Indie Film Distributor Spotlight: Sony Pictures Classics deserves an Indie Spirit Award. Really.
The Specialty Film Division for Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Pictures Classics is taking a blog-beating for its film’s poor box office showings, moving too slow to go into wide release, and just generally not being hip enough to handle the promotion of non-mainstream films in the manner that Fox Searchlight and Focus Features have come to excel at.
Well, I may be sent to Hell for it, but I am going to defend SPC on this one.
Just in case you missed the brouhaha (thanks to Cinematical for the summary):
Neil Miller (Film School Rejects)
Peter Sciretta (Slashfilm)
Alex Billington (First Showing)
Edward Douglas (ComingSoon.net)
Josh Tyler (Cinema Blend)
Comparisons with Fox Searchlight and Focus Features are quite simply misguided and way off point. Much of the criticism against SPC arises from the fact that its competitors have been able to turn Sundance Indies into bona fide box office dollars. Look at Fox Searchlight’s success with Little Miss Sunshine, purchased at Sundance 2006 for a record-breaking $10.5 Million; the film went on to gross close to $100 Million and won 2 Oscars. Smart buy. Smart marketing. In contrast SPC purchased Junebug at Sundance 2005, which earned next to nothing but proved to be Amy Adam’s breakout film and earn her an Oscar nomination. Despite detractor’s claims, the fact that Adams even got an Oscar nom for Junebug shows some serious marketing savvy behind the film (Oscar noms don’t just happen). However, you can’t talk about these two films as interchangeable entities. Junebug is great, but it was never going to be a crossover hit. All the marketing in the world cannot change the fact that it is a decidedly odd movie about, among other things, outsider artists. Not every Indie film is going to be a Little Miss Sunshine or a Juno--and, well, thank God for that.
SPC, unlike Focus and Fox Searchlight actually shops the Sundance Competition category, instead of confining itself to the safer choices of the elite Non Competition Premiere films. Just look at the breakdown of Sundance 2008 deals. Of the 9 feature films, 6 deals were made for distribution in the US. (1 of the deals was by United Artists who purchased the remake rights for the Spanish film Timecrimes, but have no plans to distribute.) 2 of those 6 films (Hamlet 2 and Henry Poole Is Here) played in the Premiere selection. So, of the 121 features in competition, 4 found a home, and for 3 of them that home is with the SPC (Frozen River, Baghead, as well as The Wackness). In many respects, SPC is keeping film acquisition alive at Sundance, choosing to shop the lesser known films and purchasing in quantity (all were had for around 6 figures), rather than looking for the headline grabbing big money deal. Indeed, I find it quaint and almost touching the way SPC handles Sundance. Its choices seem bracing and risky, even if they may be due to its buying strategy of avoiding bidding wars and looking for asking prices to drop as the fest wears on. Bottom feeders SPC may be, but that does not change the fact that it is willing to court the wallflowers of the festival that nobody else wants to take for a spin, including this year’s Grand Jury Price winner Frozen River.
On paper this film has nothing going for it. A cast that falls well below your average TV Movie Of The Week (and that’s Network TV); a downer subject that lacks sexy topicality—illegal US border crossings from, wait for it, Canada. It’s a nutty move, as are their two other fest buys. Film fans may bemoan SPC’s purchase of The Wackness, but neither Fox Searchlight nor Focus wanted it that badly, perhaps because they know that it has no chance of being the next Little Miss Sunshine. Sony is making smaller deals for smaller movies to do, probably, small business. I sort of love it; I like the “think small” attitude towards independent film. After all, isn’t that the point, rather than go after the one Indie film that has a chance of crossover success, Sony is taking up a few wild cards and one day, they will make it to a theatre near year—if only for a week. I think if the Independent Spirit Awards had an award for Film Acquisition this year, it should go to SPC. The company’s gamble on niche markets, on the oddball, on the rag-tag underdog has exactly the wild Indie spirit that the most successful Sundance films routinely champion--and that the biggest Sundance deals routinely lack.
Film Acquistions • Film Festivals • Indie Film • Sundance Film Festival •
