It’s official: Magellan is joining the Criterion Contemporaries line of the Criterion Collection, joining the likes of Bi Gan’s Resurrection and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud. It is already available for pre-order.
Criterion Contemporaries is an imprint under the Criterion Collection that includes the films released by Janus Films, which distributed Magellan in the US. The films receive a Blu-ray and DVD release after their limited theatrical run and a premiere on the Criterion Channel streaming platform, available only in the U.S. and Canada.
The Magellan Blu-ray and DVD will be released June 23, 2026 — interestingly, a few days after the Philippines’ Independence Day, which celebrates our liberation from Spain.
On the website, the film is described as a “hypnotic journey engraved in images of staggering beauty and horror” and a “staggering achievement” by Diaz.
Magellan is the third film in the Criterion Collection and the first in Criterion Contemporaries. The other two films in the collection are Manila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, which received an individual release, and Insiang, which is part of the Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 box set.
Many Filipino films have already streamed on the Criterion Channel. Currently available are Kidlat Tahimik’s Perfumed Nightmare and Turumba, a three-film spotlight on Lino Brocka that includes Bona, and the curated collection “When the Apocalypse Is Over: New Independent Philippine Cinema,” which focuses on contemporary Filipino films blazing a new trail in filmmaking. The collection includes Whammy Alcazaren’s Bold Eagle and Maria Estela Paiso’s It’s Raining Frogs Outside.
