Since it seems like hints for future Criterion releases come out every day, I have created this series, Criterion Clues, to organize the hints and keep them in one place. Only hints for titles that have not yet been released are included here.

Newsletter Clues

Here, we have the rare newsletter hint that isn’t solely based around a pun on the film title. Admittedly, the clue is pretty obscure as a result (is that a grill or a roll-up desk? Is that a turtle or a dinosaur?), but many internet denizens figured it out nonetheless. In His Girl Friday, Cary Grant delivers the line “Get back in [the roll-up desk], you mock turtle”.

Instagram Photos

This section is going to be a little murky. Many people have shown up at Criterion offices and gotten their pictures taken and posted on Criterion’s Instagram account, but the number of them who probably actually have a Criterion release in the works is pretty small. At least a few (including Terence Davies and Yorgos Lanthimos) were most likely just there because they were in the New York area at the time promoting their new movies. A couple (including Louis Garrel and Thomas Bidegain) were maybe there to contribute to releases of their films (dunno for Garrel, but Bidegain was probably there to record something for a Criterion of the IFC-distributed Dheepan). And then there’s Amy Heckerling. She was in New York at the time for a retrospective of her work, which would seem to rule out the possibility of Criterion bringing her there for a release of one of her films. HOWEVER, they also posted an interview with Heckerling, which admittedly isn’t much better an indicator of her entering the Collection, but the content of the interview is. Surely, Criterion would want to do a career-spanning chat with her, getting into details about Fast Times at Ridgemont High and maybe the Look Who’s Talking films and such. But literally one (1) film was discussed in that interview, and it was Clueless. This possibility is aided by the fact that Paramount is shockingly willing to just give Criterion whatever acclaimed, well-selling comedy they want, since they’ve already released Harold and Maude and will release Election and an unknown John Hughes film.

Twitter Confirmations

Doug Jones answered a fan’s question on Twitter about a Criterion release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth by excitedly saying that yes, it’s happening and he recorded an interview for it. And then not too long afterwards, Guillermo del Toro straight up posted the cover art to Twitter (credited to Becky Cloonan, although I suspect Maude Lebowski did a bit of work on it as well).

Other Means of Confirmation

Remember when I said that Criterion was releasing Alexander Payne’s Election? Well, this news was broken by an episode of the Canon podcast.

Criterion themselves confirmed that they would be releasing Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams.

In a Q&A at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival, Criterion head honcho Peter Becker confirmed that Criterion has acquired seven of Ousmane Sembene’s films (one of them, Black Girl, is being toured by Janus Films right now).

John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs has been confirmed as being restored by the Criterion Collection and will be toured by Janus Films in August.

I’m still not really sure if this is a confirmation or not, but Mad Max (the original) was shown to be included on the Turner Classic Movies streaming service FilmStruck, which includes, but isn’t limited to, the Criterion streaming catalog. Many labels are included in this service as well, but not the labels that have released Mad Max in the past, like MGM/Fox or Scream Factory. Hmm…

Bob Gale confirmed that Criterion would be releasing his and Robert Zemeckis’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand next year.

Phantom Pages

Many new director phantom pages were uploaded on Criterion’s website recently. They include William Wyler (either Roman Holiday or Detective Story), Jack Arnold (The Incredible Shrinking Man and/or It Came From Outer Space), James Whale (Show Boat), Howard Hughes (obviously either The Outlaw or Hell’s Angels), Tod Browning (Freaks), John Hughes (either Ferris Bueller or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, maybe the former because some releases of it have gone out-of-print), Harmony Korine (Gummo or julien donkey-boy or both), Raoul Walsh (High Sierra, maybe?), John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Frank Tuttle (This Gun for Hire), George Marshall (either The Blue Dahlia or Destry Rides Again), and George Stevens (most likely either Shane or A Place in the Sun).