Right as awards season kicked up at the end of 2025, before Paul Thomas Anderson took home the Best Director Academy Award for One Battle After Another, he was taking in a concert at Carnegie Hall by singer-songwriter Cameron Winter.
He wasn’t in a seat, though—he was onstage, filming the show in 35- and 16-mm. The footage became Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall, a concert film that will be touring cities in the U.S. and Canada this fall after being acquired by two names familiar to film buffs: Criterion and Janus Films.
The Aug. 25 announcement of the film’s rollout schedule, starting Nov. 20, became an embarrassment of riches for fans of Anderson, Winter, and a host of notable collaborators. It also became fodder for jokes about sheer number of names attached that would excite a certain type of pop culture-obsessive.
Names on names
Anderson is no stranger to music projects. Since 1998 he’s directed music videos for the likes of Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, and Haim. He also directed Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke’s short film that accompanied Yorke’s album Anima. But Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall marks his first concert film.
That would be notable enough, even without a rising music star attached. But Winter—the frontman of indie band Geese whose solo album Heavy Metal topped year-end lists for 2025 (alongside Geese’s sophomore album Getting Killed)—also brings big interest from a growing fanbase that includes some 950,000 monthly Spotify listeners.
Beyond Anderson and Winter, the film features Benny Safdie (co-director of Uncut Gems) as a co-producer. Additionally, Winter’s live album of his Carnegie Hall shows was recorded and and the live album from the concert that will be released this fall is being produced by engineer Ariel Rechtshaid, whose work with Adele and Vampire Weekend has earned him three Grammy awards for production.
Both Criterion—which operates streaming service the Criterion Channel—and Janus Films are well-known to film buffs. Janus, known for its home-video catalogue, has been showing up in cinemas more in the past five years. Through its distribution partner Sideshow, Janus Films has released more than 20 films since 2021. Through a program called Janus Contemporaries, these movies end up being available on the Criterion Channel. But Cameron Winter Live at Carnegie Hall is seemingly the first music-focused project to emerge from the partnership.
‘Big day for annoying people’
Once the announcement of the film went live, internet users were quick to joke about the word salad of buzzy names attached to the project, joking about areas of the country that overindex on the type of indie-art urbaniter that would get excited about it.
“This is my avengers doomsday,” one user commented on the distributors’ announcement on Instagram. Another said on X, “janus films, cameron winter, criterion, 35mm and pta. this is going to hit silver lake like a nuclear bomb.”
On Reddit, a user summed up the broad reaction tidily: “I want to see this but this is the most hilariously pretentious-maxxing mish mash of names and things possible.”
Other jokes focused on the stereotypical “film bro” who would likely see the film. “Men with tiny tattoos who smoke menthols all just fell to their knees,” one user said on the Janus Films Intagram post, with another adding, “Big day for annoying people (me).”
The planned tour for the film shows Janus Films and Criterion focusing on cities where Winter’s performance will likely be well received. It starts on Nov. 20 in Santa Monica, Calif., with more than 20 stops in cities that include Vancouver, Nashville, Austin, Chicago, and Winter’s hometown of New York. Tickets go on sale Sept. 17.
