Paste’s Arthouse Powerhouse 100

Wheel Greasers

1. Netflix

Nothing has done more to further the growth of independent film than its widespread availability on DVD. It not only opens the arthouse to a vastly expanded audience, but it also changes the financial model so studios are more willing to take risks on titles that clearly won’t recover their costs in theatrical run. Though it controls roughly 10 percent of the rental market, the Internet giant Netflix accounts for one-third to one-half of independent rentals, putting it at the center of this change. Recently, the service signed exclusive distribution deals with filmmakers such as Hal Hartley and organizations like the Cinequest Film Festival, and is reportedly set to directly finance and produce indie films.

2. Cannes Film Festival

Recent highlights: L’ Enfant, Hidden, Broken Flowers, Don’t Come Knocking, A History of Violence, Manderlay, Last Days
» Ever the stuff of legend—controversy, contracts scribbled on bar napkins, and Palme D’Or grandeur, Cannes is at once global marketplace and media feeding frenzy. It’s the place to make a name—or break it. And without the success d’estime its juried competition confers, it’s hard to imagine the successes of Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Moore, Gus Van Sant and scores of others.

3. Bob and Harvey Weinstein

Recent highlights: Finding Neverland, Sin City, Garden State, Proof, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
Upcoming: Fahrenheit 9/11-1/2, Sin City 2, The Passion of the Clerks
» The last-minute purge of Weinstein-era Miramax films hasn’t helped their reputation, but it’s been a good millennium for the guys who originally paved the path from arthouse to megaplex. Now that their divorce from Disney is of?cial, the Weinsteins have launched their namesake media company. This Miramax 2.0 already has a dozen-plus projects humming and abiding hook-ups with signature directors they put on the marquee (and vice-versa). Goodbye Mickey Mouse. Say hello to the Big Cheese.

4. The Sundance family of organizations

Recent Highlights: Hustle & Flow, Me and You and Everyone We Know, DIG!, Born into Brothels, Maria Full of Grace
» Never mind the grumblings about hype, celebrities, schmoozathons, corporate sponsorships, overcrowding and the like—acceptance at the Sundance Film Festival is still the Holy Grail for independent filmmakers. Director Geoffrey Gilmore and his staff never cease to bring groundbreaking films to a key industry audience. Founder Robert Redford has also assembled an important group of supporting initiatives and organizations, from the Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker Lab to the Sundance Channel.

5. Toronto International Film Festival

Recent Hightlights: Saving Face, Hotel Rwanda, Ray, Whale Rider
» Toronto is easily the most movie-mad city in North America, and its annual fall festival is a glorious tribute to that mania. Too much is never enough at this ever-more-sprawling fête. Alongside previews of the more intelligent studio blockbusters, the meticulous programs offer super-sized sections for documentaries and all manner of world cinema, and the festival’s narrower selections often introduce future Kaurismäkis and Kieslowskis on the cusp of their breakthroughs.

6. Focus Features

Recent Highlights: The Ice Harvest, Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener, Broken Flowers, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Motorcycle Diaries, 21 Grams, Lost in Translation
Upcoming: Brick, Winter Passing
» Universal’s specialty unit has taken a conservative approach under James Schamus and David Linde. Limiting its releases to a dozen or fewer each year, Focus is responsible for some of the most important recent films and an amazing ratio of hits to duds.

7. Sony Pictures Classics

Recent Highlights: Capote, Hidden, Thumbsucker, Junebug, House of Flying Daggers, Bad Education, The Fog of War, The Triplets of Belleville, Goodbye Lenin!
Upcoming: Don’t Come Knocking, The White Countess
» American independents have overtaken foreign-language films at U.S. arthouses, but SPC continues to keep the international flame alive—even as co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker shift their attention to domestic films.

8. Bob Berney / Picturehouse

Recent highlights: Last Days, Downfall, The Passion of the Christ, Whale Rider, Monster, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mamá También, Memento
Upcoming: Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
» At Newmarket and IFC Films, Berney put together an impressive string of arthouse blockbusters. Last March, HBO and New Line formed joint-venture Picturehouse, rolling Fine Line (Maria Full of Grace, American Splendor) into the division and buying Newmarket to get Berney. His string of arthouse hits has slowed lately, but he’ll rebound.

