Netflix Adding Alfred Hitchcock Collection To Streaming Service Alongside 36 Movie Film Festival

Netflix is officially adding an impressive list of Alfred Hitchcock films to its library. Hitchcock is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, helming classics like Psycho and North by Northwest. Hitchcock is attributed with directing 53 feature films, giving him a prolific filmography. He was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars five times, but never collected an Academy Award until getting the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968, which was an achievement award that recognized his entire body of work.

Now, Netflix has announced that they are adding a significant collection of Hitchcock’s films to its platform. According to the service, the films added will include Vertigo, Rear Window, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Family Plot, The Birds, and more on June 1. Netflix will also be sponsoring a film festival called HITCH! The Original Cinema Influencer. This will run for six weeks, from May 16 to June 29, and feature 36 of Hitchcock’s works. This will take place at the legendary Paris Theater in New York City and will include nearly 60 films in total.

What This Means For Netflix & Hitchcock’s Legacy

Hitchcock Has Influenced Many Films

Netflix’s incoming Hitchcock collection will not only be comprised of works by the director himself. Rather, they will be grouped with modern-day horror films such as Us and Barbarian, which the streamer defines as “films inspired by his lasting influence.” The collection will also include Sacha Gervasi’s movie Hitchcock. This wide variety of тιтles highlights just how lastingly powerful Hitchcock’s legacy is today, as it has directly inspired so many recent films.

Psycho is already available to watch on Netflix in the United States.

As for the film festival, Netflix will be co-sponsoring the event with the New York Film Critics Circle, which will be celebrating its 90th anniversary. Similarly to their collection, the film festival will also feature “more than a dozen” movies that are outside the filmmaker’s direct oeuvre. These are films that “trace the stylistic influences behind Hitchcock’s filmmaking” or were otherwise made in collaboration with him in some way. Check out a fuller description of the festival below:

The six-week screening series features over 50 films—36 directed by the master of suspense himself, along with more than a dozen others that either trace the stylistic influences behind Hitchcock’s filmmaking, are works made in collaboration with him, in his style, or as direct homages to his legacy. From Hitchcock’s early English films like Blackmail to his Hollywood masterpieces such as Psycho and The Birds, the series will highlight his evolving technique and influence on popular culture and future filmmakers. 35 films in this series will have showings in 35mm, including Hitchcock classics like Rear Window, Vertigo and North by Northwest to enduring masterpieces like Francois Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Dialbolique.

Our Take On Netflix’s Hitchcock Collection

The Streamer Is Broadening Their Horizons

While the streamer is also focusing on its original context, Netflix’s Hitchcock Collection reflects a big part of the company’s strategy. As much as it gains viewers from huge shows like Squid Game or movies like Carry-On, it is legacy collections like these that also encourage subscriptions, and may attract a different audience demographic. Netflix‘s film festival collaboration is also a rare project for the company, marking a deliberate effort to broaden its horizons in the theatrical space through in-person events.

Source: Netflix