The Criterion Collection Announces December 2026 Releases!
Coming in December: The English Patient, directed by Anthony Minghella, one of the most breathtaking romances ever put on-screen; Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog’s profound meditation on humanity’s relationship to nature; The Shop Around the Corner, an irresistible touchstone of romantic comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch; and Eclipse Series 50: Sara Gómez’s Revolutionary Cuba, a slate of films from an Afro-Cuban cinematic pioneer. PLUS: Divorce Italian Style, a diabolically subversive Italian satire directed by Pietro Germi, and Nashville, Robert Altman’s grand, rollicking triumph of 1970s American moviemaking—now on 4K UHD.
NASHVILLE
1975 • 160 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
This cornerstone of 1970s American moviemaking from Robert Altman is a panoramic view of the country’s political and cultural landscapes, set in the nation’s music capital. Nashville weaves the stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—into a cinematic tapestry that is equal parts comedy, tragedy, and musical. Many members of the astonishing cast wrote their own songs and performed them live on location, which lends another layer to the film’s quirky authenticity. Altman’s ability to get to the heart of American life via its eccentric byways was never put to better use than in this grand, rollicking triumph, which barrels forward to an unforgettable conclusion.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- 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
- Audio commentary featuring director Robert Altman
- Documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with actors Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Michael Murphy, Allan Nicholls, and Lily Tomlin; screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury; assistant director Alan Rudolph; and Altman’s widow, Kathryn Reed Altman
- Three archival interviews with Altman
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Demo of Carradine performing his songs from the film
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Molly Haskell
4K UHD + BLU-RAY COMBO EDITION • SRP: $49.95 • STREET: 12/1/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $39.95 • STREET: 12/1/26 • DISC COUNT: 1
DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE
1961 • 105 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Italian with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
In this black-comic masterpiece, director Pietro Germi delivers a diabolically subversive satire of the Italian family structure, Catholic piety, and male chauvinism. Sending up his own suave image, Marcello Mastroianni stars as the middle-aged scion of a faded aristocratic Sicilian family who pines after his younger cousin (Stefania Sandrelli). The problem: he’s married, in a country where divorce is illegal. Cue the murderous fantasies that drive him down an increasingly deranged path of self-delusion and self-destruction. Laying bare the absurd contradictions of bourgeois morality with each audacious twist, Germi serves up an acerbic portrait of a tradition-bound culture colliding with the unstoppable force of modernity.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- The Man with a Cigar in His Mouth, a documentary by critic Mario Sesti featuring interviews with longtime friends and collaborators of director Pietro Germi’s
- Interviews with Sesti and actors Lando Buzzanca and Stefania Sandrelli
- Interview with screenwriter Ennio De Concini
- Screen tests with Sandrelli and actor Daniela Rocca
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Stuart Klawans
4K UHD + BLU-RAY COMBO EDITION • SRP: $49.95 • STREET: 12/1/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $39.95 • STREET: 12/1/26 • DISC COUNT: 1
THE ENGLISH PATIENT
1996 • 162 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Anthony Minghella transforms Michael Ondaatje’s prizewinning novel into one of the most breathtaking romances ever put on-screen, a film that captured both the cultural imagination and the Academy Awards (winning nine Oscars, including Best Picture). Rescued from a crashed plane in the Sahara during World War II, a badly burned, unidentified man (Ralph Fiennes) comes under the care of a compassionate nurse (Juliette Binoche), as he pieces together the memories of an affair that led him to a life-shaking reckoning. The English Patient is epic filmmaking of rare intelligence and delicacy, and a piercing reflection on the barriers that war creates and love transcends.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director of photography John Seale, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the special features
- New program featuring Seale and script supervisor Dianne Dreyer
- Two audio commentaries, featuring director Anthony Minghella, producer Saul Zaentz, and author Michael Ondaatje
- Documentary on the making of the film
- Interviews with Minghella, Ondaatje, Zaentz, editor Walter Murch, production designer Stuart Craig, stills photographer Phil Bray, and historians Robert Collins and David Hall
- Deleted scenes with commentary by Minghella
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Bilal Qureshi
4K UHD EDITION • SRP: $49.95 • STREET: 12/8/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $39.95 • STREET: 12/8/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
GRIZZLY MAN
