The Best Fake Criterion Covers

Last week, film site Cinematical showed us the tip of the iceberg of fan-inspired Criterion Collection covers. Back in 2003, Joblo.com user Briare Rabbit posted a simple illustration of To Kill a Mockingbird with this comment, “This is a wonderful hobby of mine, creating criterion cover art. With paint, I dont have anything higher- but you may. Here’s my latest, anyone else who makes em? It’s really fun!”

The thread has since moved to Mubi.com where you can find a treasure trove of artwork for would-be reissues—164 pages of entries and counting. We were so inspired by the official Criterion artwork for Wes Anderson’s films years ago that we hired the artist—the auteur’s brother Eric Anderson—to illustrate our cover story about Wes. But the loving care Criterion puts into each film it releases inspired the artists represented here to create covers of their own. And if the fake ones below aren’t your taste, here are Rachael Maddux’s five favorite actual Criterion covers.

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