Pictures: Netflix / Criterion
Netflix has released well over 1,000 original movies since 2015 with some being hand-picked to get included in the prestigious Criterion Collection. Here’s a look at all the Netflix Originals released via Criterion over the years as
Netflix first got into the “movie business” in 2015 with its first Netflix Original movie, Beasts of No Nation. While it still has a DVD rental business, its Netflix Original movies have largely remained exclusive to streaming. The biggest exception to this is when Netflix Originals get included in the Criterion Collection.
For those unaware, The Criterion Collection is a distribution company that seeks to license, restore and distribute classic movies or movies they deem to be historic. Since its inception in 1984, the company has distributed over 1,000 special editions of various films.
So let’s look at the Netflix movies released within the collection:
Full List of Netflix Originals Released in The Criterion Collection
Note: listed in order of release on Criterion.
Beasts of No Nation (Spine #1091)
Released on Netflix: October 16th, 2015
Released on Criterion: August 2021
Picture: Netflix
From Cary Joji Fukunaga, this is Netflix’s first full Netflix Original movie which was honored years after its initial Netflix release.
The movie gives you an insight into war from the view of a child soldier with Idris Elba playing the boy’s ruthless commander.
The special edition includes:
- 2K digital master, approved by director Cary Joji Fukunaga, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary featuring Fukunaga and first assistant director Jon Mallard
- New documentary on the development and making of the film, featuring interviews with Fukunaga; author Uzodinma Iweala; actors Idris Elba and Abraham Attah; and producers Amy Kaufman, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, and Riva Marker
- New conversation between Fukunaga and film and television producer and cultural commentator Franklin Leonard
- New interview with costume designer Jenny Eagan
Roma (Spine #1014)
Released on Netflix: December 14th, 2018
Released on Criterion: February 2020
Roma is one of Netflix’s most decorated movies sweeping awards across the board, including three Oscar wins.
The movie by Alfonso Cuarón takes us back to the early 1970s and what life was like for a middle-class family’s maid.
Special features include in the Criterion release includes:
- 4K digital master, supervised by director Alfonso Cuarón, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Road to “Roma,” a new documentary about the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Cuarón
- Snapshots from the Set, a new documentary featuring actors Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, producers Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis, production designer Eugenio Caballero, casting director Luis Rosales, executive producer David Linde, and others
- New documentaries about the film’s sound and postproduction processes, featuring Cuarón; Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay, and Craig Henighan from the postproduction sound team; editor Adam Gough; postproduction supervisor Carlos Morales; and finishing artist Steven J. Scott
- New documentary about the film’s ambitious theatrical campaign and social impact in Mexico, featuring Celis and Rodríguez
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Spine #1062)
Released on Netflix: June 12th, 2019
Released on Criterion: January 2021
The first of two Martin Scorsese Netflix projects released on Criterion and indeed released onto Netflix in 2019. This also represented Scorsese’s second documentary on Bob Dylan after his 2005 entry.
The Criterion release included:
- New 4K digital master, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interviews with Scorsese, editor David Tedeschi, and writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman
- Restored footage of never-before-seen Rolling Thunder Revue performances of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” and “Romance in Durango,” and of a new, extended cut of “Tangled Up in Blue”
The Irishman (Spine #1058)
Released on Netflix: November 27th, 2019
Released on Criterion: November 2020
Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated for Netflix featured the likes of Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino and while its length was the subject of many it’s perhaps one of Scorsese’s finest movies.
Special edition features:
- New 4K digital master, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Newly edited roundtable conversation among Scorsese and actors Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, originally recorded in 2019
- Making “The Irishman,” a new program featuring Scorsese; the lead actors; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Jane Rosenthal, and Irwin Winkler; director of photography Rodrigo Prieto; and others from the cast and crew
- Gangsters’ Requiem, a new video essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman’s synthesis of Scorsese’s singular formal style
- Anatomy of a Scene: “The Irishman,” a 2020 program featuring Scorsese’s analysis of the Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night scene from the film
- The Evolution of Digital De-aging, a 2019 program on the visual effects created for the film
- Excerpted interviews with Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran and Teamsters trade-union leader Jimmy Hoffa from 1999 and 1963
Marriage Story (Spine #1038)
Released on Netflix: December 6th, 2019
Released on Criterion: July 2020
Noah Baumbach’s sensational character drama, headlined by Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, netted the streamer an Oscar for the best-supporting actress awarded to Laura Dern.
The movie follows a divorce in process and the toll it takes on everyone involved.
