Criterion Collection
/krɪˈtɪəriən kəˈlɛkʃən/
UncommonA prestige home video label for important films, used online as shorthand for serious cinephile taste.
Can signal genuine cinephile credibility or get used mockingly to describe someone who is pretentious about film taste.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | That film deserves a Criterion spine honestly. One of the best things I've seen in years. | High praise suggesting the film belongs among cultural touchstones. | x, 2024 |
| 02 | My roommate only watches Criterion releases. He judged me for liking Interstellar. | Someone's film taste has become so curated they look down on popular cinema. | reddit, 2023 |
| 03 | Their entire Blu-ray shelf is Criterion. I felt like I was being graded just standing in their apartment. | A curated film collection used as a marker of cinephile identity. | tumblr, 2022 |
| 04 | Criterion just announced the new spine and people are acting like it's a religious event. | Film enthusiasts treating a catalog announcement with extreme seriousness. | x, 2024 |
Use it when
- Praising a film as genuinely important or artistically significant.
- Describing someone with a very serious or highbrow film taste.
- Joking about someone who treats film watching as an intellectual pursuit.
Do not use it when
- You just mean a film is old or foreign.
- You mean a film is good but mainstream.
Variations and related forms
Origin and context
Named after the actual Criterion Collection, founded in 1984. The label became a cultural symbol within film communities, particularly online, where having Criterion taste became a recognizable identity marker.
- First seen
- 2010s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/criterion-collectionUpdated: 2026-08-29License: CC BY 4.0