Reginald Hudlin, Jonathan Glazer, Hector Babenco and Mike Leigh from Criterion in February
Spirit Entertainment has announced the Criterion Collection UHD and Blu-ray titles coming to the UK in February, which will consist of writer-director Reginald Hudlin’s teen comedy House Party, Jonathan Glazer’s second feature Birth, and Héctor Babenco’s compassionate political drama Kiss of the Spider Woman on UHD/Blu-ray, and Mike Leigh’s melancholic but invigorating Life is Sweet on Blu-ray only. Full details below.
HOUSE PARTY (USA 1990)
4K UHD+Blu-ray | 2 February 2026
In this dazzlingly imaginative teen comedy, the breakthrough feature debut by writer-director Reginald Hudlin, hip-hop duo Kid ’n Play bring their star power to the big screen as aspiring MCs preparing for the party of the year. When Kid’s father (Robin Harris) forbids him from attending Play’s party, Kid sneaks out anyway, kicking off a wild night full of dance-offs and rap battles, run-ins with bullies and cops, and a bit of romance.
With an ensemble cast that also includes Tisha Campbell, AJ Johnson, Martin Lawrence, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, and members of the music group Full Force, plus a hit soundtrack, House Partyis a beloved, feel-good snapshot of early-1990s hip-hop culture that brought Black teenage experience to the mainstream, and that shines bright to this day.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD+BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Peter Deming and approved by writer-director Reginald Hudlin, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New audio commentary featuring Hudlin
- New conversation featuring Hudlin, producer Warrington Hudlin, and film scholar Racquel Gates
- New cast reunion featuring actors B-Fine, Bowlegged Lou, and the Legend Paul Anthony of Full Force; Tisha Campbell; AJ Johnson; Christopher “Play” Martin; Daryl “Chill” Mitchell; and Christopher “Kid” Reid
- House Party (1983), the student short by Reginald Hudlin on which his feature is based
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Michael Harriot
BIRTH (UK / Germany / USA 2004)
4K UHD + Blu-ray | 9 February 2026
Jonathan Glazer’s second feature is a haunting cinematic enigma that explores the mysteries of the heart. Nicole Kidman delivers a masterfully multilayered performance as Anna, a widow still mourning the death of her husband a decade earlier when she meets Sean (Cameron Bright), a ten-year-old boy who claims to be his reincarnation—leading her into a wrenching confrontation with her own unresolved grief and desires.
Featuring painterly cinematography by Harris Savides and a hypnotic orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat, Birth plays its outré premise with unflinching sincerity, yielding a profound emotional reverie on the possibilities of love beyond the physical realm.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- High-Definition digital transfers of each film on three discs, on Blu-ray for the first time ever
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Archival interview with Sadao Nakajima (2020)
- Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (2025)
- New interview with scriptwriter Koji Takada (2025)
- Trailers
- Newly improved English subtitle translations
- Reversible sleeves featuring artwork based on original promotional materials
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Akihiko Ito and Tom Mes
- Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (Brazil / USA 1985)
4K UHD + Blu-ray | 2 February 2026
After mistakenly slaying a sacred deer, Agamemnon is ordered to atone for his sin by the gods. In order for them to guarantee safe passage for his armies to Troy, he must make the ultimate sacrifice: the death of his beloved daughter, Iphigenia. Torn between family and country, he attempts to keep the details of the impossible ultimatum from his wife, Clytemnestra (Irene Papas, We Still Kill the Old Way), choosing to deceive her while he wrestles with the implications of his decision, while those around him wait tensely for his answer.
A masterpiece of epic Greek storytelling, Iphigenia is the third film from Michael Cacoyannis (Zorba the Greek, Elektra) to be adapted from a Euripidean tragedy, and one of the director’s most acclaimed and successful films, nominated for both the Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High-definition digital transfer, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- New interview with Greek film expert Dimitris Papanikolaou on Michael Cacoyannis (2025)
- Archival press conference interview with Michael Cacoyannis (1977)
- Archival interview with director Michael Cacoyannis and actress Irene Papas (1977)
- Newly improved English subtitle translation
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Vrasidas Karalis
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
LIFE IS SWEET (UK 1990)
Blu-ray | 16 February 2026
This invigorating film from Mike Leigh was his first international sensation. Melancholy and funny by turns, it is an intimate portrait of a working-class family in a suburb just north of London—an irrepressible mum and dad (Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent) and their night-and-day twins, a bookish good girl and a troubled, ill-tempered layabout (Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks). Leigh and his typically brilliant cast create, with extraordinary sensitivity and craft, a vivid, lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest dreams – such as the father’s desire to open a food truck – carry enormous weight.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director of photography Dick Pope, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
- Audio recording of a 1991 interview with Leigh at the National Film Theatre in London
- Five short films written and directed by Leigh for the proposed television series Five-Minute Films, with a new audio introduction by Leigh
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A new essay by critic David Sterritt