Look, I know you've spent years purchasing premium copies of your favorite selections from the Criterion Collection, but the day when you'll be able to give your wallet...and your shelves...a rest is now in sight.

Criterion, purveyor of all things historically important and cinematic, has officially announced when its highly anticipated streaming channel is set to go live.


The Criterion Channel is officially launching on April 8th, picking up where FilmStruck so tragically left off, offering a lineup of some of the most beloved cinema classics to its subscribers, including the features and shorts of David Lynch, select titles from classic directors like Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, and Billy Wilder, as well as contemporary filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón and Sofia Coppola.

Naomiwattsmulhollandairpot_0'Mulholland Drive' (2001)

What's showing on first day? A bunch of Criterion-worthy film noirs produced by Columbia Pictures, including Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953), Richard Quine's Pushover (1954), and a few from B-movie auteur Joseph H. Lewis.

But the Criterion Channel isn't just streaming the greatest feature and short films ever made. It's also offering subscribers its fifteen-minute-a-month film school. On April 29th, you can watch the 26th episode in which Professor Jeff Smith "digs into the revolutionary subjectivity of Cuban classics Memories of Underdevelopment."

You can view the entire April lineup here.

The_big_heat'The Big Heat' (1953)

According to the announcement, films will be continuously available to subscribers if it's in the permanent streaming library, even if they're not spotlighting in the Criterion Channel's thematic programming.

The Criterion Channel is set to launch on April 8th in the U.S. and Canada. It will be available on desktop browsers as well as Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS, and Android and Android TV devices. That means you can watch Bicycle Thieves on your 70" flatscreen as you mow down on popcorn or on your phone in the bathroom as you floss all those kernels out of your teeth.

Head on over to the Criterion Channel to start your free trial.

Source: Criterion Channel