9. 2929 Entertainment

Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban turned their entrepreneurial proclivities to independent film by buying Magnolia Pictures (Enron, Control Room), Rysher Entertainment (which owns Sex and the City rights), Landmark Theatres (largest U.S. arthouse chain) and an interest in Lions Gate. They also produce movies through production subsidiaries and are partners in the HDNet cable networks. HDNet Films set Tinseltown abuzz in September when it announced a partnership with Steven Soderbergh to produce low-budget digital films and release them simultaneously to theaters, on DVD and on the HDNet movie channel.

10. Fox Searchlight

Recent Highlights: Millions, Sideways, I Heart Huckabees, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State
Upcoming: The Ringer
» The triumvirate of president Peter Rice, marketing head Nancy Utley and distribution chief Stephen Gilula have struck on a combination of original productions and marketing/distribution efforts that has been pure gold—though their 2005 slate has fallen far short of 2004’s.

11. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

No question, the Academy regularly makes egregious omissions (no nomination for Paul Giamatti, to cite one). But with the ceremony’s massive viewing audience and coveted seal of approval, the Oscars always spotlight some great arthouse fare, giving a lucky few the biggest exposure of their careers.

12. Warner Independent Pictures

Recent highlights: Good Night, and Good Luck; March of the Penguins; A Very Long Engagement; Before Sunset Upcoming: A Scanner Darkly, Duck Season, For Your Consideration
» Its bust-out stars won’t need to rent tuxes on Oscar night; they’ll already be wearing them. Record-breaking docs aside, this two-year-old distributor consistently clicks with smoke-filled dramas and stress-free comedies.

13. IFC

Recent highlights: Me and You and Everyone We Know, Fahrenheit 9/11, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mamá También
Upcoming: The Notorious Bettie Page
» Eleven years after it launched as a cable network showcasing independent films 24/7, IFC has sprouted into a giant umbrella: the organization produces, distributes and, now, exhibits—with the opening of the IFC Center in NYC.

14. ThinkFilm

Recent Highlights: Murderball, The Aristocrats, Born Into Brothels, Tell Them Who You Are, The Story of the Weeping Camel, Festival Express
Upcoming: Untitled Eddie Izzard documentary
» Former Lions Gate head Jeff Sackman launched ThinkFilm to support more challenging films. Its roster of dramas (Where the Truth Lies, Palindromes) have at times been too challenging for audiences, critics and censors. But it has murdered with its documentary slate.

15. Lions Gate

Recent Highlights: Three… Extremes, Happy Endings, Grizzly Man, Rize, Hotel Rwanda, Crash
Upcoming: Akeelah and the Bee
» Major demerits for foisting on us one unimaginative horror-genre flick after another, bonus points for the nontraditional marketing strategy resulting in surprise hit Diary of a Mad Black Woman (but more points off for its schlock-value).

16. John Sloss / Cinetic Media

Recent highlights: Super Size Me, DIG!, Napolean Dynamite, The Fog of War
Upcoming: A Scanner Darkly
» The go-to guy for just about any Sundance sensation, lawyer Sloss and his consulting firm Cinetic Media have proven invaluable to a generation of indie filmmakers.

17. Venice International Film Festival

Recent highlights: Brokeback Mountain, Mary, Good Night, and Good Luck, Finding Neverland, Vera Drake, 21 Grams
» The world’s oldest film festival featured a record 11 U.S. films in 2005. Its 2004 world premieres nabbed 16 Oscar nominations, a record for the festival.

18. U.S. Film-Festival Circuit

In terms of getting the attention of distributors, no U.S. festival can compete with Sundance. But for giving filmmakers a chance to hone their craft and audiences a rare chance to see a wide variety of indie film, the combined effect of the hundreds of festivals held across the county each year is enormous. From established names (Telluride, Slamdance, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco) to rising stars (Nashville, Nantucket, Miami, Cinequest, CineVegas), we are indebted.

19. Scott Rudin

Recent highlights: Closer, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, I Heart Huckabees, The Hours, Iris
Upcoming: Freedomland
» At age 29, Rudin left his post as president of 20th Century Fox to produce his own films. Though he works on major mainstream releases (Sister Act, School of Rock), he’s mostly assembled movies that play both the megaplex and the arthouse.

