Mubi (streaming service)

Mubi

Type of site	OTT platform Film production Film distributor Film criticism Publishing
Available in	Brazilian Portuguese Dutch English French German Italian Malay Spanish Turkish
Headquarters	London, England
Founder(s)	Efe Cakarel
Key people	Efe Cakarel (Founder & CEO)
URL	mubi.com
Launched	February 14, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-02-14)
Current status	Active

Mubi (/ˈmuːbi/; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global over-the-top service streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces^[1] and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available on its platform. The catalogue consists of world cinema films, such as arthouse, documentary and independent films.^[2] Additionally, it publishes Notebook, a film criticism and news publication, and provides weekly cinema tickets to selected new-release films through MUBI GO.

MUBI's streaming platform is available in over 190 countries on the web, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku devices, Apple Vision Pro, PlayStation,^[3] Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV,^[4] and LG and Samsung Smart TVs,^[5] as well as on mobile devices including iPhone, iPad^[6] and Android.^[7]

The Auteurs was founded in 2007 by Turkish entrepreneur Efe Çakarel. The next year, in 2008, the American home-video distribution company Criterion Collection partnered with The Auteurs to begin a video-on-demand service.

In 2010, the Auteurs changed its name to "Mubi" or "MUBI",^[8] a two-syllable word with no specific meaning that rhymes with "movie",^[9] its creators stating that they wanted "a name all audiences can say and spell, without the burden of exclusionary meaning."^[8]

In January 2022, MUBI announced the acquisition of arthouse cinema production and sales company The Match Factory.^[10]

Prior to the 79th Venice International Film Festival world premiere, MUBI entered the TV industry by acquiring The Kingdom Exodus miniseries and bringing out the first two seasons of the original series in director's cuts.^[11]

In 2023, the company announced MUBI Fest, its annual film festival, to be held in Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. The event was expanded to cities in Europe, the United States and Canada a year later.^[12]

In February 2024, MUBI acquired a majority stake in Benelux distributor Cinéart.^[13]

MUBI's International film publication named Notebook, is composed of daily online publications freely accessible via the website (same as streaming), which has been an essential part of the website's relevance as a curated cinema streaming service.^[14]

The online publication includes a wide variety of coverage of cinema from interviews, features, columns, news, as well as coverage of selected major film festival such as Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, Sundance, and Rotterdam.

Since 2009, the publication has featured an ongoing column named "Movie Poster of the Week" by writer Adrian Curry, which curates and discusses mostly contemporary movie posters. The column's focus allows space to discuss and highlight many territory-specific posters of well-known films around the globe.^[15]

The publication is also known for its focus on a wider range of world cinema and highlight of independent, artist-driven, and experimental cinema. Since its beginning in 2009 its contributors have often published writings on sections from major film festivals that are often ignored by other publications such as Toronto International Film Festival's Wavelengths, the Berlinale Forum Expanded, and the New York Film Festival sections Views from the Avant-Garde (until 2013), Projections (2014–2018), and more Currents (2019 - current). Throughout the years, the most consistent coverages of these sections in MUBI Notebook has been made by writers Michael Sicinski^[16] and David Hudson.^[17]

In the same form as other online publications of cinema and art at large, MUBI Notebook, is open to the public for pitching and it states its pitching guidelines very clearly on its website.^[18]

In 2021 MUBI launched the Notebook Magazine, editorially independent semiannual print magazine with limited sale.^[19] The magazines are sold globally via both a subscription service (purchased separately from the streaming service) and in selected bookstores around the world.^[20] The magazine is only available in English language^[21] and has no digital archive or version available.^[22]

Since issue 4, MUBI states that "Each issue will come with an exclusive surprise, just for subscribers."

The magazine has publish editions with articles, interviews, and often with special materials written by filmmakers themselves. The magazine's focus is based on themes and has highlighted the work of filmmakers, artists, writers, and industry professionals with thematically resonance to the edition's focus. Some of the highlighted professionals include Yasujiro Ozu, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Emma Seligman, Mike Leigh, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Park Chan-wook, Jean-Luc Godard, Tsai Ming-liang, Pedro Costa, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Tacita Dean, and Sergei Loznitsa, among many others.

In issue 3, MUBI began a muti-issue series named “Things a Filmmaker Should Know” inaugurated by Tsai Ming-liang. Which since has been followed by contributions from Pedro Costa (issue 4), Tacita Dean (issue 5), and Sergei Loznitsa (issue 5).

Although the magazine publication schedule is June and November, it has also had publications delayed by one or more months.

In 2021, MUBI launched two original podcasts. An English language podcast called MUBI Podcast^[25] produced and hosted by Rico Gagliano, and a Spanish language podcast titled MUBI Podcast: Encuentros,^[26] produced in collaboration with La Corriente del Golfo, the production house founded by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna. In 2023, MUBI launched an Italian-language podcast, MUBI Podcast: Voci Italiane Contemporanee, in collaboration with Chora Media, hosted by critic Gianmaria Tammaro.^[27]

MUBI Productions and co-productions include Port Authority (Danielle Lessovitz), Farewell Amor (Ewka Msangi), Our Men (Rachel Lang), Memory (Michel Franco), My First Film (Zia Anger), Bring Them Down (Christopher Andrews), One Fine Morning and If Love Should Die (Mia Hansen-Løve), Gasoline Rainbow (the Ross brothers),^[28] Rosebush Pruning (Karim Aïnouz), Father, Mother, Sister, Brother (Jim Jarmusch), Witches (Elizabeth Sankey), Magic Farm (Amalia Ulman) and The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt).

MUBI is also a film distributor. In addition to releasing films on the platform, it started distributing theatrically in the United States and United Kingdom in 2016, and in Latin America and Germany in 2021.

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