Tom Bernard is the Co-President and Co-Founder of Sony Pictures Classics (with Michael Barker) 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.
Upcoming releases include Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the recently acquired The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke and A Prophet by Jaques Audiard, and Please Give, from filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money). SPC also recently acquired Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival; Zhang Yimou’s upcoming remake of the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple, Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe, Aaron Schneider’s Get Low, Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon and Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station.
The recent SPC slate includes the highly anticipated Almodóvar film, Broken Embraces (Barker and Bernard’s ninth collaboration with the filmmaker), An Education, Lone Scherfig’s Sundance hit, based on the Nick Hornby novel; The Damned United, directed by Tom Hooper, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Michael Sheen (produced by the Sony Pictures International Motion Picture Production Group), Coco Before Chanel, Anne Fontaine's telling of the early years of Coco Chanel starring Audrey Tautou; It Might Get Loud, the new Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) film featuring Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White, Tribeca Film Festival’s opening night film, Woody Allen’s Whatever Works with Larry David; James Toback’s riveting documentary, Tyson; Duncan Jones' science fiction film, Moon (produced by the Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group); Carlos Cuarón’s Rudo y Cursi; and Stephen Elliot’s Easy Virtue. Currently on screen is the box office success Every Little Step, James Stern and Adam del Deo’s documentary about A Chorus Line, and Sugar, from filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson).
Honors bestowed on Mr. Bernard’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 (Howard’s 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.
Mr. Bernard is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Sundance Advisory Board, the Tribeca Film Festival Advisory Board, the Los Angeles Film Festival Advisory Board and the Monmouth University Communication Board. Bernard was previously the co-founder of Orion Classics (1983-1991), which released Akira Kurosawa’s Oscar®-winning film Ran. Bernard also ran the first studio specialized distribution company, United Artists Classics (1981-1983) where he released films by R.W. Fassbinder (Lola, Veronika Voss) and François Truffaut (The Last Metro). Mr. Bernard has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Personal Web Links
Forward
Print
384 online sources [ view sources ]
