Criterion Now

Description: Tiffany Vazquez joins Aaron and Jill after a brief hiatus, which we explain. There's some catch-up where we talk about Aaron's book, Tiffany's Mira Nair class. We then get into our selections from the flash sale, which serves as a look at some of the titles we missed. We cover the December 2025 and 2026 announcements, and we're fortunate to have Tiffany to discuss the Mira Nair and Ra...

Description: Christian Gutierrez joins Aaron for the first time. He has a podcast called Reel Latinos, and is an expert in Latino cinema. He has tastes for world cinema and classic Hollywood. We talked about the July 2025 Criterion announcements, and we went through the TCM Film Festival schedule to look at conflicts and which films for him to prioritize at the 2025 fest. Links:  Video of this Epi...

Description: Ali Khamseh joins Aaron from Tehran, Iran. It was the first time podcasting with someone anywhere close to that region, and it was a delight! Ali talked about his projects, the state of cinema in Iran, many of the Iranian masters like Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, and how some filmmakers have become internationally known while pacifying the government. Ali likes a lot more than I...

Description: David Blakeslee joins Aaron. Jill is absent for the near future, and while she can't be replaced, David is a terrific co-host. We start by talking about Killers of the Flower Moon and some viral news that Criterion had allegedly approached Apple to put out a release, and Apple refused. We dig into the source and have some questions. While we are not expecting an imminent release, we t...

Description: Jill and Aaron talk about Flow, which appears to be the first Janus Contemporary that will get a Criterion spine release. We then talk about the May 2025 Announcements, and the new trend of increasing the number of new titles with upgrades. We speculate whether this has to do with the Steven Rales and Indian Paintbrush acquisition.  Links:   Video of this Episode   ‘Flow’ Will Join th...

Description: Jill and Aaron are back after a little bit of an unintentional break. We talk about Aaron's upcoming new book. We pay tribute to the loss of one of our favorite filmmakers, David Lynch. Finally we talk about the April 2025 Announcements, which include seven titles, with two from Sean Baker. We have a brief digression about Gerard Depardieu's airplane behavior. Links:     Video of this...

Description: Ryan Verrill joins the podcast to announce that we are joining Someone's Favorite Productions network. We also get into the November 2024 announcements on the heels of having already reacted (somewhat critically) to the CC40 boxset. We are pleased with this month, and we show a different side of Mifune to show our gratitude. Links: Criterion Now - Episode 152 - Video Someone's Favorit...

Description: Imogen Sara Smith joins for our special episode 150, which we recorded without interruptions. We talk about a number of subjects including the thrill and rarity of seeing a repertory nitrate screening. She talks about her craft process, and how she approaches writing about film. We talk about modern French film and specifically how Celine Sciamma has pushed the boundaries of telling a...

Description: Jill and Aaron return the Criterion Now podcast with a long overdue episode. We get into the ownership situation with Criterion Collection and Indian Paintbrush, and what we expect from it. We also look at the recent and upcoming releases, and what we are looking forward to seeing as new or for the first time. Links: Criterion September 2024 Reaction with Josh Hornbeck CineJourneys –...

We are pleased to have Dave Eves back on the show. We talk best of 2022, February and March announcements, and the Sight & Sound list.

Now that we're back, we had some catching up to do. This week Drew Morton joined to go back through all of the months that we missed during hiatus -- August 2022 through January 2023.

Filmmaker Sean Baker and his co-director for Take Out and frequent collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou join to discuss Take Out, Criterion, and other topics.

Jill and Aaron are now officially back from hiatus and ready to resume the show. This is us getting warmed up.

Jill and Aaron get into June announcements, a lot of David Lynch news, and speculate about François Truffaut.

Marcus Pinn joins as we discuss June announcements and a lot more.

Drew Morton joins again, and we have a lot to talk about. Come for the Criterions, stay for his Jimmy Stewart impressions.

Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks join to talk about all things martial arts.

Celeste de la Cabra joins to discuss the April announcements and more possibly coming to Criterion.

Jill and Aaron spend New Year's Eve reflecting on the year of 2021

Brad McDermott joins to talk the March 2022 Announcements and a lot of other Criterion news.

Jill and Aaron welcome writer and frequent Criterion contributor Farran Smith Nehme to the show.

Jill and Aaron welcome crime fiction writer, Craig Terlson, to the show to discuss #Noirvember.

Jill and Aaron dig into a lot in this episode. We begin with the January 2022 announcements and go from there.

Drew Morton joins Jill and Aaron to dive into horror titles in the collection.

Dennis Bartok and Craig Rogers from Deaf Crocodile join us for an insightful discussion about film restoration.