Curzon Film is the UK distribution arm of the Curzon cinema group, which began as Artificial Eye in 1976 and dropped the Curzon Artificial Eye name in 2016. It handles world and independent cinema in UK cinemas, on its Curzon Home Cinema streaming service and on Region B DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Cohen Media Group owned it from 2019; Fortress Investment Group took over in 2024.
Curzon
32 films on Best BluraysBest video release: 18 in 4K14 in HD2 more announced
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent14
- Solid3
Films where Curzon's release is the pick. How picks are made
Films where Curzon's release is the pick. How picks are made
18 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Director: Wim Wenders
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray/Carlotta 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Criterion 4K Blu-ray/StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray have worse encodes.
Best Audio:
R5 Carmen Video DVD
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:
Curzon/Artificial Eye UK 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Walter Salles
Best English-Friendly:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray, nic's review, caps
Best Audio:
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Surround mix: Vision Film Polish PAL DVD (2000)
Audio Notes:
The surround mix is fully discrete, not a mere decode or upmix of the Dolby Stereo LCRS track. This mix has never appeared on any other releases.
Director: Wim Wenders
Best English-Friendly:
UK Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
2023 Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray, France subs only
Best Audio:
Old R2 DVD 2.0
Best English-Friendly & Video:
2023 Criterion 4K Blu-ray (bad compression) / Curzon 4K Blu-ray (visible chroma noise and meh compression)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Béla Tarr
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray/Carlotta Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is worse.
Best English-Friendly & Video:
2023 Criterion 4K Blu-ray (meh compression) / Curzon 4K Blu-ray (visible chroma noise)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
2023 Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Director: Jean Vigo
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Jean Vigo
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
14 in HD
Best video release on Blu-ray or HD streaming · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Lars von Trier
Director: Michael Haneke
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray or 2013 TF1 FR Blu-ray (caps)
Curzon has a slightly better encode and preserves all the noise of the digital source, but ends up obscuring actual detail in some shots. Both are quite good, only caveat being that the TF1 disc is slightly cropped and has a black bar on top.
Audio Notes:
2008 Artificial Eye UK and 2025 Umbrella AU discs have incorrect pitch. TF1 FR disc is missing 7 minutes of audio in the left channel. See spectrograms.
Director: Lars von Trier
2 announced
Curzon's release is announced; until it is out, the picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Upcoming Release:
Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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