Hulu has renewed its licensing agreement with the Criterion Collection, which will continue to make the distributor’s 800-plus arthouse films available for streaming exclusively on the Hulu Plus subscription service.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the multiyear renewal, Hulu Plus subscribers now have access to Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty,” winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The pic centers on 65-year-old journalist Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), an “existentially exhausted figure” who serves as “a Dantesque guide through the decadence of modern Roman life,” according to Variety‘s review of the film.
“Great Beauty” joins classic titles from Kurosawa, Cocteau, Fellini, Rossellini and other notable filmmakers that are available for Internet streaming only on the $7.99 monthly Hulu Plus service.
Hulu, a joint venture of Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox and NBCUniversal, struck the original agreement with Criterion in 2011. Criterion is the largest supplier of movies to Hulu, which also carries films from Sony, Lionsgate, Gravitas, Oscilloscope and Cinetic.
