from 5 to 7, dir. Agnes Varda
Fires on the Plain, dir. Kon Ichikawa
Fists in the Pocket, dir. Marco Bellocchio
Floating Weeds, dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Haxan, dir. Benjamin Christensen
Ikiru, dir. Akira Kurosawa
Il Posto, dir. Ermanno Olmi
Ivan the Terrible, Part 2, dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Journey to Italy, dir. Roberto Rossellini
Jules and Jim, dir. Francois Truffaut
Knife in the Water, dir. Roman Polanski
L'Avventura, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
La Notte, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
La Strada, dir. Federico Fellini
Le Samouraï, dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
M, dir. Fritz Lang
M. Hulot's Holiday, dir. Jacques Tati
Miss Julie, dir. Alf Sjoberg
Modern Times, dir. Charlie Chaplin
Pandora's Box, dir. G. W. Pabst
Pather Panchali, dir. Satyajit Ray
Playtime, dir. Jacques Tati
Purple Noon, dir. René Clément
Pygmalion, dir. Anthony Asquith
Rashomon, dir. Akira Kurosawa
Richard III, dir. Laurence Olivier
Seven Samurai, dir. Akira Kurosawa
Summer With Monika, dir. Ingmar Bergman
Summertime, dir. David Lean
The 400 Blows, dir. Francois Truffaut
The Battle of Algiers, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
The Great Dictator, dir. Charlie Chaplin
The Lord of the Flies, dir. Peter Brook
The Rules of the Game, dir. Jean Renoir
The Seventh Seal, dir. Ingmar Bergman
The Virgin Spring, dir. Ingmar Bergman
Tokyo Story, dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Ugetsu, dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Umberto D., dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, dir. Jacques Demy
Viridiana, dir. Luis Buñuel
Vivre Sa Vie, dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Wild Strawberries, dir. Ingmar Bergman
5 thoughts on “Last Chance to Stream: The Criterion Collection”
Did they explain why?
oh no! this is so upsetting. I have introduced this resource to many customers who will be very disappointed to hear the news. Thank you for the great post Wendy – it helps lessen the sting!
Hi Vicky,
Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of information – we were just told that we wouldn’t be able to renew the Criterion Collection after this month. Apparen’tly it’s the same for all public libraries, although Kanopy has secured licenses for a smaller collection of Criterion films. Sorry I can’t be more informative!
Thanks, Jessica! I feel the same. But I suspect that people who liked Criterion will find a lot of value in Kanopy as well, so at least there’s that…
Very unfortunate — I have shared this resource with so many library goers.