2005 • 104 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Forever drawn to dreamers living on their own uncompromising terms, Werner Herzog journeyed, with this film, into the quixotic world of one of his most unforgettable subjects: Timothy Treadwell, a self-styled environmentalist who, for thirteen summers, lived among grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness, forging an intense bond with the animals and ultimately losing his life to one of them. Drawing on more than one hundred hours of video shot by Treadwell, Herzog searches for meaning within the tragedy, offering a mesmerizing meditation on humanity’s relationship to nature, and our drive to find purpose in an often indifferent world. One of the most profound documentaries ever made, Grizzly Man is a gripping investigation into the ecstatic life of a seeker who dared to live beyond the boundaries of civilization.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- High-definition digital master of the original theatrical version, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New conversation between director Werner Herzog and producer Erik Nelson
- In the Edges: The “Grizzly Man” Session, a remastered 2005 documentary on the making of the film’s score
- Reflections on the Grizzly Man, a remastered 2006 program featuring Herzog and Grizzly Man interviewees
- Cover and other packaging photography by documentary subject Timothy Treadwell
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by journalist Nick Paumgarten
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $39.95 • STREET: 12/8/26 • DISC COUNT: 1
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
1940 • 99 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
With this touchstone of romantic comedy, master of high-society sophistication Ernst Lubitsch applied his famously elegant style to a new subject: the everyday hopes, fears, and heartbreaks animating the lives of the employees at a humble leather-goods shop in Budapest. As Christmas approaches, battling coworkers Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) grow increasingly exasperated with each other—unaware that, all the while, they have been exchanging anonymous love letters as pen pals. Graced with an irresistible ensemble cast, The Shop Around the Corner is a poignant, warmhearted look at the difference between romantic expectation and reality.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- 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 audio commentary featuring Joseph McBride, author of How Did Lubitsch Do It?
- New appreciation by actor-writer Noah Wyle
- Two radio adaptations of the film, one featuring the original cast and one featuring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson
4K UHD + BLU-RAY COMBO EDITION • SRP: $49.95 • STREET: 12/15/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $39.95 • STREET: 12/15/26 • DISC COUNT: 1
ECLIPSE SERIES 50: SARA GÓMEZ’S REVOLUTIONARY CUBA
PART OF ECLIPSE FROM CRITERION
1964–1977 • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
A true cinematic revolutionary who used the camera as her tool in the fight against oppression in all forms, the Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez brought the stories of ordinary Cubans to the screen with a bracing immediacy and insight. Drawing on her background in ethnography, Gómez became her country’s first woman director, exploring issues of class, race, labor, women’s health, and Afro-Cuban culture in a string of intimate, illuminating shorts that reveal the complex realities of life in a postrevolutionary society rocked by seismic change. Though she directed only one feature—the formally innovative landmark of radical feminist cinema One Way or Another—before her death from an asthma attack at age thirty-one, Gómez left behind a vital legacy as a pioneer whose inquisitive work continues to offer lessons in what an engaged anticolonial cinema can be.
One Way or Another • I’ll Go to Santiago • Excursion to Vueltabajo • Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family • And . . . We’ve Got Sabor • On the Other Island • An Island for Miguel • Treasure Island • Local Power, Popular Power • A Documentary About Transit • On Sugar Workers’ Quarters • My Contribution • Year One • Prenatal Care • About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work
PLUS: An essay by scholar Odette Casamayor-Cisneros
BLU-RAY EDITION • SRP: $59.95 • STREET: 12/15/26 • DISC COUNT: 2
ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
1977 • 73 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
The only feature from the radical Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez—completed by her collaborators after her untimely death—is an extraordinary portrait of postrevolution Cuba. Blending invaluable documentary footage with a loose narrative about the budding cross-class relationship between an outspoken schoolteacher (Yolanda Cuéllar) and a young mixed-race factory worker (Mario Balmaseda) facing a moral crisis, One Way or Another depicts revolution as an ongoing process that takes place at the level of community—among friends, lovers, coworkers, teachers, students, and parents, all of whom must work together to negotiate a new social order. Above all, Gómez offers a trenchant intersectional critique of the lingering sexism and machismo that, she argues, must be cleared away in order to create a truly just society.
I’LL GO TO SANTIAGO
1964 • 20 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
In this early work, named for a line in a poem by Federico García Lorca, Sara Gómez employs the form of the ethnographic documentary both incisively and playfully, creating a joyous portrait of the Cuban port city of Santiago de Cuba. Animated by music and movement, the film offers both a vivid snapshot of everyday life and a cogent analysis of the complexities of Afro-Cuban identity, history, and culture.
EXCURSION TO VUELTABAJO
1965 • 10 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Sara Gómez looks at the changes wrought by the Cuban Revolution through its impact on tobacco production, one of the country’s foremost industries. Over the course of this short documentary, she speaks with workers about the effects of new agricultural technologies and systems, while evoking the landscapes and culture connected with the crop.
