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Orion Classics

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Orion Classics
TypeLabel
IndustryMotion pictures
Founded1982; 41 years ago (1982) (Original),
2018 (relaunch)
Founders
Headquarters,
United States
Key people
  • Sam Wollman (senior VP acquisitions, MGM)
  • Chris Ottinger
  • (MGM president of worldwide television and acquisitions)
  • John Hegeman (Orion Pictures president)
OwnerOrion Pictures
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.)
(Amazon)

Orion Classics started in 1982 as the distribution label for the then independent film production company Orion Pictures, now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was relaunched in 2018.

The original focus of 1980-era Orion Classics was on acquiring independent and foreign films for North American distribution, as headed by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom. In addition it aimed to produce some arthouse films of its own. It was launched 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.

Since its relaunch Orion Classics has released Mike P. Nelson's The Domestics and Jim Cummings' The Wolf of Snow Hollow, among others.

Discover more about Orion Classics related topics

Orion Pictures

Orion Pictures

Orion Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. From its founding until its buyout by MGM in the late 1990s, Orion was considered one of the largest mini-major studios.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California.

Independent film

Independent film

An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.

Donna Gigliotti

Donna Gigliotti

Donna Gigliotti is an American film producer. She is best known for producing Shakespeare in Love, Hidden Figures, Silver Linings Playbook and The Reader.

Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast is a 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. The screenplay, written by Axel, was based on the 1958 story of the same name by Isak Dinesen. It was produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen and Benni Korzen, with funding from the Danish Film Institute.

Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives. Desire, passion, family, and identity are among Almodóvar's most prevalent subjects in his films. Acclaimed as one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have gained worldwide interest and developed a cult following.

Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch

James Robert Jarmusch is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), Paterson (2016), and The Dead Don't Die (2019). Stranger Than Paradise was added to the National Film Registry in December 2002. As a musician Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released three albums with Jozef van Wissem.

Mystery Train (film)

Mystery Train (film)

Mystery Train is a 1989 comedy-drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and set in Memphis, Tennessee. The film is a triptych of stories involving foreign protagonists, unfolding over the course of the same night. "Far from Yokohama" features a Japanese couple on a cultural pilgrimage, "A Ghost" focuses on an Italian widow stranded in the city overnight, and "Lost in Space" follows the misadventures of a newly single and unemployed Englishman and his reluctant companions. The narratives are linked by a run-down flophouse overseen by a night clerk and his disheveled bellboy, the use of Elvis Presley's song "Blue Moon", and a gunshot.

Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

Slacker (film)

Slacker (film)

Slacker is a 1990 American independent comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Linklater, who also appears in the film. Slacker was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991.

The Domestics

The Domestics

The Domestics is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic action horror film directed and written by Mike P. Nelson. The film stars Kate Bosworth and Tyler Hoechlin.

Jim Cummings (filmmaker)

Jim Cummings (filmmaker)

Jim Cummings is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. He is known for writing, directing and starring in the 2016 short film Thunder Road, which he extended into a 2018 feature film of the same name. He also wrote, directed and starred The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020), and The Beta Test (2021).

History

Orion Classics was formed by Orion Pictures in 1982 as an autonomous division for specialty films. United Artists Classics executives, Tom Bernard, Michael Barker and Donna Gigliotti, having a dispute with its parent United Artists left to fill Orion Classics' executive ranks, thus mirroring Orion Pictures' formation. With the UA Classics executives, the division had built in connection with the art house film community. While the three executives had different titles and responsibilities they acted as all having the same responsibilities.[2]

The division took on the early UA Classics modus operandi of frugal marketing spending and strict staggered releasing with few prints. Thus 10 to 50 prints would be made based on its potential success with an average marketing budget of $225,000 would be first released in New York City before moving on to other metropolitan areas and given time to find its position.[2]

The team was able to get French filmmaker Eric Rohmer to switch from UA Classics to Orion. He was then the source of its first film and box office hit with Pauline at the Beach in July 1983. Thus Orion Classics released four out of five of Rohmer's 1980s films and investing in a few of them. Orion's last acquisition in 1983 was its first independent US movie, Strangers Kiss (1984).[2]

In August 1983, the company had indicated that they would be into production of its own material by late 1984 or early 1985. However, Orion Pictures was having more box office failures then successes thus those plans were put on hold.[2]

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 invitation 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.

