Criterion Collection September 2026 Releases: Six Titles on 4K and Blu-ray
By Lio Renwick
The Criterion Collection has six titles arriving in September 2026, a lineup that runs from a 1957 courtroom landmark to two of 2025's most talked-about international features. The releases span the United States, France, India, and Brazil, with four arriving on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, one as a four-disc Blu-ray edition, and one as a Criterion Premieres release on Blu-ray and DVD.
12 Angry Men (1957)
Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men leads off the month on September 8 with a new 4K UHD and Blu-ray special edition. The film adapts Reginald Rose's teleplay and stars Henry Fonda as the lone dissenting juror among 12 white men weighing the case of a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. Lumet stages the drama almost entirely inside a single sweltering jury room over one tense afternoon, in what was his first feature.
The edition draws on a new 4K digital restoration with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. The set includes one 4K UHD disc presenting the film in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and the special features. Filmed in black and white, the picture is framed at 1.66:1 and runs 96 minutes.
The supplements trace the story from teleplay to screen. They include the 1954 television version of 12 Angry Men, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner for the series Studio One, with an introduction by Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media. A program on the production history follows the work from teleplay to big-screen classic, and the set adds Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose.
Several interviews round out the disc. Archival conversations with Lumet appear alongside a new interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about the director, an interview with Simon about Rose, and an interview with cinematographer John Bailey discussing director of photography Boris Kaufman. A trailer and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are also included. The package comes with an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum, and the cover is by Sean Phillips.
Shoah (1985)
Claude Lanzmann's Shoah arrives September 15 as a director-approved four-Blu-ray special edition. Running more than nine hours, the film investigates the Nazi murder of more than six million Jews using no archival footage, building instead from first-person testimonies of survivors, former Nazis, and other witnesses gathered through a circular, free-associative method. The complete work runs 566 minutes and is presented at 1.37:1 in a mix of color and black and white, with dialogue across French, Italian, Polish, German, English, Hebrew, and Yiddish.
The edition is built around a 2K digital restoration with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. It brings together three further films by Lanzmann: A Visitor from the Living (1999, 68 minutes), Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001, 102 minutes), and The Karski Report (2010, 49 minutes).
A substantial body of new and archival material accompanies the films. All I Had Was Nothingness (2025), a new film by Guillaume Ribot, is edited from previously unreleased footage and recounts the production of Shoah. The set also includes a conversation between Lanzmann and critic Serge Toubiana, a 2003 interview with Lanzmann about A Visitor from the Living and Sobibór, and an interview with Caroline Champetier, an assistant cameraperson on Shoah, alongside filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin.
A trailer and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing complete the discs. The package adds an essay by critic Kent Jones and writings by Lanzmann, with cover art by Sam Smith.
Two Prosecutors (2025)
Sergei Loznitsa's Two Prosecutors comes to Blu-ray and DVD on September 15 as a Criterion Premieres release, the line of new theatrical films issued in association with the Criterion Channel. Set at the height of the Great Purge, the film follows an idealistic Soviet prosecutor, played by Aleksandr Kuznetsov, who is summoned by a blood-written note smuggled out of a prison block to interview an elderly Bolshevik, played by Alexander Filippenko, condemned as a political undesirable. As the young attorney tries to bring the case to Moscow, a tightening net of suspicion closes around his investigation.
A German, French, Dutch, and Latvian co-production, the film runs 118 minutes and is presented at 1.33:1, with dialogue in Russian and Ukrainian. The release includes Meet the Filmmakers: Sergei Loznitsa, a Criterion Channel original interview, along with a trailer and notes by critic Beatrice Loayza.
The Secret Agent (2025)
Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent arrives September 22 as a director-approved 4K UHD and Blu-ray special edition. The period thriller connects Brazil's twentieth-century military dictatorship to the present day. In 1977, a man living under the alias Armando, played by Wagner Moura, arrives in Recife to start over with his young son, only to find violence encroaching amid corrupt cops, hit men, haunted exiles, and a public frenzy stirred by an urban legend.
The edition is sourced from a new 4K digital master approved by Mendonça Filho, with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. It includes one 4K UHD disc presenting the film in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features. Shot in color, the picture is framed at 2.39:1 and runs 161 minutes, with Portuguese dialogue.
The bonus material is anchored by Pictures of Ghosts (2023), a companion film by Mendonça Filho. A making-of documentary features interviews with the director, Moura, and other cast and crew, and new interviews with director of photography Evgenia Alexandrova and sound mixer Cyril Holtz appear alongside a new video essay featuring Mendonça Filho.
Deleted scenes and archival material that inspired the film, presented with commentary by Mendonça Filho, are also on the discs, together with a trailer and a new English subtitle translation. The package includes an essay by film programmer and curator Dennis Lim, with new cover art by Drusilla Adeline/Sister Hyde.
Nouvelle Vague (2025)
Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague also arrives September 22, on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in a director-approved special edition. Set in 1959, the film follows a young Jean-Luc Godard, played by Guillaume Marbeck, as he sets out to make Breathless with a small crew and two stars: the unknown Jean-Paul Belmondo, played by Aubry Dullin, and the Hollywood expat Jean Seberg, played by Zoey Deutch. Shot in black and white at 1.37:1, the film runs 106 minutes, with French and English dialogue.
The release comes from a new 4K digital master supervised and approved by Linklater and director of photography David Chambille, with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. It includes one 4K UHD disc with the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features.
A new audio commentary by Linklater leads the supplements, joined by Le making of "Nouvelle Vague" (2025), directed by Lucie Saada, and interviews with Linklater and actors Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, and Guillaume Marbeck. Within the Wave, an audiovisual dossier on the real-life figures depicted in the film, is by critic Farran Smith Nehme.
Linklater's prerehearsal manifesto, read by Deutch, appears on the disc, along with a selection of trailers from French New Wave films and a trailer for the feature. English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio are included. The package adds essays by critic Nick James and coscreenwriter Vince Palmo and an introduction by Linklater, with cover art by F. Ron Miller.
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)
Satyajit Ray's Days and Nights in the Forest closes the month's releases on September 29 with a 4K UHD and Blu-ray special edition. The film follows four friends from Kolkata who drive to the countryside for a weekend escape, where their urban entitlement and prejudices are gradually exposed. Among them is the overconfident Ashim, played by Soumitra Chatterjee, whose self-assurance is shaken by Aparna, played by Sharmila Tagore. Filmed in the woodlands of India's Palamu region, the picture is presented in black and white at 1.37:1, runs 116 minutes, and is in Bengali.
The edition draws on a new 4K digital restoration undertaken by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project at L'Immagine Ritrovata, in collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and the Criterion Collection, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. It includes one 4K UHD disc with the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features.
The supplements open with an introduction by filmmaker Wes Anderson. A making-of program features new and archival interviews with Ray, actors Sharmila Tagore and Rabi Ghosh, and cinematographer Soumendu Roy. A separate conversation about Ray and the film's restoration brings together Anderson, Tagore, and Film Heritage Foundation founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. A trailer and a new English subtitle translation are also included, and the package comes with an essay by film critic Devika Girish.
Check out our other Criterion release roundups, including June 2026, May 2026, and March 2026 releases.
Physical media enthusiast covering Blu-ray & 4K UHD releases.