Kino Lorber Head Talks Drawing Cinephiles to ‘Oh, Canada’ and the Streaming Kino Film Collection Channel
This week’s episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosted by Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio, is a fun one. We start the episode off with a rundown review of all the firehose of awards nominees, events, winners, and distractions that came this week — from the Gotham Awards live in New York on Monday to nominations from the Film Independent Spirit Awards and National Board of Review and the winners out of the elite New York Film Critics Circle. Oh, there were also the Gotham Awards on Monday in New York, where “A Different Man” surprisingly won Best Feature over predicted pick “Anora.” Meanwhile, IndieWire hosted our own Honors event Thursday night in Los Angeles, but for context, we recorded this podcast before those were highlighted.
But as a more refreshing rejoinder to the awards talks we regularly hold on this podcast, Kino Lorber CEO and chairman Richard Lorber joined “Screen Talk” as a special guest. A lovely talker who anticipates most of our questions, Lorber dives into the Kino Lorber-launched Kino Film Collection, a streaming channel started on Prime Video in 2023, which rivals MUBI and Criterion Channel in its preservation and retrospective debuts. But Kino Lorber has also had a memorable 2024, with films including Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” Johan Grimonprez’s documentary Oscar contender “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” Agnieszka Holland’s critics’ favorite and Oscar also-ran “Green Border” from Poland, and Vietnamese filmmaker Phạm Thiên Ân’s “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” popping on top 10 lists, and under Kino Lorber’s acquisitions belt.
Poland opted not to submit “Green Border” from master Polish filmmaker Holland to the Oscars, as it deals with controversial content about the adriftness of migrants stuck between Poland and Belarus, and made during an especially right-wing Polish government. But now that the Polish government has leaned more toward the left in this year’s election, there is more hope for Holland’s home country to support her movie. (It’s appeared on top 10 lists from the New York Times to Vulture.)
Speaking with Lorber out of his home in New York City, we also talked about Kino Lorber’s approach to retrospectively releasing classic film restorations in 4K on physical media — and how younger cinephiles are excited about seeing such films (Ryan mentioned a recent re-release of Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” while Richard Lorber touted a home release of William Friedkin’s “To Live and Die in L.A.”) in theaters and at home in newly burnished form.
Talking about Kino Lorber’s pickup of Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” out of Cannes, Richard Lorber admitted he had no idea what an already baked-in fanbase the movie would have thanks to Richard Gere‘s co-star Jacob Elordi, “Euphoria” hottie. And that’s even without mixed reviews for the movie at Cannes. (Including Ryan’s own.)
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
