Criteria — A Criterion Channel Companion

This Month on the Channel

Three Short Films by Neo Sora

Like his acclaimed feature Happyend , now streaming on the Criterion Channel, these short films by Neo Sora display both his keen eye for vivid cinematic details and ability to connect intimate human stories with broader social and political questions. While The Chicken and A Very Straight Neck are striking adaptations of short works by the Japanese writers Naoya Shiga and Momoe Narazaki, respectively, Sugar Glass Bottle draws from Sora’s own childhood experiences and is very much a thematic precursor to Happyend .

3 films·Explore the collection

On the Channel

This Month's Collections

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11 films

7 films

Two Oscar-Winning Documentaries by Barbara Kopple

2 films

3 films

James Baldwin On-Screen

5 films

4 films

13 films

13 films

On the Channel

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Series

Latest Closet Visit

Matt Damon

11 picks • Jul 2026

Christopher Nolan

16 picks • Jun 2026

Cooper Hoffman

10 picks • Jun 2026

Finneas

6 picks • Jun 2026

John Leguizamo

6 picks • Jun 2026

Camila Mendes

5 picks • Jun 2026

Criterion Closet

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From the Channel Archive

Still Watchable

Past collections that are still mostly, or entirely, available

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Revolutionary Reveries: Four Films by the Sankofa Film and Video Collective

4 of 4 still streaming

8 of 9 still streaming

The Films of Agnès Varda

37 of 43 still streaming

Bigas Luna’s Outrageous Passions

5 of 5 still streaming

Surreal Nature Films

7 of 9 still streaming

All You Need Is Love

17 of 23 still streaming

Art-House America: Film Streams

7 of 7 still streaming

Documentaries by Les Blank

16 of 16 still streaming

The Documentaries of Louis Malle

7 of 7 still streaming

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier

15 of 15 still streaming

Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films

6 of 8 still streaming

Ester Krumbachová: Phantom of the Czechoslovak New Wave

7 of 9 still streaming

Series

Adventures in Moviegoing

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Adventures in Moviegoing

Edgar Wright

5 films

Adventures in Moviegoing

John Waters

5 films

Adventures in Moviegoing

Richard Linklater

9 films

Adventures in Moviegoing

Noah Baumbach

7 films

Adventures in Moviegoing

Sofia Coppola

5 films

Adventures in Moviegoing

Michael Cunningham

10 films

Series

Observations on Film Art

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Observations on Film Art

Flash Cuts and Long Takes in LE BONHEUR

Le bonheur · 1965

Observations on Film Art

Staging and Performance in IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART 2

Ivan the Terrible, Part II · 1958

Observations on Film Art

Flashbacks in THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE

The Phantom Carriage · 1921

Observations on Film Art

Visual Strategies in LA CIÉNAGA

La Ciénaga · 2001

Observations on Film Art

BRUTE FORCE: The Actor’s Tool Kit

Brute Force · 1947

Observations on Film Art

LYDIA and the Power of Flashbacks

Lydia · 1941

Series

Meet the Filmmakers

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Meet the Filmmakers

Sophy Romvari

Get to know the Toronto-based director of BLUE HERON, one of the most acclaimed debuts in recent memory. In the following interview, Sophy Romvari discusses recreating the ’90s through meticulous production design, taking inspiration from her father’s home movies for the cinematography, and creat...

Meet the Filmmakers

Sergei Loznitsa

Meet the Filmmakers

Debra Granik

Meet Debra Granik, a self-described “observer” whose multipart documentary CONBODY VS. EVERYBODY tracks an ex-con entrepreneur’s efforts to build a business in a gentrifying New York City. In the following interview, Granik describes her path to filmmaking via sociology, her interest in the high ...

Meet the Filmmakers

Bi Gan

Meet Bi Gan, the visionary director of RESURRECTION. In the following interview, Bi discusses his interest in the spiritual and subconscious aspects of human experience, his formative experiences watching Stephen Chow movies and THE RED BALLOON, and the collective dimension of cinema that gets lo...

Meet the Filmmakers

Lav Diaz

Meet Lav Diaz, the iconoclastic Filipino filmmaker whose monumental MAGELLAN imagines the life of the titular explorer from a bracing anticolonial perspective. In the following interview, Diaz recounts his early marathon trips to the movies with his cinema-obsessed father, the influence of Russia...

Meet the Filmmakers

Ira Sachs

Meet Ira Sachs, the veteran filmmaker whose acclaimed anti-biopic PETER HUJAR’S DAY recreates a day in the life of the legendary photographer. In the following interview, Sachs discusses the challenges of adapting a transcript into a narrative feature, his attention to light and the passage of ti...

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