Orion Classics
| Corporation | |
| Industry | Motion pictures |
| Fate | Merged with The Samuel Goldwyn Company |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Key people |
Michael Barker Tom Bernard Marcie Bloom Donna Gigliotti (founders) |
| Parent | Orion Pictures |
Orion Classics[1][2] 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.
Films
| 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 |
| Carmen | October 20, 1983 |
| Scrubbers | January 31, 1984 |
| Sugar Cane Alley | April 6, 1984 |
| Privates on Parade | April 13, 1984 |
| Another Country | June 29, 1984 |
| Strangers Kiss | August 13, 1984 |
| Old Enough | August 24, 1984 |
| Full Moon in Paris | 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 | August 9, 1985 |
| Came a Hot Friday | October 4, 1985 |
| Colonel Redl | October 4, 1985 |
| Ran | December 20, 1985 |
| A.K. | January 29, 1986 |
| My Beautiful Laundrette | March 7, 1986 |
| A Great Wall | May 30, 1986 |
| The Green Ray | August 29, 1986 |
| Restless Natives | September 12, 1986 |
| The Sacrifice | November 1986 |
| El Amor brujo | December 23, 1986 |
| One Woman or Two | February 20, 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 |