Extras for the movie on Criterion include:
- New 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Noah Baumbach, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with Baumbach
- The Players, a new program featuring interviews with actors Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, and Ray Liotta
- The Filmmakers, a new program about the production of the film, featuring interviews with Baumbach, editor Jennifer Lame, production designer Jade Healy, costume designer Mark Bridges, and producer David Heyman
- The Making of “Marriage Story,” a new program featuring behind-the-scenes footage
- New interviews with composer Randy Newman and Baumbach about the film’s score
- New program featuring Baumbach walking viewers through a key location from the film
Dick Johnson is Dead (Spine #1111)
Released on Netflix: October 2nd, 2020
Released on Criterion: January 2022
Winner of a Primetime Emmy, this documentary follows the filmmaker’s father and his preparations to end his life who is suffering from dementia. It first debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020 before getting released on Netflix later that year.
Criterion edition includes:
- New 2K digital master, approved by director Kirsten Johnson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary featuring Johnson, cowriter and editor Nels Bangerter, and documentary sound recordist Judy Karp
- New conversation among Johnson and her fellow producers Katy Chevigny and Marilyn Ness and coproducer Maureen A. Ryan
- New interview with sound designer Pete Horner
- New program featuring Johnson in conversation with fellow filmmakers about redefining what a documentary can be
Okja (Spine #1133)
Released on Netflix: June 28th, 2017
Released on Criterion: July 2022
Okja was the big Netflix movie by Bong Joon Ho, which sadly hasn’t remained relevant on Netflix over the years despite very much being one of their best releases to date.
Released in the summer of 2017, the movie was about a South Korean girl growing up with a GMO superpig and after the experiment concludes, her pig is taken away from her.
Here’s what’s on offer with the Criterion release:
- 4K digital master, approved by director Bong Joon Ho, with Dolby Atmos sound on the Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions
- In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New conversation between Bong and producer Dooho Choi
- New interviews with actors An Seo Hyun and Byun Heebong
- New interviews with members of the crew about the film’s cinematography, visual effects, and costume and production design
- Short programs including a director’s video diary, featuring Bong; actors Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, and Steven Yeun; and others
- Teaser, trailer, and web promos
- English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The Power of the Dog (Spine #1158)
Released on Netflix: November 17th, 2021
Released on Criterion: November 8th, 2022
Jane Campion’s first Western movie led Netflix’s Oscars charge for the 94th Academy Awards, picking up 12 nominations in total.
Special features include:
- 4K digital master, approved by director Jane Campion, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Interview with Campion about the making of the film
- Program featuring interviews with members of the cast and crew and behind-the-scenes footage captured on location in New Zealand
- Interview with Campion and composer Jonny Greenwood about the film’s score
- Conversation among Campion, director of photography Ari Wegner, actor Kirsten Dunst, and producer Tanya Seghatchian, moderated by filmmaker Tamara Jenkins
- New interview with novelist Annie Proulx
Trailer
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Spine #1201)
Picture: Netflix
Guillermo del Toro has been working with Netflix on several projects, but his swan song thus far has been the beautifully crafted stop-motion animated movie Pinocchio.
The movie was a big release for Netflix’s Animation division, going on to score Netflix’s first Oscar in the genre.
Here’s what you can expect from the new special edition release:
- 4K digital master, supervised by directors Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Handcarved Cinema, a new documentary featuring del Toro, Gustafson, and cast and crew, including the film’s puppet creators, production designers, and animation supervisor
- Directing Stop-Motion, a new program featuring del Toro and Gustafson
- New conversation between del Toro and film critic Farran Smith Nehme
- New interview with curator Ron Magliozzi on The Museum of Modern Art’s 2022 exhibition devoted to the film
- New program on the eight rules of animation that informed the film’s production
- Panel discussion featuring del Toro, Gustafson, production designer Guy Davis, composer Alexandre Desplat, and sound designer Scott Martin Gershin, moderated by filmmaker James Cameron
- Conversation among del Toro, Gustafson, and author Neil Gaiman
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
Mudbound (Spine #1205)
Released on Netflix: November 17th, 2017
Released on Criterion: January 30th, 2024
Picture: Netflix
Seven years after Mudbound led one of Netflix’s first serious Oscar campaigns, the excellent movie headlined by Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, and many other well-known names heads to Criterion in early 2024.
Special features crafted for the new director-approved special edition include:
- New 2K digital master, supervised by director Dee Rees and director of photography Rachel Morrison, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring Rees
- New documentary featuring Rees, composer Tamar-kali, editor Mako Kamitsuna, and makeup artist Angie Wells
- New documentary made on set, featuring members of the cast and crew
- Interview with Morrison
- New interview with production designer David J. Bomba
- Trailer and teaser
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
Note: Uncut Gems was released on Netflix internationally as a Netflix Original but in the US under A24. The movie was made part of the Criterion Collection in November 2021.
American Factory was reportedly getting a Criterion release at one stage, but that never came to pass. Likewise, Mati Diop’s Atlantics was also supposed to get a release, but it didn’t happen.
Do you own any of the Netflix Original Criterion releases? Let us know in the comments.
