For almost three decades the big Hollywood studios have operated classics divisions or specialty labels, subsidiaries that originally focused on the foreign art house film market, while more recently (and controversially) moving on to the American 'indie' film market. This is the first book to offer an in depth examination of the phenomenon of the classics divisions by tracing its history since the establishment the first specialty label in 1980, United Artists Classics, to more contemporary outfits like Focus Features, Warner Independent and Picturehouse.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Section I Independent
• 1 United Artists Classics (1980 to 1986)
• 2 Triumph Films (1982 to 1985), Universal Classics (1982 to 1984) and Twentieth Century Fox International Classics (1982 to 1985)
• 3 Orion Classics (1983 to 1997)
• Section II Indie
• 4 Fine Line Features (1990 to 2005)
• 5 Sony Pictures Classics (1992 to date)
• Section III Indiewood
• 6 Fox Searchlight (1994 to date)
• 7 Paramount Classics / Paramount Vantage (1997 to 2008)
• 8 Focus Features (2002 to date)
• 9 Warner Independent Pictures (2003 to 2008) and Picturehouse (2005 to 2008)