This little-known streaming service has great movies, no ads – and it's totally free
The streaming revolution has made almost the entirety of movie history available at the clack of a keyboard, but it’s far from perfect. For one thing, it’s grown terribly expensive. As the number of platforms has exploded, the notion of canceling cable – the dream of the early streaming era – has become increasingly cost prohibitive. And yes, while there are a handful of free, ad-supported services with decent catalogues out there, it’s pretty jarring to watch, let’s say, Late Spring and suddenly get interrupted with a commercial for cleaning liquid or Taco Bell.
But what if we told you there’s a streaming service that’s not only totally free and without ads, but loaded with great new, classic and rare films – and that all you need to access it is a library card.
It’s called Kanopy. Started in 2008 out of Western Australia, the company initially aimed to be ‘the Netflix of education’, marketing itself to universities and libraries in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. and hosting thousands of videos from the likes of the Criterion Collection, PBS and BBC. Now, it’s simply a cinephile’s dream, offering over 30,000 titles ranging from classics from Hollywood and abroad, to cult favourites, to hard-to-find obscurities, to documentaries and experimental films, to even newer fare like 2025 Best Picture winner Anora. (A handful are added weekly.) And, as mentioned, if you have a library card from a participating library – or, for college students university ID – that’s all you need