Mubi next to try out that whole book publishing thing

Even distributors have to have a side hustle these days. Per Variety, Mubi is the latest production company to test their mettle in the book publishing game, following A24’s X trilogy novelizations in August, and—in a slightly less relevant but still notable example—TikTok’s foray in the print world, which the company announced last week. 

The new venture, Mubi Editions, “intends to play a meaningful role in fostering a global community of engaged, art-loving viewers and readers—now and into the future,” as the company wrote in a statement. It will reportedly publish books across four core categories: “Projections,” dedicated to film culture and history, “Auteurs,” made in collaboration with notable filmmakers, “Internegatives,” featuring republications of out-of-print books or newly translated texts, and “Lights!,” explorations and expansions of Mubi’s own catalog.

While a major new project like this always carries a degree of uncertainty for a relatively small company, Mubi’s risks have paid off in the past. The company, originally created as a streaming platform for arthouse films, recently began distributing its own titles and saw major success with The Substance earlier this year. (They also managed to snag the gorgeous 4K restoration of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall.) Again following A24’s lead, the company has also ramped up its merch offerings in recent months, heavily themed to The Substance‘s titular radioactive green goo. Variety reports that at one point, they even offered a candle shaped like Monstro Elisasue from the body horror film’s finale, which seems to have sold out. That’s a real tragedy for this writer, but probably good news for her friends and family, who all would have had to suffer that monstrosity in their stockings this year.

If you are in the market for a good (and slightly less horrifying) holiday present, Mubi Editions’ first offering, Read Frame Type Film, is available to pre-order now. Compiled by film curator Enrico Camporesi, graphic design historian Catherine de Smet, and designer Philippe Millot, Read Frame Type Film aims to address and celebrate the overlooked art of textual elements such as credits, subtitles and title cards in arthouse and experimental filmmaking. The coffee table book, one of three titles Mubi Editions hopes to release next year, comes out April 2025.