Relaunch

In May 2018, it was announced that Orion Classics would be revived as a multiplatform distribution label, with 8 to 10 films being released per year. Orion Classics will be MGM's method of getting into the day-and-date theatrical-VOD business. The label's first film is Mike P. Nelson's The Domestics, which was released in theaters on June 28, 2018, and on VOD and digital the next day.[1]

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Tom Bernard

Tom Bernard

Tom Bernard is an American film distributor specializing in art cinema and is one of the co-founders of Sony Pictures Classics (SPC). Bernard and fellow Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker have worked together for approximately four decades and have won 39 Oscars.

Modus operandi

Modus operandi

A modus operandi is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operating".

Merchant Ivory Productions

Merchant Ivory Productions

Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) and director James Ivory. Merchant and Ivory were life and business partners from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During their time together, they made 44 films. The films were for the most part produced by Merchant and directed by Ivory, and 23 of them were scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013) in some capacity. The films were often based upon novels or short stories, particularly the work of Henry James, E. M. Forster, and Jhabvala herself.

Howards End (film)

Howards End (film)

Howards End is a 1992 period romantic drama film directed by James Ivory, from a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the 1910 novel of the same name by E. M. Forster. Marking Merchant Ivory Productions' third adaptation of a Forster novel, it was the first film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics. The film's narrative explores class relations in turn-of-the-20th-century Britain, through events in the lives of the Schlegel sisters.

Mike Medavoy

Mike Medavoy

Morris Mike Medavoy is an American film producer and business executive. He is the co-founder of Orion Pictures (1978), former chairman of TriStar Pictures, former head of production for United Artists (1974–1978), and the current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.

TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony studio Columbia Pictures.

Sony Pictures Classics

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. 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.

Metromedia

Metromedia

Metromedia was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMont Television Network ceased operations and its owned-and-operated stations were spun off into a separate company. Metromedia sold its television stations to News Corporation in 1985, and spun off its radio stations into a separate company in 1986. Metromedia then acquired ownership stakes in various film studios, including controlling ownership in Orion. In 1997, Metromedia closed down and sold its media assets to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Samuel Goldwyn Company

The Samuel Goldwyn Company

The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an American independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, in 1978.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California.

United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation (UA), doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, was an American production and distribution company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio was premised on allowing actors to control their own interests, rather than being dependent upon commercial studios. UA was repeatedly bought, sold, and restructured over the ensuing century. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired the studio in 1981 for a reported $350 million.

The Domestics

The Domestics

The Domestics is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic action horror film directed and written by Mike P. Nelson. The film stars Kate Bosworth and Tyler Hoechlin.

Film library

Title Release Date
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose 1982
The Pool Hustlers 1982
Beyond the Door September 5, 1982
Pauline at the Beach July 29, 1983[2]
Carmen October 20, 1983
Scrubbers January 31, 1984
Privates on Parade April 13, 1984
Sugar Cane Alley April 13, 1984
Another Country[2] June 29, 1984
Strangers Kiss[2] August 13, 1984
Old Enough August 24, 1984
Full Moon in Paris[2] September 7, 1984
Swann in Love September 14, 1984
Where the Green Ants Dream February 8, 1985
My New Partner March 8, 1985
MacArthur's Children May 17, 1985
Henry IV June 28, 1985
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart[2] August 9, 1985
Came a Hot Friday October 4, 1985
Colonel Redl [2]
Ran[2] December 20, 1985
A.K. January 29, 1986
My Beautiful Laundrette March 7, 1986
A Great Wall May 30, 1986
The Green Ray[2] August 29, 1986
Restless Natives September 12, 1986
The Sacrifice November 1986
El Amor brujo December 23, 1986
One Woman or Two February 6, 1987
Devil in the Flesh May 22, 1987
Jean de Florette June 26, 1987
Rita, Sue and Bob Too July 17, 1987
End of the Line August 28, 1987
Dancing in Water September 18, 1987
Manon of the Spring November 5, 1987
Au Revoir Les Enfants December 1987
A Month in the Country February 19, 1988
Babette's Feast March 4, 1988
Wings of Desire May 6, 1988
Loose Connections July 8, 1988
Boyfriends and Girlfriends July 15, 1988
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown November 11, 1988
Field of Honor January 20, 1989
Murmur of the Heart February 3, 1989
Chocolat March 10, 1989
The Reader April 21, 1989
The Music Teacher July 7, 1989
Mystery Train November 7, 1989
Camille Claudel December 21, 1989
Too Beautiful for You March 2, 1990
Monsieur Hire April 20, 1990
Jesus of Montreal May 25, 1990
May Fools June 22, 1990
Wait Until Spring, Bandini June 29, 1990
Life and Nothing But September 14, 1990
Leningrad Cowboys Go America November 2, 1990
Cyrano de Bergerac December 1, 1990
Open Doors March 8, 1991
Love Without Pity May 31, 1991
My Father's Glory June 14, 1991
Europa Europa June 28, 1991
Slacker July 5, 1991
My Mother's Castle July 26, 1991
Opera September 6, 1991
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe September 27, 1991
Rhapsody in August December 20, 1991
Raise the Red Lantern March 13, 1992
A Woman's Tale May 1, 1992
The Adjuster May 29, 1992
A Tale of Springtime July 17, 1992
Rain Without Thunder February 5, 1993
Boxing Helena September 3, 1993
Nostradamus September 16, 1994
Bar Girls April 7, 1995
Jeffrey August 18, 1995
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey August 24, 1995
Maybe, Maybe Not July 12, 1996
Ed's Next Move September 27, 1996
Trees Lounge October 11, 1996
Prisoner of the Mountains January 31, 1997
This World, Then the Fireworks July 11, 1997
One Man's Hero September 24, 1999
The Domestics June 28, 2018
Unlovable November 1, 2018
Jinn November 15, 2018
Clara's Ghost December 6, 2018
Maine December 14, 2018
All These Small Moments January 17, 2019
Valley Girl May 8, 2020
The Wolf of Snow Hollow October 9, 2020

