Letterboxd is about to let you not just fan over your favorite films — it’s going to let you rent and stream a curated selection of indie titles, too.
Letterboxd is launching the online film-rental platform on Wednesday, Dec. 10, available in 23 countries. The company, which boasts more than 24 million members globally, said Video Store “is the next evolution of the platform’s core mission of film discovery.”
At launch, Video Store will feature nine films, including several exclusive titles, across two curated shelves (see the list of titles below). The selections span films from nine countries, including Todd Haynes’ controversial 1991 sci-fi horror directorial debut “Poison” and Indian neo-noir thriller “Kennedy,” which has been unavailable since its 2023 Cannes Film Festival debut. The company says new films are slated to drop regularly in the store, starting with fresh additions before the end of 2025.
Pricing and availability vary by film and by country, with many titles exclusive to Letterboxd in the regions they are shown. Titles will be priced according to what’s standard for transactional video on demand in each country, taking into account availability and a film’s lifecycle. In the U.S., the Letterboxd Video Store launch films will cost $3.99 to $19.99 to rent. As with other digital video rental services, you have a 48-hour period to watch a title once you’ve started playing it.
The store will feature curated “shelves” programmed by the Letterboxd team using millions of users’ watchlists, reviews and behavioral signals to inform their picks. Each title “has been selected based on genuine member demand, while leaving room for discoveries the community has yet to find,” according to Letterboxd.
The two initial collections are “Unreleased Gems,” featuring films that haven’t been released in the specific countries where Letterboxd Video Store is making them available (only available to rent for 30 days); and “Lost & Found,” which celebrates “underseen underdogs with stellar community ratings.”
“We’re incredibly proud of what we and our community have built,” Letterboxd CEO and co-founder Matthew Buchanan said in a statement. “We take their lead, and believe that has been integral to Letterboxd’s success. They tell us what’s really happening — a 1980s action film suddenly trending, a festival title from two years ago still being added to watchlists. Video Store lets us act on that real demand, whether it’s helping a distributor unlock value from a forgotten gem in its vault or giving a filmmaker direct access to the audience they’ve been building on our platform.”
Buchanan added: “It’s our way of saying to the industry: Let’s harness this interest to get films to the people who want them most.”
The 23 countries where Letterboxd Rental Store is launching are: the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and Cyprus. Customers can watch the rented titles on connected TV devices via Apple TV 4K, Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast, as well as on the web and iOS and Android mobile devices.
In announcing the initial film selections, the company gave “special thanks to the filmmakers, distributors and sales agents who helped make these incredible titles available to the Letterboxd community.”
Letterboxd was founded in 2011 by New Zealand entrepreneurs Buchanan and Karl von Randow. In 2023, the duo sold a 60% controlling stake to Canadian investment firm Tiny in a deal pegging the company’s value at over $50 million.
Here are the nine initial films available in Letterboxd Video Store, with descriptions provided by the company.
UNRELEASED GEMS
- It Ends (2025): Director Alexander Ullom’s directorial debut about recent college grads trapped on an infinite, nightmarish backroad made waves when it premiered at SXSW 2025, going on to win best first feature at Fantasia International Film Festival and the narrative feature grand jury award at the Atlanta Film Festival.
- Sore: A Wife From the Future (2025) – Director Yandy Laurens’ inventive time-loop sci-fi romance about a woman who travels back in time to change her husband’s destiny received eight nominations at the 2025 Indonesian Film Festival, including best picture, and has been selected as Indonesia’s submission for the best international feature film for the 2026 Academy Awards.
- Kennedy (2023) – Anurag Kashyap’s neo-noir thriller following a presumed-dead insomniac ex-cop seeking redemption in Mumbai’s dark streets premiered at Cannes in 2023, going on to screen at over 20 international festivals.
- The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (2025) – Director Diego Céspedes’ feature debut about an eleven-year-old girl protecting her town’s queer community from superstitious panic won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and has been selected as Chile’s submission for the best international feature film for the upcoming Academy Awards.
LOST & FOUND
- Tiger on the Beat (1988) – Legendary 1988 action-comedy starring Chow Yun-Fat and directed by Lau Kar-Leung remains a beloved classic of Hong Kong cinema. For most of the world, this is the first opportunity to see the new 4K restoration — a digital exclusive to Letterboxd at launch.
- Kisapmata (1981) – Considered one of the greatest Filipino films of all time, Mike de Leon’s masterpiece about a young woman living under her domineering father’s suffocating control won ten awards at the 1981 Metro Manila Film Festival including best film and screened at Cannes. This new 4K restoration premieres digitally, celebrating the late director’s uncompromising vision that faced censorship under the Marcos regime.
- It Must Be Heaven (2019) – This comedy won both the special mention from the main competition jury and FIPRESCI Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, but its theatrical release was delayed for over a year due to the pandemic, limiting its reach despite widespread praise. Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s distinctive visual satire continues his acclaimed tradition of observational comedy that speaks to universal themes of displacement and belonging.
- Poison (1991) – Todd Haynes’ groundbreaking film won the grand jury prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival and became a lightning rod in the culture wars, with conservative politicians attempting to defund the NEA over its support. The first feature from future Oscar nominee Haynes established him as a fearless voice in independent cinema.
- Before We Vanish (2017) – Based on a cult Japanese stage play, master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s alien invasion story screened in Un Certain Regard at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, showcasing the acclaimed director’s distinctive take on the genre.
