New 4K restorations of acclaimed Bengali director Satyajit Ray's
Apu Trilogy are heading to U.S. cinemas and Blu-ray. Initially, the restored
Pather Panchali,
Aparajito, and
Apur Sansar will be screened in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Later this summer the films will be screened in other theaters across the country.
The Criterion Collection will also release the new restorations on Blu-ray.
The
Apu Trilogy was restored in 4K by Janus Films/the Criterion Collection at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, with the support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Academy Film Archive.
Following the official announcement, Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection and partner in Janus Films, said, "This monumental restoration and national re-release is the culmination of seven years of work by dozens of people on three continents from the Academy Film Archive, the Cineteca di Bologna and our own team at Criterion. There's a lot of discussion about how much irreplaceable film history we have lost from around the world, but this is one of the rare cases where the dedicated work of archivists have saved three masterpieces, allowing a whole new generation of filmgoers to see them as their filmmaker intended. All of us at Janus and Criterion are thrilled to to be part of this."