Discover more about Film library related topics

Beyond the Door (1982 film)

Beyond the Door (1982 film)

Beyond the Door is a 1982 Italian drama film directed by Liliana Cavani.

Pauline at the Beach

Pauline at the Beach

Pauline at the Beach is a 1983 French romantic comedy film directed by Éric Rohmer. The film stars Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory and Féodor Atkine. It is the third in the 1980s series "Comedies and Proverbs" by Rohmer.

Carmen (1983 film)

Carmen (1983 film)

Carmen is a 1983 Spanish film adaptation of the novel Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, using music from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It was directed and choreographed in the flamenco style by Carlos Saura and María Pagés. It is the second part of Saura's flamenco trilogy in the 1980s, preceded by Bodas de sangre and followed by El amor brujo.

Another Country (1984 film)

Another Country (1984 film)

Another Country is a 1984 British romantic historical drama written by Julian Mitchell, adapted from his play of the same name. Directed by Marek Kanievska, the film stars Rupert Everett and Colin Firth in his feature film debut.

Old Enough

Old Enough

Old Enough is a 1984 American comedy-drama coming-of-age film written and directed by Marisa Silver, and produced by Dina Silver. The film follows the friendship that develops over one summer between two girls from different social backgrounds.

Full Moon in Paris

Full Moon in Paris

Full Moon in Paris is a 1984 French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer. The film stars Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo and Fabrice Luchini. The score is by Elli et Jacno.

My New Partner

My New Partner

My New Partner, also called Le Cop, is a 1984 French comedy film directed by Claude Zidi that stars Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte. Noiret plays a streetwise Paris policeman who takes kickbacks from the minor criminals on his beat to allow them to continue but is assigned an idealistic new partner fresh from training. His efforts to enmesh his colleague in the prevailing corruption succeed spectacularly.

MacArthur's Children

MacArthur's Children

MacArthur's Children is a 1984 Japanese film. Describing the impact of the United States' occupation of Japan from the perspective of the inhabitants of a small, rural island community, the film featured the big screen debut of actor Ken Watanabe.

Henry IV (film)

Henry IV (film)

Henry IV is a 1984 Italian drama film directed by Marco Bellocchio. It is based on the Luigi Pirandello play of the same name and has music by Astor Piazzolla. It was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Wayne Wang and starring Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, Victor Wong, Ida F. O. Chung, Cora Miao, Amy Hill, and Joan Chen.

Came a Hot Friday

Came a Hot Friday

Came a Hot Friday is a 1985 New Zealand comedy film, based on the 1964 novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Directed and co-written by Ian Mune, it became one of the most successful local films released in New Zealand in the 1980s. The film's cast included famed New Zealand comedian Billy T. James.

Colonel Redl

Colonel Redl

Colonel Redl is a 1985 biographical drama film by Hungarian director István Szabó. The plot, set in the period before World War I, follows the rise of Alfred Redl, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Redl, who comes from a humble background, enters military school as a boy and has an illustrious military career pushed forward by his loyalty to the crown. He is appointed the head of an intelligence gathering unit, but his attraction to men eventually causes his downfall.

Source: "Orion Classics", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Classics.

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References
  1. ^ a b McClintock, Pamela (May 21, 2018). "MGM Relaunches Orion Classics as Multiplatform Distribution Label". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tzioumakis, Yannis (2012). "Orion Classics (1983 to 1997)". Unknown: Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and American Independent Cinema. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 65–78. ISBN 9780748649594. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
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