Beloved physical media now has a new physical home. The Criterion Collection is now available (to buy! in person! like, with other people around you!) at the first brick-and-mortar location of independent home-video retailer Cinema Cellar. The collection’s brand new Canadian home is now officially open in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District, thanks to Cinema Cellar’s just-launched space at 129 John Street, mere steps from TIFF Lightbox and Scotiabank Theatre.
The space is not a dedicated Criterion Collection store, but the bright and sunny new location will be fully dedicated to selling Criterion discs and sets across the duration of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (a “takeover,” as the kids would say). When the fest ends, Cinema Cellar will remain Toronto’s dedicated place for buying Criterion offerings in person (the collection will occupy at least three walls of the space), with other labels filtering in and out.
Per official press materials, this new store “will establish a physical destination for movie lovers to discover cinema, build their collections, and connect with the community around them. … This initiative creates a physical place for that culture to live in Canada. Through a long-term exclusive partnership with Blue Fox Entertainment Canada, Criterion’s celebrated catalog will be available at Cinema Cellar together with titles from other leading film labels, creating a destination built by film lovers, for film lovers.”
IndieWire visited the location on its opening day and the official start of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, September 10. We got a first look at the space, including its dedicated Polaroid wall (filled with pictures of happy buyers); constantly refilled shelves; an early look at Criterion’s forthcoming box set, The Complete Kubrick, ahead of its official release on October 20 (it was a very hot ticket for eager film fans to thumb through); and some very happy shoppers (all discs are 30 percent off during this event).
“I think people want the friction and the experience of actually browsing and selecting versus hitting click to buy,” Anne Kawalerski, Chief Marketing Officer, Criterion told IndieWire at the store. “The work and the effort you put into it feels rewarding, and I think people are really enjoying that.”
So, why Canada? Kawalerski pointed to key events from last year: the establishment of Criterion’s partnership with Blue Fox and Cinema Cellar and the Criterion Mobile Closet’s extremely successful first-ever international stop at TIFF (which we can personally vouch for). “A thousand people showed up in two days,” Kawalerski noted. “So we were like, there’s obviously immense desire for us to be here and for the Collection to be here. And how do we service the audience in a bigger way? So when we thought about TIFF for this year, we just wanted to go bigger. How do we serve a bigger community? It was sort of going beyond the truck and planting physical roots here and doing this takeover.”
Cinema Cellar’s Criterion offerings include classic and contemporary cinema from around the world, while (obviously!) giving Canadians a dedicated spot to rediscover some of the country’s most celebrated films. Among the Canadian titles available are Criterion editions of David Cronenberg’s “Crash” and François Girard’s “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.”
Blue Fox Entertainment Canada has also partnered with Janus Films to handle the Canadian distribution of its slate, including films that are proven hits with TIFF audiences. Two Janus titles that were discovered by Canadian audiences at TIFF just last year, “Magellan” and “Two Prosecutors,” are already available through the Criterion Premieres line.
“Our goal with Cinema Cellar, both online and in person, is to ensure we have an unrivaled selection and a seamless way for film lovers to discover and own the movies they care most about,” said Dave Hudakoc, President of Blue Fox Entertainment Canada and Cinema Cellar in an official statement. “Criterion and their entire team have been incredible partners. Their profound influence on the film community deserves a lasting presence in Canada, and we are thrilled that Cinema Cellar can be that home.”
Asked if Criterion was exploring the possibility of other takeovers or even its own dedicated brick-and-mortar location (beyond its long-running availability in over 500 Barnes and Noble stores), Kawalerski said, “Nothing’s off the table, but no specific plans at this time, but I think this idea of community and creating third places are stuff that we want to think more about.”
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