From The Ashes of FilmStruck Rises Criterion Collection!

The abrupt cancellation of streaming service FilmStruck, which hosts countless classic movies from all over the planet, sickened me for a whole horde of reasons. At least I wasn't the only film geek to be crestfallen by the departure of FilmStruck, in fact, my disappointment was shared with a whole bunch of iconic filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Rian Johnson and Guillermo del Toro who, along with many other directors, signed a petition calling for FilmStruck to be saved and sent it directly to Toby Emmerich, head of Warner Bros. Pictures (which is part of the WarnerMedia family that FilmStruck belongs to).


While FilmStruck will still come to a close on November 29th, it looks like the outpouring of support for FilmStruck has resulted in WarnerMedia and Criterion Collection partnering up for a new streaming service entitled Criterion Collection. Some details on the service, namely if they'll carry only Criterion licensed titles or if they'll also have the Turner Classic Movies library that FilmStruck added to their service this past Spring, are still up in the air, but we do know pricing plans for the service and an estimated launch time for it: Spring 2019. Still feels like BS to just drop FilmStruck like this, especially for such garbage reasons like claiming it only appealed to "a niche audience", but I'm elated that we'll still get a streaming service that offers up a chance for film fans of all stripes to indulge in whatever types of movies they want from all over the world.

Until Criterion Collection launches this Spring, you might be wondering where you can stream classic cinema since Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are pretty much a barren wasteland in regards to this type of filmmaking. Luckily, there are still some places you can turn to even if they don't have the massive library of FilmStruck. If you have a Cable subscription, Turner Classic Movies has a WatchTCM app that's got all kinds of classic film options. There's also Mubi and Sundance Now, though for my money, the best option is Kanopy, a streaming service connected to local libraries and colleges all across America. I just watched The Miseducation of Cameron Post on there this morning (it's a great movie, by the by) and it's one of countless titles of all shapes and sizes they've got on there. Best of all, it's free to access through your local library or, if you're a college student like me, through your college library! Check with your library and see if they have a Kanopy account you can access, it's got a wealth of titles that we all need to support so that it's made clear that there is a market for classic cinema on streaming services.