Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom.<ref name="SPC at 15">{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-pictures-classics-at-15-139749|title=Sony Pictures Classics at 15|first=Anne|last=Thompson|date=October 17, 2006|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209021120/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-pictures-classics-at-15-139749|archive-date=February 9, 2012|url-status=live|access-date=March 4, 2010|quote="They stay behind the films and manage to find a significant core audience for a large number of them, with the occasional $130 million blowout like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,''' [former United Artists president Bingham] Ray says. 'But they spend a fraction of what a major studio would spend to get the same number. Their philosophy is not to pile a lot of money on everything. They run a tight ship; they don't have an army of people working for them. They keep things simple."}} Alt URL</ref> It distributes, produces and acquires specialty films such as documentaries, independent and arthouse films in the United States and internationally. As of 2015, Barker and Bernard are co-presidents of the division.
History
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) was formed in 1992 by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom, and set up as an autonomous division of Sony Pictures to produce, acquire and/or distribute independent films from the United States and internationally.
It has released films that have won 37 Academy Awards and received 155 nominations, including Best Picture nominations for The Father, Call Me By Your Name, Whiplash, Amour, Midnight in Paris, An Education, Capote, Howards End, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
SPC has a history of making reasonable investments for small films, and getting a decent return. It has a history of not overspending. Its largest commercial success of the 2010s is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011), which grossed over $56 million in the U.S., becoming Allen's highest-grossing film ever in the United States.
SPC has been a pioneer in theatrical distribution. In 2001 championed the Chinese-language film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which earned the most Oscar nominations ever for a non-English-language film, and win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and a Golden Globe in 2001. The film earned over $213 million worldwide on a $17 million budget, including $128 million in the U.S. as a Sony Pictures Classics release.
In 2006, SPC promoted The Lives of Others'' to an Oscar and BAFTA, after it was rejected by the Cannes, Berlin, Venice and New York Film Festivals.
SPC occasionally agrees to release films for Sony's other film divisions; however, under its structure within Sony, none of the other divisions (including the parent company) can force SPC to release any film it does not want to release.
Film library
References
External links
Entertainment companies established in 1992
Classics
Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group
Film distributors of the United States
Film production companies of the United States
American independent film studios
Companies based in Los Angeles
Companies based in New York City
American companies established in 1992
1992 establishments in California