Mubi (streaming service)

Mubi is a British streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces 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. 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 through its website, or using Android TV, Chromecast, Roku devices, Apple Vision Pro, PlayStation consoles, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, LG or Samsung Smart TVs, or mobile devices including iPhone, iPad and Android.

History

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", a two-syllable word with no specific meaning that rhymes with "movie", its creators stating that they wanted "a name all audiences can say and spell, without the burden of exclusionary meaning."
In January 2022, Mubi announced the acquisition of arthouse cinema production and sales company The Match Factory.
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.
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.
In February 2024, Mubi acquired a majority stake in Benelux distributor Cinéart.
On September 20, 2024, Mubi released The Substance in theaters worldwide and received critical and commercial success, grossed $77 million as their highest grossing film ever, which received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy out of 5 nominations at 82nd Golden Globe Awards, 5 Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 97th Academy Awards, 5 nominations at the 78th British Academy Film Awards.
In February 2025, The New York Times published a major profile piece on Mubi and Efe Çakarel, positioning Mubi as "a real Hollywood player" following the success of The Substance.
At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025, Mubi made their largest acquisition to date, as well as the largest deal closed at the festival that year, by paying $24m for distribution rights across multiple territories to Lynne Ramsay's film Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.
Mubi set a 31 October 2025 date for the company's debut as a direct distributor in the Spanish market with the release of The Mastermind. The company had previously relied on third parties such as Elastica Films, Avalon, A Contracorriente Films, or Filmin for the distribution of its portfolio in Spain.

Publication

Mubi Notebook (online)

Mubi's International film publication named Notebook, is composed of daily online publications freely accessible via the website, which has been an essential part of the website's relevance as a curated cinema streaming service.
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.
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, Projections, and more Currents. Throughout the years, the most consistent coverages of these sections in MUBI Notebook has been made by writers Michael Sicinski and David Hudson.
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.

''Notebook Magazine'' (print)

In 2021 Mubi launched the Notebook Magazine, an editorially independent semiannual print magazine with limited sale. The magazines are sold globally via both a subscription service and in selected bookstores around the world. The magazine is only available in English language and has no digital archive or version available.
Since issue 4, Mubi states that "Each issue will come with an exclusive surprise, just for subscribers."
The magazine has published 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 thematic resonance to the edition's focus. Some of the highlighted professionals include Yasujirō 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, Tacita Dean, Sergei Loznitsa, Amalia Ulman, Payal Kapadia and Kevin Jerome Everson.

Issue	Title	Information	Cover design	Notes	Ref.
0	For the Cinema to Come			The subscriber edition included a Notebook tote bag and a black fabric folio holder for the magazine.
1	You Start Anywhere and End Up Anywhere
2	We Traveled a Lot...		Two different covers, each featuring a photograph by Park Chan-wook.	"Issue 2 of the Notebook magazine tours around the world with a new collection of features, many devoted to the theme of travel: from Buenos Aires to Cairo, from Germany to Greece, we take you on a whirlwind multimedia trip of the moving image."
3	The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings			"Brace for the approach of Issue 3 of Notebook magazine, in which saboteurs are afoot and unpredictable weather is in the forecast!"
4	Film is Definitely Not a "Visual Medium"		Featured film frames by Peter Tscherkassky	"Now hear this! Issue 4 explores cinematic soundscapes in their diverse sonic forms." Subscriber surprise included a seven-inch record featuring a song by filmmaker Gus Van Sant and a field recording by sound designer Leslie Shatz.
5	Step 1: Hold Magazine in Your Hands		The front and back covers are designed by John Wilson, the creator of How To with John Wilson.	"We believe in your talent and ability to do cinematic things! Have you ever dreamed of being able to draw cartoons? Or wondered how movie blood is made? Or whether film can be made in more sustainable ways?" Subscriber surprise included a make-your-own papercraft model by artist Ellie Sampson.
6	In the Moment of Match-Strike			"Ah, to be young! Issue 6 is dedicated to different expressions of youth in cinema, a time of surprise, invention, rebellion, and hope for the future. In a cross-generational feature, a group of parents curate a short film program and share the reactions of their own children."
7	Threshold of the Visible		Deborah Stratman shows how an excess of light can transform an image	"While cinema is a photographic art, many subjects and experiences fail to come across on film in the same way that we experience them in life, if they can be reproduced at all." In a bound insert, author Mark Leyner shares a novelistic treatment for a film that was never made, 8W, a singular and wildly funny prose fantasia.
8	Shoestring Spaghetti	ISSN: 2769-7681		"Like a good dinner party, Issue 8 of Notebook—devoted to food on film—embraces a sense of delicious possibility."

Podcasts

In 2021, Mubi launched two original podcasts. An English language podcast called Mubi Podcast produced and hosted by Rico Gagliano, and a Spanish language podcast titled Mubi Podcast: Encuentros, 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.

Mubi productions

Mubi productions and co-productions include:

Released

Port Authority
Farewell Amor
Our Men
Memory
My First Film
Bring Them Down
One Fine Morning
Gasoline Rainbow
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother
Witches
Magic Farm
''The Mastermind''