Bil Antoniou

Criterion Maestro
Bil Antoniou is a Toronto-based actor and playwright who co-hosts the podcast BGM: Bad Gay Movies/Bitchy Gay Men and his own personal memory project podcast My Criterions. The rest of the time, he's usually watching movies and blogging about them at MyOldAddiction.com.


Articles by Bil Antoniou:


  • September 14, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Bad Vacations

    As an antidote to our pandemic wanderlust, The Criterion Channel has put together a list of films meant to remind us that going somewhere isn’t always a good thing.

  • August 29, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Starring Alain Delon

    The face of an angel with haunted, almost devilish eyes couldn’t be more suited to capturing the hearts and imaginations of viewers, and throughout his lengthy career Delon has played a series of charismatic bad boys that have made him a very potent, very eternal sex symbol

  • August 16, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Directed by Powell and Pressburger

    It’s not just marriages that are made in heaven, some film collaborations are as well, and the artform rarely benefited more from two artists collaborating than when Austrian émigré screenwriter Emeric Pressburger was paired up with English director Michael Powell.

  • German Expressionism
    August 8, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: German Expressionism

    Criterion’s collection highlighting the genre of German Expressionism is such a gift for those of us who have always read about the filmmaking style, but never actually investigated it. 

  • Ryuichi Sakamoto
    July 25, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Scores by Ryuichi Sakamoto

    When interviewed, Ryuichi Sakamoto says that he’s “fascinated by the notion of a perpetual sound”, working to create not just a melody but a mood and even a way of thinking with his compositions.

  • A Separation Marriage Stories
    July 18, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Marriage Stories

    Criterion has put together a collection of marital tales, most of which aren’t going to inspire you to jump to propose any time soon: the ones who stay together are miserable (or, in one case, possibly a fantasy), those who part do so in a morass of bigamy, infidelity and acrimony.

  • Luis García Berlanga
    July 11, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga

    No surprise that a man who began his studies in philosophy before enrolling in the impressively named “Institute of Cinematographic Investigations and Experiences” would turn out to be a storyteller whose technical skill is matched by his intelligent and thoughtful irony. Even less shocking is that a man who volunteered to serve in World War II to save his Republican father from being executed would also have a critical opinion of his government.

  • Jake Gyllenhaal and Catherine Keener in Lovely and Amazing
    June 28, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Four Trilogies

    The Criterion Channel has put together small collections of films by noted filmmakers past and present, choosing three each to represent the essence of their work. 

  • Tokyo story criterion collection
    June 21, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Criterion Channel Essentials

    If you’re looking for key works in the realm of arthouse cinema, Bil Antoniou and ThatShelf.com writers Pat Mullen, Rachel West, Colin Biggs and Barbara Goslawski have looked through the Channel’s Permanent Gallery and put together list and reasons for why you should start with these.

  • May 30, 2020

    The Criterion Shelf: Cannes ’68

    This week’s edition of The Criterion Shelf ranks the films in Criterion Channel’s collection of films from Cannes 1968, which was cancelled mid-run.