StudioCanal is the Paris-based film studio of the Canal+ group, holding a library of around 9,000 titles that includes Carolco, Ealing, EMI Films and British Lion. It issues discs through its own UK, German and French arms, and its UK Vintage Classics line carries new 4K restorations of British and world cinema on UHD and Blu-ray.
StudioCanal
117 films on Best BluraysBest video release: 84 in 4K33 in HD11 more for audio only3 more announced
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent42
- Solid22
- Superior Imports1
- Good in DV Only2
- Disappointing7
- Worse Than BD1
Films where StudioCanal's release is the pick. How picks are made
Films where StudioCanal's release is the pick. How picks are made
84 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Director: David Lynch
Best English-Friendly:
Criterion or StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
SDR: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
HDR: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.
SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.
Best Audio:
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc
Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.
For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.
The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.
The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.
The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.
Director: David Lynch
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal France / Arthaus Germany 4K Blu-ray
Upcoming Release:
British StudioCanal 4K Blu-Ray upcoming
Best Audio:
5.1 on 4K Blu-ray is a remix. Original 5.1 is best on 2012 Japan Paramount Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly & Video:
2024 StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray
Director: David Lynch
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray slightly better
Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has best encoding. France Potemkine and Criterion UHDs slightly worse.
Best Audio:
?
Director: Joseph Losey
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Michael Powell
Best English-Friendly & Audio:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
2024 StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray
Director: Robin Hardy
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Final Cut: StudioCanal/Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray Theatrical Cut: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray Director's Cut: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Director: Anthony Harvey
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray, see nicolas' review
Best Audio:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has the 2.0 PCM mono audio
Director: Marcel Carné
Best English-Friendly & Video:
France StudioCanal 2025 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 2025 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray uses a new 4K restoration. Even though France release, they included EN subtitles.
For Blu-ray, StudioCanal 2025 Blu-ray > Kino Lorber > StudioCanal.
See DVDBeaver comparisons
33 in HD
Best video release on Blu-ray or HD streaming · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Federico Fellini
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Director: Celine Song
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
UK StudioCanal Blu-ray is the better release. Plaion Italy 4K Blu-ray has macroblocking and chroma noise issues, and the US Lionsgate Blu-ray has elevated gamma levels and macroblocking https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22310555&postcount=31
Director: Jean Renoir
Best English-Friendly & Video:
2021 StudioCanal Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Luis Buñuel
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 50th Anniversary Blu-ray uses a newer 4k scan than Criterion Blu-ray or older StudioCanal Blu-ray see https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=4373
8 with a weaker 4K
Best 4K release rated Disappointing or Worse Than BD · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Roman Polanski
Best Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has poor encode and heavy DNR
Additional Info:
Shout! Factory Blu-ray is from original DI master. The film was an early DI and film prints also looked poor. Shout! Factory Blu-ray is representative of original release. StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has some new VFX work done along with some plates reshot as well as poorly upscaled original VFX work.
Director: Celine Song
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
UK StudioCanal Blu-ray is the better release. Plaion Italy 4K Blu-ray has macroblocking and chroma noise issues, and the US Lionsgate Blu-ray has elevated gamma levels and macroblocking https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22310555&postcount=31
Director: Sidney Lumet
Best English-Friendly:
Best Video:
StudioCanal EU
Video Notes:
StudioCanal EU has elevated blacks and inaccurate colors, Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encode.
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has mediocre encode
Director: Richard Curtis
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Universal 4K Blu-ray replacement disc only or AVC encoded StudioCanal Blu-ray?
Director: Lewis Teague
Best English-Friendly & Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray solid encode but controversial colors by Hiventy
Director: John Guillermin
Best Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray: good encode, but poor colours. More extras Paramount 4K Blu-ray: good colours but poor encode.
Best Audio:
(Paramount 4K Blu-ray has a 5.1 mix ONLY, which contains a music error) a possible replacement disc is still to be confirmed...
Additional Info:
Shout! Factory Blu-ray has extras missing from 4K
Director: Renny Harlin
Best Video:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray poor compression, grading looks very off
11 for audio only
The best audio is StudioCanal's; the video and English-friendly picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Jacques Tati
Best Audio:
2014 StudioCanal Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Video Notes:
Additional Info:
The UHD is slightly cropped in.
Director: Federico Fellini
Best Audio:
2017 StudioCanal Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Best Audio:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Audio Notes:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray marginally better
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Best Audio:
2007 StudioCanal DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Jane Campion
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Video Notes:
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray slightly better than Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Audio:
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Video Notes:
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Directors: Eric Summer & Éric Warin
Best Audio:
Original French audio: Gaumont France Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:
2D Version: Entertainment One Canada Blu-ray
3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray
Best Video:
2D Version: Gaumont France Blu-ray
3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray
Additional Info:
Also known as: Leap!.
France Blu-ray has the best video and best audio for the original French version, but has no English subtitles.
Canada Blu-ray has inferior video and audio to other versions, but is the only version that has French audio with English subtitles (dubtitles from the export dub).
UK Blu-ray censors one of the songs. Australia and Canada Blu-rays present the uncensored export dub, with better audio in the former.
US Blu-ray only has the redub.
Spain 3D Blu-ray has the English export dub titles instead of the original French titles.
Director: Roman Polanski
Best Audio:
Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Audio Notes:
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the Original 5.1 as lossy Dolby Digital.
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
4K Blu-ray includes the original 5.1 mix in its unaltered form, all other releases after the LaserDisc had its dynamic range lowered.
For the English dub, the UK StudioCanal Blu-ray is the least limited mix.
Best English-Friendly:
2026 Japan Studio Ghibli (remastered) Blu-ray
Best Video:
Video Notes:
Only included as a pack-in with the 4K Blu-ray. Includes English subtitles and a dub, which the 4K Blu-ray does not.
3 announced
StudioCanal's release is announced; until it is out, the picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Upcoming Release:
Kino Lorber Blu-ray or StudioCanal France or Germany Blu-ray but they are not English-friendly
Best English-Friendly:
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Upcoming Release:
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Video Notes:
> Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Plaion fixed Kino’s errors. Excellent release but it’s only for the blue tier as there’s not as much fine detail in the master as we’ve come to expect from high quality 4K transfers. Either Kino / Studiocanal didn’t use the negative or the scan wasn’t the best. - impressions.
Kino Lorber is a solid master but with picture and audio errors
Director: Joel Coen
Upcoming Release:
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Poor Criterion 4K Blu-ray https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879
Theatrical cut only on LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD
Know a film where the StudioCanal release is the one to buy? Suggest it