GUANABACOA: CHRONICLE OF MY FAMILY
1966 • 13 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Director Sara Gómez journeys back to her hometown of Guanabacoa to explore her family history in this deeply personal look at the experiences of a Black, middle-class family in Cuba both before and after the revolution. Elegantly weaving together musical performances, text, and intimate records of family members, Gómez reveals the religious, cultural, and economic diversity within Afro-Cuban life.
AND . . . WE’VE GOT SABOR
1967 • 25 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Legendary rumba musician Alberto Zayas serves as a guide for this vibrant journey through Cuban musical history and culture. Introducing an array of popular musical genres and instruments, and featuring thrilling performances, the film examines what gives Cuban music its unique sabor (flavor).
ON THE OTHER ISLAND
1968 • 40 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
The first of three films Sara Gómez made about Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud (then known as Isla de Pinos) features interviews with residents of the youth reeducation centers established on the island by the revolutionary government. In conversations shaped by Gómez’s individual and intimate connections with her subjects, she captures their thoughts on a wide range of social issues, including the persistence of racial discrimination and religious faith in postrevolutionary Cuba.
AN ISLAND FOR MIGUEL
1968 • 20 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Part of a trilogy of short films by Sara Gómez about Cuba’s Isla de Pinos, this documentary follows a poor, at-risk young man named Miguel who is sent there from Havana as part of a government reeducation program. The film, which explores Miguel’s family and social background, reflects Gómez’s deep interest in the development of the revolutionary “New Man” proposed by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, as she probes the gap between political discourse and human realities.
TREASURE ISLAND
1969 • 9 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
This last of Sara Gómez’s three portraits of Isla de Pinos—a place that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and the site of Fidel Castro’s imprisonment by dictator Fulgencio Batista—examines the storied Cuban island’s rich history and culture, as well as its hosting of a radical experiment in creating a revolutionary communist society.
LOCAL POWER, POPULAR POWER
1970 • 10 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
A local election in a Cuban town of sugar-mill workers offers a look at political organizing on a grassroots level. Illuminating the significance of this event for the individual and the collective, Sara Gómez speaks with residents and employees about issues around unequal food distribution, and about the qualities they look for in delegates to the local assembly—including whether a woman could do the job.
A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT TRANSIT
1971 • 15 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
This short documentary examines the role of Cuba’s Traffic Department in solving issues of city planning. Statistics on the effects of traffic accidents, documentation of drivers discussing their cases, and footage of workers installing street signs are edited into a rapid and kinetic montage. Please note that the film is incomplete and cuts off abruptly.
ON SUGAR WORKERS’ QUARTERS
1971 • 24 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Director Sara Gómez offers a look at everyday life in the bateyes—the workers’ settlements surrounding sugarcane mills—told from the perspective of the inhabitants. Featuring the voices of workers from diverse ethnic backgrounds as well as formerly privileged overseers, the film tells the human story of Cuba’s principal prerevolutionary industry.
MY CONTRIBUTION
1972 • 33 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
As in her feature One Way or Another, Sara Gómez examines the role of women in postrevolutionary Cuba, offering a trenchant critique of a society in which—despite utopian promises—gender inequality persists. Interviews with male and female workers and officials in the Camilo Cienfuegos sugar refinery and discussions among women intellectuals create a detailed and impassioned account of the ways in which the revolution has fallen short of its ideals.
YEAR ONE
1972 • 9 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
This short documentary spotlights postnatal childcare and assistance for new mothers in Cuba. Filled with tender images of infants, it celebrates the work of field nurses who visit new mothers to provide education and preventive care, and includes instruction on breastfeeding, weaning, vaccination, and developmental milestones during a child’s first year.
PRENATAL CARE
1972 • 10 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Informed by director Sara Gómez’s own experiences with childbirth and motherhood, this short documentary offers guidance to pregnant women, highlighting the importance of education about maternal and prenatal health. Conversations between pregnant women and nurses or doctors, medical examinations, and a scene of childbirth are filmed with frankness and compassion.
ABOUT EXTRA HOURS AND VOLUNTEER WORK
1973 • 8 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Cuban textile workers offer their thoughts on the policy of unpaid overtime and volunteer work. Employing a potent mix of interviews and written texts, director Sara Gómez interrogates revolutionary ideas and policies, questioning the efficacy of the system and the problems it creates, especially for working-class women.
