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Michael Barker(IV)

  • Executive
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Michael Barker
Michael Barker is the Co-President and Co-Founder of Sony Pictures Classics (with Tom Bernard) since January 1992. Sony Pictures Classics distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from the United States and around the world.

Over the past 25 years, he has worked with many of the world's finest independent filmmakers including Pedro Almodóvar, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Hector Babenco, Ingmar Bergman, Frances Coppola, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro, James Ivory, Merchant Ivory, Jim Jarmusch, Norman Jewison, Neil LaBute, Ang Lee, Richard Linklater, Louise Malle, David Mamet, Errol Morris, Wim Wenders, and Zhang Yimou.

Honors bestowed on Barker's films include 25 Academy Awards, including 9 for Best Foreign Language Film, (2 for Spain, All About My Mother and Belle Époque), and 101 Academy Award nominations, including three for Best Picture (Howards End, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Capote) as well as ten Opening Night Presentations at the New York Film Festival. He has also received the Honors Award from the Directors Guild of America, France's Chevalier Order of Arts and Letters from the French Minister of Culture, the GLAAD Media Award, a retrospective at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the Gotham Industry Lifetime Achievement Award from the IFP, and the FINDIE Spirit Award.

Barker serves on the Board of Directors for the American Museum of the Moving Image, on the Entertainment Media and Technology Dean's Advisory Board at NYU's Stern School of Business and is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Barker was previously the co-founder of Orion Classics (1983-1991) and an executive at United Artists (1980-1983) where he released films by Akira Kurosawa (Ran), R.W. Fassbinder (Lola, Veronika Voss), and François Truffaut (The Last Metro). He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas.
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  • Awards
    • 5 wins

Photos32

Luca Guadagnino, Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, Armie Hammer, and Timothée Chalamet at an event for Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Brett Ratner and Michael Barker at an event for Rules Don't Apply (2016)
Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Lorene Scafaria, Michael Barker, Joy Gorman Wettels, and Cecily Strong at an event for The Meddler (2015)
Lily Tomlin, Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Julia Garner at an event for Grandma (2015)
Julianne Moore, Richard Glatzer, Kristen Stewart, Wash Westmoreland, Michael Barker, and Tom Bernard at an event for Still Alice (2014)
Julianne Moore, Richard Glatzer, Kristen Stewart, Wash Westmoreland, Michael Barker, and Tom Bernard at an event for Still Alice (2014)
Cuba Gooding Jr., Dave Polsky, Michael Barker, and Tom Bernard
Bennett Miller, Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Megan Ellison at an event for Foxcatcher (2014)
Timothy Spall, Mike Leigh, Dick Pope, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Suzie Davies, Georgina Lowe, Michael Barker, and Tom Bernard at an event for Mr. Turner (2014)
J.K. Simmons, Michael Barker, Miles Teller, Tom Bernard, and Damien Chazelle at an event for Whiplash (2014)
Jason Reitman, J.K. Simmons, Nicholas Britell, Michael Barker, Miles Teller, Tom Bernard, Helen Estabrook, Justin Hurwitz, and Damien Chazelle at an event for Whiplash (2014)
Vanessa Redgrave, Steve Carell, Bennett Miller, Lee Perkins, Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Megan Ellison at an event for Foxcatcher (2014)

Known for

Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny (2016)
Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny
7.3
  • Self - Orion Classics, Sony Pictures Classics
  • 2016
Echoes of Foreign Films: The Talbots' Legacy
  • Self
    The 41st Annual Women in Film Crystal and Lucy Awards
    TV Special
    • Self - Recipient
    • 2017
    Olga Lambea in Informe semanal (1973)
    Informe semanal
    7.0
    TV Series
    • Self

    Credits

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    Personal details

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    • Other works
      Film Review, "Faves, Hot and Cool: Brewster McCloud," Published in "The New York Times," 4 May 2008, Vol. 157, No. 54,300, Page MT13.

    Did you know

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    • Quotes
      [on the SPC release of The Bronze (2015)] We're opening in over 1,100 theaters. We feel like it's the right way to go. It's a commercial comedy, and all the actors in the film have a huge following. Melissa Rauch is in The Big Bang Theory (2007) and Sebastian Stan is in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). It's a pleasure to work on a comedy. (...) We decided to just go wide on the first week. It's not something we do all the time by any means, but it's [consistent with] the nature of this kind of movie. [2016]

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