Netflix has released hundreds of well over 1,000 Netflix Original movies since 2015 and some of them have been hand-picked to get included in the prestigious Criterion Collection. Here’s a look at all the Netflix Originals that have been released on Criterion over the years.
Netflix first got into the “movie business” back in 2015 with its very 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 gone on to distribute more than 1,000 special editions of various films.
So let’s take a look at what Netflix movies have been released within the collection.
Full List of Netflix Originals Released in The Criterion Collection
Note: listed in order of release on Netflix.
Beasts of No Nation (Spine 1091)
Released on Netflix: October 16th, 2015
Released on Criterion: August 2021
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 from 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 best-supporting actress which was 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 includes:
- 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
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 didn’t happen.
Do you own any of the Netflix Original Criterion releases? Let us know in the comments.