Donnie Darko is one of the many titles available on Kanopy, through the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

Starting today, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries will offer a movie streaming service. A new partnership with Kanopy gives library patrons access to over 30,000 classic, foreign and independent films, plus documentaries. The service has been called a ‘free alternative to Netflix for film nerds’ and provides access to many Criterion titles.

Kanopy began in 2008 in Australia with a focus on selling DVDs to Australian University Libraries which included everything from Blockbusters to rare and obscure documentaries. The vision of the company was to make it easy for students to go to libraries to find what they were looking for to learn through film. After a few years, Kanopy launched a streaming service, moved to the USA, and expanded into higher education, and they are now focusing more on partnering with public libraries.

The service is offered for free with your library card through the Columbus Metropolitan Library. It’s accessible over computers as well as devices with Apple iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast. The library has offered access to streaming movies and TV programs for a number of years.

“By offering Kanopy, we hope to broaden our viewing options for customers,” says Ben Zenitsky, Marketing & Communications Specialist for the Columbus Metropolitan Library. “You’ll continue to see current blockbuster movies and premium TV shows on DVD and Blu-ray in our physical collection as well, as usual.”

Once you are signed up on Kanopy, you are able to instantly stream up to ten movies a month, and you can watch a movie as many times as you want within 72 hours of streaming it.

Some titles include the Oscar nominated I Am Not Your Negro and the Emmy nominated documentary series The War, as well as titles that highlight LGBTQ, dance, film studies, and short films. There’s cult favorites such as Donnie Darko and foodie titles like Famous Nathan, the story of a family owned fast food chain.

To get started, visit columbuslibrary.org, and scroll down to the yellow ‘Cinema / Documentaries’ box on the bottom right.