Letterboxd: Social Media for Film

Turns out there is! Letterboxd is a social media platform that helps people discover and discuss films. 

According to The New York Times, Letterboxd was conceived in the fall of 2011 and has continued to grow ever since but it really took off during the pandemic. 

Before the pandemic, the app had 1.7 million users. Now it has 3 million member accounts. 

Letterboxd can serve many different functions depending on how a user chooses to utilize it.

For those not wanting to interact with others, you can keep a diary of every film you have watched and add a one to five-star rating.  

If you are trying to connect with others on the platform, you can also add reviews to these movies that others can see and like. 

The reviews with the most likes make their way to the top of the review section underneath the movie.

These reviews vary from serious, film critic reviews to humorous one-liners. 

For example, a popular review under “Toy Story” received 2,405 likes and said, “the most relatable part of this movie is when buzz becomes self-aware, has an existential crisis and sinks into depression.” 

To further dive into the social network aspect of Letterboxd, users can follow their friends, popular critics or strangers.

Once you follow others, you can see their recent reviews, watchlist, likes, ratings, lists and every film they have claimed to have watched.

As an avid user of Letterboxd, I have found that people’s film taste says a lot about them. Not only does it make it easier to figure out what to watch with them, but it also shows their sense of humor and interests. 

If you don’t have any current friends on the platform, there are many film lovers and critics that have grown in popularity. 

Those with popular reviews and lists can be featured on the member explore tab, making it easy for new or existing members to find more credible accounts. 

In an interview with the New York Times, Sydney Wegner spoke about her extreme popularity on the platform.

She originally wrote reviews because she enjoyed them but started to gain more attention. 

Today, she has over 6,000 followers and has been paid for her critiques, asked to visit screenings and commissioned to write for film review websites. 

Writing popular reviews and rating a large number of movies aren’t the only ways to be noticed on Letterboxd either.

You can create lists which are basically playlists of movies that people can like and comment on.

These lists tend to get extremely niche and sometimes funny, such as, “Good new horror movies for people who say nothing good and original comes out these days,” or, “Films where people wear shoes in bed.” 

Lastly, you can also stay up to date on any relevant news from the entertainment industry in the journal tab. 

Regardless if you are a film critic or someone who just really enjoys watching movies, Letterboxd is a great alternative to traditional social media platforms if you enjoy talking about and watching film!