Cyber Monday is in the rearview mirror, and with it, the biannual Barnes and Noble Criterion Collection sale.
But if you thought that your chance to save 50% on Criterion Collection 4K Blu-rays was over, you thought wrong. Over on Amazon, some Criterion Collection releases are still marked down to 50% off. Even if it doesn’t look like it’s on sale — these are regularly priced between $40 (Blu-ray) and $50 (4K UHD), so the $20-$25 price tag on Amazon is, in fact, reflective of a major discount even if it doesn’t say that.
This even includes some of the most recent titles to enter the collection; Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas debuted in the Criterion Collection today, and you can already snag a copy for 50% off. If you’re looking to save some cash while you build the physical media library of your dreams or you’re holiday shopping for the cinephile in your life, you won’t want to miss this extended Cyber Monday deal.
Below, check out some of the newest Criterion Collection entries that you can get for 50% off, along with bestsellers and editor favorites.
In addition to a new HD transfer of Paris, Texas, the Criterion edition includes:
- Audio commentary featuring Wim Wenders
- Archival interviews with Wenders; cinematographer Robby Müller; composer Ry Cooder; actors Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Peter Falk, and Hanns Zischler; novelist Patricia Highsmith; and filmmaker Samuel Fuller
- Interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Claire Denis
- Deleted scenes and Super 8 home movies
- Gallery of Wenders’ location-scouting photos
- Behind-the-scenes photos by Robin Holland
This edition, released in November 2024, comes with two discs. One has a 4K UHD restoration in Dolby Vision HDR, and the other with a Blu-ray restoration and the following special features:
- Audio commentary featuring director Peter Bogdanovich
- Introduction to the film by Bogdanovich
- A new video essay by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette
- Three-part making-of documentary featuring Bogdanovich, production designer Polly Platt, associate producer Frank Marshall, and cinematographer László Kovács
- Archival interview with Platt
- Excerpts from a 1973 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson featuring Bogdanovich and actors Ryan and Tatum O’Neal
- Location-scouting footage with audio commentary by Marshall
In addition to two discs, you’ll get to enjoy these special features on Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Oscar winner, which was added to the Criterion Collection in November 2024:
- New conversation between del Toro and filmmaker David Lowery
- A Fairy Tale for Troubled Times, a documentary highlighting the film’s production design, performances, special effects, and score
- Anatomy of a Scene: Prologue and Anatomy of a Scene: The Dance, both featuring on-set footage and interviews with del Toro
- Shaping the Waves, an interview with illustrator James Jean
- Masterclass from 2017 on the film’s technical aspects, featuring del Toro and crew members
Barbra Streisand’s screen debut is immortalized in Criterion with this new restoration of Funny Girl, released in November 2024, that includes the following bonus features:
- New audio interview with star Barbra Streisand
- New conversation between director William Wyler’s son David and author and Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone
- Directed by William Wyler (1986), a documentary on Wyler’s life and career
- Archival interview with actor Omar Sharif
- A deleted scene featuring Streisand and Sharif
- Featurettes from the original theatrical release
Released in 4K UHD for the first time in November 2024 is Akira Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece, Seven Samurai. In addition to a new 4K digital restoration, it also has the original uncompressed monaural soundtrack and an optional 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Three discs contain the film in different aspect ratios as well.
- Two audio commentaries, one featuring film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie, and the other Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
- Making-of documentary, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- My Life in Cinema (1993), a two-hour conversation between director Akira Kurosawa and filmmaker Nagisa Oshima
- “Seven Samurai”: Origins and Influences, a documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa’s masterpiece
- Trailers and teaser
- Gallery of rare posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and production stills
- PLUS: Essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith IV, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1993
Just two months after winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the Criterion edition of Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall was released.
- New interview with director Justine Triet
- Deleted and alternate scenes with commentary by Triet
- Audition footage of actors Milo Machado Graner and Antoine Reinartz and rehearsal footage of Machado Graner and actor Sandra Hüller
- Short program about the dog who plays Snoop, featuring trainer Laura Martin
- Trailer
WALL·E is one of the few animated films in the Criterion Collection and it has the distinction of being the first (and so far, only) film from Walt Disney Pictures to get a Criterion rerelease. The director-approved 4K includes:
- Two audio commentaries: one featuring Stanton and the other, character supervisor Bill Wise, coproducer Lindsey Collins, story artist Derek Thompson, and lead animator Angus MacLane
- New programs on Stanton’s cinematic influences and production designer Ralph Eggleston’s color scripts
- Tour of the Pixar Living Archive with Stanton
- Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, including segments from early animation reels
- The Pixar Story (2007), a documentary by Leslie Iwerks
- More than a dozen documentaries exploring the film’s production and robots
- Anatomy of a Scene: The Plant, a masterclass with Stanton
- “WALL•E”: A to Z, a new program featuring Stanton and coscreenwriter Jim Reardon
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Stanton
- A Story (1987), a student film by Stanton
- BURN•E (2008), a short film by MacLane
A rare television entry into the collection, all ten episodes of Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad made their way to Criterion in June alongside bonuses that include:
- New audio commentary featuring Jenkins and, on select chapters, cinematographer James Laxton and lead editor Joi McMillon, with an introduction by the director
- New graphic-novel adaptation of “Genesis,” an unfilmed chapter of The Underground Railroad written by Jenkins and Nathan C. Parker, drawn by Valentine De Landro, with an introduction by Jenkins
- The Gaze, a companion film by Jenkins, with a new introduction by the director
- Deleted scenes, with a statement by Jenkins
- Seven teasers made by Jenkins, with a new introduction by the director
- Building “The Underground Railroad,” a short program featuring Jenkins and production designer Mark Friedberg discussing the creation of the train station sets
Stanley Kubrick’s lavish historical drama gets a new 4K restoration with the following special features:
- New documentary featuring cast and crew interviews as well as audio excerpts from a 1976 interview with director Stanley Kubrick
- A new program about the film’s groundbreaking visuals, featuring focus puller Douglas Milsome and gaffer Lou Bogue as well as excerpts from a 1980 interview with cinematographer John Alcott
- New program featuring historian Christopher Frayling on Academy Award-winning production designer Ken Adam
- New interview with editor Tony Lawson
- French television interview from 1976 with Ulla-Britt Söderlund, who codesigned the film’s Oscar-winning costumes
- New interview with critic Michel Ciment
- A new interview with actor Leon Vitali about the 5.1 surround soundtrack, which he cosupervised
- New piece analyzing the fine-art-inspired aesthetics of the film with curator Adam Eaker
Our first editor’s pick, All of Us Strangers, is a devastating romantic ghost story that was released just under a year ago and joined the Criterion Collection in September 2024.
- New conversation between director Andrew Haigh and author and critic Michael Koresky
- New interview with cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay
- Behind-the-scenes documentary and featurettes
- Trailer
Another editor favorite is the timeless classic that is Some Like it Hot, starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe. It has an all-star roster of special features:
- Audio commentary from 1989 featuring film scholar Howard Suber
- A new short program on Orr Y-K Elly’s costumes for the film, featuring costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis and costume historian and archivist Larry McQueen
- Three behind-the-scenes documentaries
- Appearances by director Billy Wilder on The Dick Cavett Show from 1982
- A conversation from 2001 between actor Tony Curtis and film critic Leonard Maltin
- French television interview from 1988 with actor Jack Lemmon
- Radio interview from 1955 with actor Marilyn Monroe
- Trailer
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