How often does the 701 archive rotate its titles?

The catalogue is reviewed and refreshed every quarter. Approximately 30–40 titles enter after curatorial review, and a comparable number retire to make room. The cap of 701 active titles never changes.

What happens to films that leave the rotation?

Retired titles remain in members' watch histories and are available for licensing through the archive's distribution arm. Each departure is announced with a short curator note explaining why the film is stepping aside for this cycle.

Do members get notified when new titles are added?

Yes. Members receive the quarterly dispatch — the same document published on this page — by email the week the new rotation goes live, along with access to the curator audio essays accompanying each arrival.

Dispatch No. 162 · Q1 2026 · Filed from Minneapolis, 14 January 2026

This quarter, the catalogue turns over by
seventy-one arguments and one regret.

Thirty-seven films enter the rotation this January, and thirty-four retire — each replacement argued over a long table in our Minneapolis offices across the autumn, with a named curator defending the cut and a written note prepared for the films that did not make it through. Below is the dispatch as it was filed: what is arriving, what is leaving, and why the changes feel, to us, like a particular moment for the archive rather than a routine refresh.

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— Margaux Hessel, founding curator / Dean Auerbach, head of programming

Arrivals · Q1 2026

Entering the archive, January 2026.

Thirty-seven titles join the rotation this quarter — eight highlighted below for their geographic and formal range. The remaining twenty-nine are listed in the members' dispatch, with curator notes attached to each.

Restored 4K still from a 1962 Italian neorealist film, a woman on a country road. — The Long Afternoon Valeria Parisi · 1962 · Italy / France

Restored still of an elderly Japanese woman seated in a softly lit kitchen. — A Slow Inventory Hideo Tachibana · 1978 · Japan

Black-and-white still of musicians on a Havana street at night, 1964. — Notes Toward a Havana Elena Morejón · 1964 · Cuba

Salt, and the Days After Khalid Al-Ansari · 1991 · Qatar / Tunisia

Interior still of three women playing cards by candlelight, Hungarian drama. — Three at the Table Edit Kálmán · 1973 · Hungary

Dawn still of a fisherman mending nets on an Icelandic black sand beach. — The Net Mender Sigrún Hjálmtýrsdóttir · 1989 · Iceland

Monsoon-rain still of a crowded Indian railway platform, 1981. — Monsoon Platform Anwar D'Souza · 1981 · India

Wide still of a cyclist on an Andean highland road at dusk. — The Long Straight Carmen Quispe · 1995 · Peru / Bolivia

Of the thirty-seven arrivals, eight are highlighted above. The remaining twenty-nine — including a newly recovered 1971 Polish documentary and the first ever 4K restoration of Kōji Wakamatsu's The Strip — are listed in the full quarterly ledger available to members.

Departures · Q1 2026

Retiring this quarter, after a final rotation.

Departures are part of the contract we keep with filmmakers and with members. A title leaves the rotation not because it has been devalued, but because the catalogue is fixed at 701 active titles by deliberate design — and a place made for one film means a conversation about which other must step back. Each title below completes its final rotation this quarter; members may continue to stream it until 31 March 2026.

01
Days of the Almond Harvest Nawal el-Khoury · 1987 · Lebanon A beloved pastoral that earned its place for nine consecutive rotations. Stepping back to make room for a previously unavailable Tunisian companion piece acquired this autumn.
02
The Second Letter Magnus Rød · 1994 · Norway Returning to the filmmaker's estate for a planned retrospective tour in Oslo. Will be reconsidered for re-entry in Q3 2027.
03
House of Plaster Saints Tomás Aldana · 1971 · Mexico Our longest-tenured Spanish-language title in the rotation, present since 1998. Retiring in favour of a 1969 Aldana short newly donated to the archive by his estate.
04
Postcards from the Coast Mei-Ling Tan · 2002 · Singapore Completing a planned seven-quarter run. Curator note: "One of the quietest films we ever carried; a generous place has been waiting for it to return to us."
05
An Autumn Without Pears Catherine Merveilleux · 1983 · France / Belgium Retiring after a final winter rotation; the rights holder has requested a one-year pause to prepare a new DCP master before we reconsider.
06
The Lighthouse Keeper's Son Aoife Ní Cheallaigh · 1969 · Ireland Stepping back to honour the agreement made when the film entered rotation in 2017 — a four-year residence, an honourable exit, and a curator's farewell note from Aoife herself attached to the final stream.
07
A Map of Borrowed Rooms Ji-won Park · 2011 · South Korea Completing a generous twelve-quarter residence. Returning to the filmmaker's preferred festival circuit for the spring.
08
Seventeen Windows, One Door Lior Bensimon · 1976 · Israel Retiring to make space for two newly restored Bensimon shorts arriving from the Jerusalem Cinematheque this spring.

A complete ledger of all thirty-four departures — including restoration status, rights notes, and reconsideration windows — is sent to members with the full quarterly dispatch on 21 January.

The institution behind the rotation

Forty-one years of arguing, restoring, and writing about films — now used by 142 film programs as a teaching reference.

1,000 4K restorations completed as of October 2024, beginning with the recovery of The Mother and the Whore from a Cinémathèque Française vault.

4,200 Audio essays in the archive, each between 12 and 25 minutes long, recorded by a working critic, programmer, or the filmmaker themselves.

142 University and conservatory film programs currently using the archive as a teaching resource — including NYU Tisch, AFI, and the Łódź Film School.

23 Curators, archivists, and engineers on staff, supported by a 60-person advisory board of critics and programmers who review submissions quarterly.

Named Best Streaming Service for Cinephiles by The Guardian in 2023 and by Sight & Sound in 2024. Recipient of the Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellowship in 2019.

Annual Membership · $89 / year

The full archive. This quarter's thirty-seven arrivals. Forty-one years of arguments, restored.

A membership unlocks all 701 titles in rotation, every audio essay, the curators' quarterly ledger in full, and the members-only submissions queue — where your nomination is read by a named curator and answered in writing, usually within forty-seven days.