Tony Leung (Hong Kong, 63) enters the lobby of a Madrid hotel and brings with him an absolute sense of calm. The pace slows; you even get the impression the temperature has dropped slightly. Leung’s image in the film collective was sealed by his role in In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece that earned Leung the best actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. A man anchored in melancholy, unable to confront his unfaithful wife or to declare his love to his neighbor. That introspection turned Leung into one of the coolest men on the planet.

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In 2011, Karl von Randow and Matt Buchanan, two tech-loving New Zealand film buffs, launched Letterboxd, a movie review and rating app inspired by Goodreads, the platform that does the same for books. For several years, they juggled this small project with their work at a web design studio. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, they hired their first full-time employee, and with the world confined to their homes, their user base exploded. In 2023, the company was acquired by the Canadian company Tiny and today boasts over 26 million user profiles. While this figure seems insignificant compared to companies like Instagram (with around three billion active users), it reflects the cultural power of film as a source of conversation. Those who love movies enjoy watching them as much as discussing and analyzing them in detail, and Letterboxd is aimed at that community — including famous filmmakers and performers.

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