Intergalactic Comics: New Streaming Service For Film Nerds Announced

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

New Streaming Service For Film Nerds Announced

By Karen Valenzuela (@VictoriaNoir89)

We have prayed to the movie gods for years, fellow cinephiles, and now those prayers have been answered.

Cinephiles, or film nerds – their words not mine, oddly enough – from both Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies have come together to bring other film nerds more movies! This venture is an online subscription-based streaming service called FilmStruck, and will feature all of the films you’ve never been able to find before, and a few others you have found and didn’t feel like paying for. (Wink!)

According to the trailer on FilmStruck’s website, the service will offer rare films, foreign films, classic films, films by legendary directors, lesser known films, independent films, cult favorites, and they will provide the full Criterion Collection experience, which means fantastic bonus features – the main reason why people pay more for a Criterion Collection version of a film than they do a non-Criterion version.

The Criterion Collection had prior to this been partnered with Hulu to bring subscribers the quality films they sell in their online store, but without the bonus features you’d get with the DVD or Blu-Ray. Criterion is leaving Hulu once FilmStruck launches.

Turner Classic Movies has been a juggernaut as far as bringing film fans fantastic content from every era and every genre, old and new, popular and rare, acclaimed and…well, less acclaimed. TCM has been around for over 20 years now, and in that time, they’ve built a very strong, loyal base of film fans, as well as a genius curative eye for programming. TCM’s programmers will now be doing their usual curating for FilmStruck, but with the films of unrivaled quality provided by The Criterion Collection.

Whether you’re a film snob or someone who simply loves to watch movies, this sounds like it will be a great opportunity to really connect more deeply with the films you’ve always loved, and maybe some you’ve never even seen before. The press release listed films like Seven Samurai, My Life As A Dog, A Room With A View, Blood Simple, Mad Max, and hundreds of others from all across the globe. Included in FilmStruck is the all-new Criterion Channel, which will stream thousands of films in Criterion’s own collection. The president of Criterion Collection, Peter Becker, says of the venture, “The addition of the premium Criterion Channel will offer subscribers the most comprehensive Criterion experience ever available anywhere, including a steady stream of exclusive original content and archival discoveries, plus continual access to more than 1,000 films from the Janus Films library, many unavailable on disc or anywhere else.”

FilmStruck can be accessed by viewers on “the device of their choice,” and here’s the best part: it is totally commercial-free. No sitting through the same advertisement for cars, cold medicine, and enhancement drugs over and over and over again. You’ll get the full experience, completely uninterrupted. That’s worth the price right there.

That being said, Turner/Criterion have yet to release how much a FilmStruck subscription will cost for its customers. But Turner Classic Movies is making a huge move here, extending their reach outside of the television platform, and extending their programming efforts to those who don’t have cable but still love to watch films.
That being said, Turner/Criterion have yet to release how much a FilmStruck subscription will cost for its customers. But Turner Classic Movies is making a huge move here, extending their reach outside of the television platform, and extending their programming efforts to those who don’t have cable but still love to watch films.

You can go to the FilmStruck website and sign up for updates with your email. They also have a minute-long trailer up that has all the markings of a TCM-created product.

Are you a film buff? Excited about FilmStruck? Let us know in the comments!