Letterboxd Launches Video Store This Week in 23 Countries, Featuring Unreleased Indie Movie Gems

Letterboxd is not content just being your favorite place to log and rate movies anymore. It is opening its own online rental shop this Wednesday, December 10, with a heavy lean toward indie films and a launch slate that is small by design. Yes, that Letterboxd.

What it is and why they are doing it

The new Letterboxd Video Store goes live in 23 countries at launch. The pitch: it is the next step in the site’s film-discovery mission, but with actual rentals. Day one features nine movies across two curated shelves — Unreleased Gems and Lost and Found — including several exclusives. The lineup spans nine countries, and Letterboxd says more titles will roll in before the end of 2025.

How much it costs (and how it works)

Pricing is standard video-on-demand territory and varies by title and country. In the U.S., you are looking at $3.99 to $19.99 to rent. Once you hit play, you have 48 hours to finish. Some films will only be available on Letterboxd within certain regions, which is a clever way of turning licensing headaches into selling points.

How they are choosing the films

This is where it gets interesting: the store’s shelves are programmed by the Letterboxd team, but they are pulling from the site’s massive data set — think watchlists, reviews, and viewing patterns — to surface what people actually want to see. They are going for quality over volume, prioritizing clear member demand while leaving room for discoveries that have not broken out yet. Unreleased Gems is for films that have not officially launched in the countries where Letterboxd will host them. Lost and Found shines a light on underseen titles with strong community ratings.

'We are incredibly proud of what we and our community have built. We take their lead, and believe that has been integral to Letterboxd’s success. They tell us what’s really happening — a 1980s action film suddenly trending, a festival title from two years ago still being added to watchlists. Video Store lets us act on that real demand, whether it’s helping a distributor unlock value from a forgotten gem in its vault or giving a filmmaker direct access to the audience they’ve been building on our platform.'

'It’s our way of saying to the industry: Let’s harness this interest to get films to the people who want them most.'

Where you can use it

Launch territories include the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, and Cyprus.

Day-one lineup

Here is what is on the shelves at launch, and why they picked each one:

• Unreleased Gems — It Ends (2025): Alexander Ullom’s debut strands fresh college grads on an infinite, nightmarish backroad. Premiered at SXSW 2025, won best first feature at Fantasia, and snagged the narrative feature grand jury award at the Atlanta Film Festival.
• Unreleased Gems — Sore: A Wife From the Future (2025): Yandy Laurens’ time-loop sci-fi romance about a woman trying to redirect her husband’s fate. Eight nominations at the 2025 Indonesian Film Festival, including best picture, and Indonesia’s official submission for the 2026 international feature Oscar.
• Unreleased Gems — Kennedy (2023): Anurag Kashyap’s neo-noir about a presumed-dead, insomniac ex-cop seeking redemption in Mumbai’s underbelly. Premiered at Cannes 2023 and toured more than 20 festivals.
• Unreleased Gems — The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (2025): Diego Céspedes’ feature debut follows an 11-year-old girl protecting her town’s queer community from superstition-fueled panic. Won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2025 and is Chile’s submission for the upcoming Oscars.
• Lost and Found — Tiger on the Beat (1988): Chow Yun-Fat headlines Lau Kar-Leung’s beloved Hong Kong action-comedy. For most of the world, this new 4K restoration debuts here, and it is a digital exclusive to Letterboxd at launch.
• Lost and Found — Kisapmata (1981): Mike de Leon’s landmark Filipino drama about a young woman trapped under a domineering father. Took ten awards at the 1981 Metro Manila Film Festival, including best film, and screened at Cannes. This new 4K restoration premieres digitally and highlights a work that faced censorship under the Marcos regime.
• Lost and Found — It Must Be Heaven (2019): Elia Suleiman’s observational comedy earned a special mention from the main competition jury and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes 2019. Its theatrical run got pushed by more than a year due to the pandemic, which kneecapped its reach despite glowing reviews. Themes of displacement and belonging, delivered in Suleiman’s signature deadpan.
• Lost and Found — Poison (1991): Todd Haynes’ boundary-pushing first feature won Sundance’s grand jury prize and became a flashpoint in the culture wars, with conservative politicians aiming to defund the NEA over its support. A foundational text in 90s independent cinema.
• Lost and Found — Before We Vanish (2017): Kiyoshi Kurosawa adapts a cult Japanese stage play into an offbeat alien invasion story. Screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2017 and showcases Kurosawa’s distinctive twist on the genre.

Bottom line

A small, handpicked store is a smart move for Letterboxd. If they can keep landing region-specific premieres and restorations (those 4Ks are no joke), this could turn into a reliable pipeline for indie films that otherwise vanish between festivals and streaming. And if you have ever added a festival title to your watchlist and then stared at it for two years waiting for a release, you already understand the appeal.