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Sony Pictures Classics
Arthouse division of Sony Pictures Entertainment From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American arthouse film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom.[2] 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, which is currently one of the five live-action labels of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, alongside Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, and 3000 Pictures.
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Sony Pictures Classics (also known as Sony Classics or SPC) was formed in 1992 by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom, and set up as an autonomous division of Sony Pictures[2] to produce, acquire and/or distribute independent films from the United States and internationally.[3]
It has released films that have won 38 Academy Awards and received 164 nominations,[4] including Best Picture nominations for I’m Still Here, The Father, Call Me By Your Name, Whiplash, Amour, Midnight in Paris, An Education, Capote, Howards End, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.[5]
SPC has a history of making reasonable investments for small films and getting a decent return.[2][6][7] It has a history of not overspending.[2][8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
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.[2][11]
In 2025, 10 SPC titles made The New York Times 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century list. Ranked the highest among SPC titles at 16 was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (directed by Ang Lee, 2000), at 33 was A Separation (directed by Asghar Farhadi, 2011), at 35 was A Prophet (directed by Jacques Audiard, 2010), at 37 was Call Me By Your Name (directed by Luca Guadagnino, 2017), at 41 was Amelie (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001), at 48 was Lives of Others (directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2007), at 59 was Toni Erdmann (directed by Maren Ade, 2016), at 60 was Whiplash (directed by Damien Chazelle, 2014), at 75 was Amour (directed by Michael Haneke, 2012), and finally Volver by longtime Sony Pictures Classics collaborator Pedro Almodóvar, 2006. [12]
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