The Criterion Collection, Explained: What It Is and How It Works
From LaserDiscs in 1984 to a streaming service and its own Blu-ray standard — how the most famous boutique home-video label operates.
Film: Reviews and Industry
Film takes the longer look at theatrical releases: direction, screenplay, photography, editing and performance, with attention to what a finished cut reveals about the production behind it. Coverage includes festival titles heading toward wide release. Written for moviegoers who read criticism after seeing something, as well as before.
Longer criticism on theatrical releases covering direction, script, photography and performance, plus what a finished picture reveals about its making.
What Film Editors Actually Do, Explained
Assembly, rhythm, performance selection, and story surgery: the job behind the Academy's oldest below-the-line craft award.
How Box Office Numbers Are Counted, Explained: Domestic, International, and Why Gross Isn't Tickets
A plain explainer of where box office figures come from, what domestic and international mean, and why gross dollars are not the same as admissions.
How Oscar Nominations Voting Works, Explained: Branches, Ballots, and the Preferential Count
A plain explainer of how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences turns thousands of member ballots into each year's Oscar nomination list.
How the Cannes Film Festival Works, Explained
Sections, juries, the Palme d'Or, and the market behind it — a primer on how the world's most watched film festival actually operates each May.
Studio Ghibli Films, Explained: A Viewing Order That Makes Sense
A primer on where to start with Studio Ghibli — release order, era by era, from the 1985 founding to Miyazaki's Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron.