Former type Corporation Headquarters Los Angeles Ceased operations 1999 | Industry Motion pictures Founded 1983 Parent organization Orion Pictures | |
Fate Merged with The Samuel Goldwyn Company Defunct 1999; 18 years ago (1999) Key people Michael Barker
Tom Bernard
Marcie Bloom
Donna Gigliotti
(Founders) Founders Tom Bernard, Michael Barker, Donna Gigliotti | ||
Orion Classics was the division of Orion Pictures, headed by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom, that acquired independent and foreign films for North American distribution, in addition to producing some arthouse films of its own. It was launched in 1983 when Barker, Bernard and Donna Gigliotti moved from UA Classics, a United Artists specialty division.
Among its most notable films were Babette's Feast, Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train and Richard Linklater's Slacker.
In late 1991, when Orion Pictures was in serious financial trouble, Barker, Bernard, and Bloom left Orion Classics, taking the rights to the highly anticipated Merchant Ivory Productions adaptation of Howards End with them; at the invite of former Orion president Mike Medavoy, who was now relocated at TriStar Pictures, the three set up Sony Pictures Classics, with Howards End as the company's first release.
In the mid-1990s, Metromedia acquired Orion, and merged the classics division into the Samuel Goldwyn Company. Both Orion and SGC were sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1997, with the latter's function of producing and/or distributing independent films being assumed by MGM's United Artists division.