Thalberg Award
The Sony Classics co-chiefs, true film buffs who have worked together since 1979 — at Films Inc., UA Classics, Orion Classics and, since 1992, at their current operation, which they co-founded with Marcie Bloom — have lasted longer at the helm of a production and distribution company, and done more for art house cinema, than anyone else of their era.
On top of that, their filmmaker relationships are second-to-none. Indeed, what other active execs have directly collaborated with Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Louis Malle and François Truffaut, as well as Damien Chazelle, Chloé Zhao, Jacques Audiard and Luca Guadagnino? The answer: nobody.
Barker and Bernard made and/or distributed English-language instant-classics such as 1992’s Howards End, 1996’s Lone Star, 1997’s Afterglow, 2000’s Pollock, 2005’s Capote, 2008’s Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married and Synecdoche, New York, 2009’s An Education, 2010’s Animal Kingdom, 2013’s Before Midnight, 2014’s Foxcatcher, 2014’s Whiplash, 2014’s Still Alice, 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, The Rider and The Wife and 2020’s The Father, as well as many of the films of Woody Allen (including 1999’s Sweet and Lowdown, 2011’s Midnight in Paris and 2013’s Blue Jasmine).
They backed a ton of non-English-language masterpieces including 1992’s Indochine, 1998’s Central Station, 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2005’s Caché, 2006’s The Lives of Others, 2007’s The Counterfeiters, 2009’s The Secret in Their Eyes, 2010’s In a Better World and Incendies, 2011’s A Separation, 2012’s Amour and Rust and Bone, 2015’s Son of Saul, 2016’s Elle and Toni Erdmann, 2017’s A Fantastic Woman, 2023’s The Teacher’s Lounge and 2024’s I’m Still Here, as well as most of the work of Pedro Almodóvar (such as 1999’s All About My Mother, 2002’s Talk to Her and 2006’s Volver).
And they’ve also been behind a ton of important documentary features (e.g. 2001’s Winged Migration, 2003’s The Fog of War, 2010’s Inside Job and 2012’s Searching for Sugar Man) and animated features (e.g. 2003’s The Triplets of Belleville, 2007’s Persepolis and 2008’s Waltz with Bashir), as well.
They’re more mild-mannered and less attention-hungry than most of their contemporaries/competitors (their most notorious competitor in New York got himself an Oscar by taking a producing credit on Shakespeare in Love), but make no mistake about it: the last 40 years of the film business — and of the Oscars, during which their films have garnered nearly 200 noms, 10 for best picture, and an astounding 16 won best international feature — would have looked very different without them.
Branch(es) It Would Most Please Executives, Directors and Documentary
Precedents Arthur Krim (1975), Richard Zanuck (1995) and John Calley (2009)
Potential Tablemates Pedro Almodóvar, Bennett Miller, Michael Haneke, Ang Lee, Walter Salles, Damien Chazelle, Luca Guadagnino, Chloé Zhao, Catherine Deneuve, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Rothman
[Listen to Barker and Bernard’s 2016 interview on THR’s Awards Chatter podcast!]
Original Article on Hollywood Reporter