Chatham, NY—October 14, 2022)—FilmColumbia, the county’s premier cultural event, is delighted to celebrate the significant contributions to cinema made by Sony Pictures Classics during its past 30 years as a distributor of independent films. “We’re thrilled to be opening the festival this year with a tribute to the influential distributor,” says FilmColumbia co-executive director and co-programmer Peter Biskind.
Co-founded in 1992 by co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, along with Marcie Bloom, Sony Pictures Classics has released the finest independent films of the past three decades and amassed a library of nearly 500 titles, earning the distributor 158 Academy Award nominations and 37 wins, in addition to guild appreciation and many other awards.
FilmColumbia’s past festivals have screened many of those films, and this year is no exception. “We’ll be showing three of their films this year, including the classic of all classics, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, co-written by James Schamus,” says Biskind. After the screening, Schamus will take to the stage to interview SPC’s Tom Bernard. “Together, they’ll take a good, long look at where the filmmaking industry is today, given the fact that streaming and exhibition are still very much up in the air.” The Q+A on October 21 at 6:30 pm is a free event and no ticket is needed to attend.
During the past 30 years, Sony Pictures Classic has worked with a world-class set of filmmakers–several from the earliest stages of their careers–including Pedro Almodóvar, Luca Guadagnino, Mike Leigh, Sally Potter, Zhang Yimou, Susanne Bier, Jonathan Demme, Sally Potter, R. W. Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, Denis Villeneuve, Maren Ade, Ang Lee, James Schamus, Ingmar Bergman, Agnes Varda, Chloé Zhao, and many more.
FilmColumbia continues through Sunday, October 30, with a highly curated lineup of Hollywood, independent and international films. Tickets and full festival passes will go on sale to the general public on Saturday, October 15.
For more information, visit: crandelltheatre.org/filmcolumbia.