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The indie film confab Zurich Summit took place Saturday as the marquee industry event alongside the Zurich Film Festival. More than 100 film pros took part in the all-day session that drilled down into the state of the industry.

Sony Pictures Classics’ Wicked Little Letters grossed an estimated $1.5+ million in a big second week expansion for the R-rated British period comedy to 1,000 screens from five. The Thea Sharrock-directed film starring Olivia Colman (also a producer) and Jessie Buckley, no. 8 at the domestic weekend box office, has a $1.6+ million cume.

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony should be known as the Cannes Oscars, argues Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux.

CatVideoFest, which is just what it sounds like, joined notable indie debuts and festival favorites Shortcomings and Passages, the re-release of Shiva Baby and juggernaut Talk To Me in another weekend of varied specialty fare, both new and holding over. Indies are helping drive a buoyant box office. They’re also waiting for the Barbenheimer tsunami to recede as bit as these unusual blockbusters vacuum up the arthouse/adult audiences.

Leonine’s Fred Kogel To Be Feted In Zurich

Michael J. Fox’s family was by his side on a very big night.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Variety and Gotham Film and Media Institute kicked off the Cannes Film Festival in style, bringing together entertainment industry insiders and festival attendees for a welcome party at the newly revamped Carlton Hotel. The outdoor courtyard was filled with producers, executives and financiers and other Hollywood players, including Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, Martin Scorsese’s daughter Francesca, FilmNation’s founder Glen Basner, Cinetic Media boss John Sloss, CAA’s Ben Kramer and Black Bear International’s John Friedberg.  At the event, Leonine Studios was honored with the International Achievement in Film Award, a recognition designed to spotlight the honoree’s recent achievements. The German production, licensing and distribution company was formed by Fred Kogel in 2019 and established itself as one of Europe’s biggest movie buyers. It’s picked up more than 40 feature films, such as “Hunger Games,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Knives Out.”

EXCLUSIVE: Comedic documentary filmmaker John Wilson is joining Michael J. Fox among honorees at the Museum of the Moving Image’s spring Moving Image Awards benefit on June 6.

Filmmakers and executives, creatives of music, theater and art remembered Tom Luddy as friend and mentor, tastemaker and cultural force who deployed an astonishingly vast network to nurture talent and bring people and projects together over decades.

Carl Goodman is making his exit from Museum of the Moving Image — the New York cultural institution where he’s spent 34 years, most recently as Executive Director.

Jonathan Majors and Magazine Dreams flexed some big muscles tonight at the drama’s Sundance Film Festival premiere with the actor drawing a standing ovation.

Clayton Davis Thirty years ago, former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom created the independent arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment with full autonomy to produce, acquire and distribute films from cinema’s notable auteurs. In the decades since, Sony Pictures Classics has picked up 158 Oscar nominations and 37 statuettes (41 in total for films helmed by Barker and Bernard). It has also made history: Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) earned 10 Oscar nominations, the most ever for a non-English-language movie, and went on to win four trophies, including foreign language film.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. Our crack team of reporters and editors brought you the news from Zurich to Singapore to London this week, and I’m here to help you digest. Read away.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Sony Pictures Classicspresidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard offered sound advice to U.S. theater chains, while explaining the reasons behind their continued success, during a discussion at the Zurich Film Festival on Saturday about their colorful and storied partnership that has spanned more than four decades. Zurich is honoring the duo for their services to film culture with its Game Changer Award on Sunday.   Speaking to Roeg Sutherland, co-CEO of CAA Media Finance, at the festival’s Zurich Summit industry event, Barker and Bernard took an engaging and humorous trip down memory lane, from first working together at United Artists Classics and then at Orion Classics, before establishing Sony Pictures Classics in 1992, to working with Akira Kurosawa, and managing to reacquire “Howards End” from Ismail Merchant, despite Harvey Weinstein’s efforts to significantly outbid them.

Sony Pictures Classics co-chiefs Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, who are being feted by the Zurich Film Festival with the event’s GameChanger Award, took part today in a Zurich Summit panel about their careers and the state of the specialty business.

Former Lionsgate film chief Patrick Wachsberger, Carol producer Christine Vachon, Neon CEO Tom Quinn and SPC bosses Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will be among industry executives taking part in the Zurich Summit tomorrow [Saturday 24] in Switzerland.

Sony Pictures Classics co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will be honored with the Zurich Film Festival’s Game Changer Award in recognition of their outstanding achievements within the film industry.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Classics co-founders Michael Barker and Tom Bernard will receive the Game Changer Award at the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), in recognition of their services to film culture.Along with Marcie Bloom, Barker and Bernard, who serve as co-presidents, founded Sony Pictures Classics as an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. To date, films produced by the studio have received 183 Academy Award nominations — 70 of which were films by women — and won 41 Oscars.

Pedro Almodóvar’s  opened to an estimated $41,076 this weekend on three screens for a PSA of $13,692 over three days. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker calls that cume conservative, anticipating $42-$43K for the Penelope Cruz-starrer that he said has been attracting a diverse new audience to Almodóvar, including younger moviegoers.

Claudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefDuring Sunday’s Oscars telecast, Sony Pictures Classics co-chief Tom Bernard and I were commiserating by text about how strange it was to be watching the show from our respective homes on the East and West coasts.

EXCLUSIVE: “Don’t be in a panic!”

Sony Pictures Classics has made some tweaks to its release schedule for four upcoming pics and one that’s already in theaters.

Also Read: 'The Good Liar' Film Review: Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen Wasted in Disappointing Crime Drama“Notting Hill” director Michell worked from a script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman,Nicky Bentham produced the film, while executive producers include Cameron McCracken and Jenny Borgars for Pathé, Andrea Scarso for Ingenious Media, Hugo Heppell for Screen Yorkshire, Peter Scarf and Christopher Bunton.Under co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, Sony Classics has released