Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house, "independent" film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded January 1, 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom (similar to Fox Searchlight Pictures and Focus Features). It distributes, produces and acquires specialty films (especially of documentaries, independent films and art films) from the United States and around the world. As of 2015, Barker and Bernard are co-presidents of the division.
Sony Pictures Classics 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 in recent years is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which grossed over $56 million in USA and became Woody Allen's highest-grossing film ever in the USA.
Sometimes, Sony Pictures Classics would agree to release some films for all other departments of Sony. But under Sony Pictures Classics' contract with Sony, all other departments of Sony (including the parent company) can't force Sony Pictures Classics to release any film it does not want to release.
Select releases
1992
- Danzon
- Howard's End
- Indochine
- Van Gogh
1993
- Faraway, So Close!
- Orlando
- The Story of Qiu Ju
1994
- Belle Époque
- Crumb
- Mi Vida Loca
- The Slingshot
- Vanya on 42nd Street
1995
- Across the Sea of Time (IMAX)
- Burnt by the Sun
- The City of Lost Children
- Mute Witness
- Persuasion
- Safe
- Wings of Courage (IMAX)
- Living in Oblivion
1996
- Anne Frank Remembered
- Denise Calls Up
- Lone Star
- Manny & Lo
- Welcome to the Dollhouse
1997
- Broken English
- In the Company of Men
- Suburbia
- Waiting for Guffman (now owned by Warner Bros.)
- When the Cat's Away
1998
- Central Station
- Character
- A Friend of the Deceased
- Henry Fool
- Run Lola Run
- The General
- The Opposite of Sex
- The Spanish Prisoner
1999
- All About My Mother
- American Movie
- SLC Punk
- Sweet and Lowdown
- The Dreamlife of Angels
- The Emperor and the Assassin
2000
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (co-production with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia and other companies)
- Not One Less (co-release with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
- Pollock
2001
- Divided We Fall
- The Devil's Backbone
- The Road Home (co-release with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
- Va Savoir (Who Knows?)
2002
- Auto Focus
- 13 Conversations About One Thing
- Dogtown and Z-Boys
- Last Orders
- Love Liza
- Nine Queens
- Spider
- Talk to Her
2003
- All the Real Girls
- Laurel Canyon
- Levity
- My Life Without Me
- The Company
- The Fog of War
- The Triplets of Belleville
- Winged Migration
2004
- Baadasssss!
- Bad Education
- Being Julia
- Good Bye Lenin!
- House of Flying Daggers
- Monsieur Ibrahim
- Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
- Zelary
- Zhou Yu's Train
- Warriors of Heaven and Earth (co-release with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
- The Merchant of Venice
2005
- 3-Iron
- 2046
- Breakfast on Pluto
- Caché
- Capote (co-release with United Artists)
- Heights
- In My Country
- Junebug
- Kung Fu Hustle (co-release with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
- Layer Cake (co-release with Columbia Pictures)
- Look At Me
- The Memory of a Killer
- Saraband
- Saving Face (co-release with Destination Films)
- The Devil and Daniel Johnston
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
- Thumbsucker
- Yes
2006
- American Hardcore
- Curse of the Golden Flower
- Driving Lessons
- Friends With Money
- The House of Sand
- Joyeux Noël
- L'Enfant (The Child)
- Quinceañera
- Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
- The Quiet (co-release with Destination Films)
- Volver
- Why We Fight
- Who Killed the Electric Car?
2007
- Angel-A
- Black Book
- Interview
- Jindabyne
- My Kid Could Paint That
- Offside
- Paprika (co-release with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group)
- Persepolis
- Sleuth
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- The Lives of Others
- The Valet
- Vitus
- Youth Without Youth
2008
- Ashes of Time Redux
- Brick Lane
- CJ7 (co-release with Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia)
- Frozen River
- I've Loved You So Long
- I Served the King of England
- It Might Get Loud
- Married Life (co-release with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group)
- Rachel Getting Married
- Redbelt
- Standard Operating Procedure
- Synecdoche, New York
- The Band's Visit
- The Class
- The Counterfeiters
- The Wackness
2009
- 12
- Adoration
- An Education
- Broken Embraces
- Coco Before Chanel
- Easy Virtue
- Lorna's Silence
- Moon (co-release with Stage 6 Films)
- O' Horten
- Paris 36
- Rudo y Cursi
- Soul Power
- Sugar
- The Damned United (co-release with Columbia Pictures)
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (co-release with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group)
- The White Ribbon
- Waltz With Bashir
- Whatever Works
2010
- A Prophet (Un Prophete)
- A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop
- Animal Kingdom
- Another Year
- Chloe (co-release with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group)
- Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
- Get Low
- Inside Job
- Lebanon
- Made in Dagenham
- Mother and Child
- Please Give
- Tamara Drewe
- The Last Station
- The Secret in Their Eyes
- Wild Grass
- You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
2011
- A Dangerous Method
- A Separation
- Barney's Version
- Carnage
- In a Better World
- Incendies
- Life, Above All
- Midnight in Paris
- Neil Young Journeys
- Of Gods and Men
- POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (co-release with Stage 6 Films)
- Restless (co-release with Columbia Pictures)
- Take Shelter
- The Guard
- The Skin I Live In
- Winter in Wartime
2012
- Amour
- Celeste and Jesse Forever
- Chicken with Plums
- Darling Companion
- Damsels in Distress
- Footnote
- In Darkness
- The Raid: Redemption (co-release with Stage 6 Films)
- Neil Young Journeys
- To Rome with Love
- Rust and Bone
- Smashed
- Searching for Sugar Man
- West of Memphis
- Where Do We Go Now?
2013
- Austenland
- At Any Price
- Fill the Void
- Before Midnight
- Blue Jasmine
- No
- I'm So Excited
- Kill Your Darlings
- Love Is All You Need
- The Company You Keep
- The Gatekeepers
- The Invisible Woman
- The Past
- The Patience Stone
- Wadjda
2014
- Foxcatcher (co-production with Annapurna Pictures)
- Land Ho!
- Infinitely Polar Bear
- Leviathan
- The Lunchbox
- Love Is Strange
- Island Dreams
- Magic in the Moonlight
- Mr. Turner
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- The Raid 2 (co-release with Stage 6 Films)
- Third Person
- Whiplash
2015
- Coming Home
- Merchants of Doubt
- Red Army
- Saint Laurent
- Still Alice
- The Salt of the Earth
- Irrational Man
- Wild Tales
- Grandma
