5 Reasons You Should Be On Letterboxd

After its launch in 2011, Letterboxd was primarily used by film critics to track the films they reviewed. There are many reasons why fans and critics have now dubbed it “the safest space for film discussion we’ve got,” and, in addition, we’ve compiled our Top 5 reasons why you should be on Letterboxd:

1. Keep a ‘Diary’ of Your Watched Films

As a Letterboxd user, you can keep track of all of the films you’ve watched, rate them on a 5-star scale, and write reviews for them. To do this, all you have to do is click the green button in the top right that says “Log +” if you are using the website or press the green “+” button in the bottom center of the screen if you are using the app. Once you do this, you’ll be able to search for the film of your choice to log, rate it, write a review, or add a ‘tag’ to it, which will automatically sort it into a list for you. After you’ve logged the film, it will be in your ‘Diary’, which will have a list of all of the films you’ve logged, the date you watched them, and your ratings for them.

2. Follow Your Friends, Festivals, and Critics

Perhaps the best feature of Letterboxd is the ability to follow your friends and see the films they’ve logged, their scores and reviews, and any lists they’ve made. You can also follow critics, filmmakers, theaters, and film festivals like the Woodstock Film Festival on Letterboxd. Following these accounts will allow you to see their thoughts on films and add those films to your watchlist. In addition, theaters and film festivals frequently post upcoming events they’re hosting and links to their stories, podcasts, or lists of films they’ve previously shown.

3. Create a Watchlist

Once you’re on Letterboxd and have started discovering new films you want to see, you can add those films to your ‘Watchlist,’ To do this, you need to be on the film’s page, and on the website, there will be an option on the right to quickly add it to your watchlist. On the app, you would need to click the button with three circles which will bring up the option to add the film to your watchlist. After a film is on your watchlist, you can click on the film, and near the bottom of the page, it will tell you which streaming services the film is available on. Once you’ve watched and logged that film, it will be automatically removed from your watchlist. You can also view your friends’ watchlists and compare them to your own. Picking the next film for a movie night has never been easier!

4. Curate Your Own Lists

Letterboxd also allows users to curate their own lists of films. These lists can be of any topic you choose, whether it’s a list of your favorite films of the year, favorite rom-coms, or your favorite films from a director. You can keep these lists private, or you can make them public for all of your friends to see. To create a list you would have to navigate to your profile and click the ‘Lists’ button. On the website, there will be a button that says ‘Create New List’, but on the app, there will be a ‘+’ icon on the top right. The process for adding a film to a list is very similar to adding a film to your watchlist, but instead of clicking on the ‘Watchlist’ button, you would click on the button that says ‘Add this film to lists’, where it will then give you the option to choose from any of the lists you have created.

5. Show Off Your Favorite Films

The most difficult part of being on Letterboxd is deciding which films to have listed on your profile as your ‘Four Favorite Films’. These four films will be displayed on your profile for the public to see, and you’ll be able to see what other users have listed as their four favorites. The four favorites don’t necessarily have to be your four favorite films of all time, they can be your four favorites of the year, four favorites from the films you’ve watched in the past month, or another reason that you can explain in your bio. Once you sign up for Letterboxd, you will be prompted to add your four favorite films. Later on, you can adjust them by going to your profile. On the website, you will click the ‘Edit Profile’ button, but on the app, you will have to click the settings icon on the top left.

Bonus 6th Reason

Letterboxd has its own official lists of films for users to look through and discover new films to watch. This includes their list of “Official Top 250 Films With The Most Fans” which lists films in order by how many fans they have on Letterboxd. A film having ‘a fan’ means that the user has it listed as one of their four favorite films on their profile. As of right now, the film with the most fans on Letterboxd is INTERSTELLAR, which is a great choice in our opinion.

Be sure to follow us on Letterboxd @WFF for a comprehensive log of previous festivals and film events we've hosted.