20. Participant Productions

Recent highlights: Good Night, and Good Luck; North Country; Murderball
Upcoming: American Gun, The World According to Sesame Street
» Founded by Jeff Skoll (eBay), the company has a mandate to affect social change. And they’re doing so without sacrificing art or craft to polemics.

21. Ted Hope

Recent highlights: American Splendor, 21 Grams, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Upcoming: Fay Grim, The Hawk Is Dying
» The Good Machine co-founder now heads This Is That, where he continues to nurture original talents and produce smart, challenging entertainment. Sundance loves him, but so do audiences—even ones that don’t know a crouching tiger from a hidden dragon.

22. Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa

Recent highlights: Bee Season, The Ice Harvest, Cold Mountain, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Upcoming: Little Miss Sunshine, Little Children, Nebraska
» Under their Bona Fide Productions banner, this pair has a high-end track record including work with Soderbergh, Payne and Minghella. Their projects range from broad comedy to blue-chip literary adaptations.

23. Paramount Classics

Recent highlights: Mad Hot Ballroom, Hustle & Flow, Intimate Strangers, Prairie Wind
Upcoming: Ask the Dust
» Founded in 1998, the company has consistently lagged behind other arthouse studio subsidiaries and now it must rebuild after Paramount decided to clean house. A pair of rare high-pro?le acquisitions at Sundance and Slamdance offered the division much-needed box-office success.

24. Bob Yari

Recent Highlights: Thumbsucker, Crash
Upcoming: The Illusionist, The Hoax, Tishomingo Blues
» Yari’s plan to build a successful enclave of film companies, all producing lower-budget films, seems to be working. He brings two important ingredients to his film-production success—money (he made billions in real estate) and the ability to attract big names to artistic films with small budgets.

25. Samuel Goldwyn films

Recent Highlights: MirrorMask, Pretty Persuasion, The Squid and the Whale, Saint Ralph, Super Size Me
Upcoming: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
» No super-sizing in store for this production/distribution company. They successfully operate well below the level of the studio arthouse divisions, thank you very much.

26. Berlin International Film Festival

Recent highlights: Paradise Now Before Sunset, Intimate Strangers, Good Bye Lenin!
» One of the oldest, largest (180,000 tickets sold) and most organized festivals in the world, Berlin also hosts the European Film Market, making it an even more attractive event for filmmakers.

27. Christine Vachon / Killer Films

Recent highlights: Far from Heaven, One Hour Photo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Upcoming: The Notorious Bettie Page, I’m Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan
» Impossible to imagine the transgressive joys of directors Todd Haynes and Todd Solondz without her, producer Vachon is actively shaping a new decade of adventurous movies that display a canny, questioning appreciation of American pop culture.

28. Michelle Byrd and IFP/NY

Byrd has served nine years at the helm of the Independent Feature Project, which provides needed infrastructure for independent filmmakers. With its IFP Market and Conference, it helped Miranda July get support to transform her rough ideas into the hit Me and You and Everyone We Know. One of the few significant resources for uncompleted films, its acceptance of raw footage from Mad Hot Ballroom helped the filmmakers land an agent.

29. Dawn Hudson / Film INDependent

Hudson led the charge in the controversial move to split IFP/Los Angeles from its sister organizations across the country. As the group behind the Independent Spirit Awards (the Oscars of Indiewood) and the Los Angeles Film Festival, the newly renamed Film Independent (or FIND) has become one of the highest profile non-profits supporting independent film.

30. Daniel Talbot, New Yorker Films

Recent highlights: Moolaadé, My Architect, The Son
» This veteran exhibitor and distributor might as well have invented the arthouse concept. Remember your favorite Fellini or Wenders movie? Not without Talbot, who continues as a force in the DVD era.

31. Roger Ebert

Thumbs up and hands down, Ebert has done more to bring arthouse films to the attention of the general public than any other single voice in the media. The first film critic to receive a Pulitzer for arts criticism and the only one to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he’s been increasingly criticized for his celebrity profile and underestimating his audience. But his approval can help get an unsigned film distributed and an obscure one become an arthouse hit.

32. Michael London

Recent highlights: Sideways, Thirteen, House of Sand and Fog
Upcoming: The Illusionist
» London takes on a diverse range of projects that connect powerfully with moviegoers. The former Los Angeles Times staff writer has no less than seven new movies in the hopper, including outings with Edward Norton and Sam Jones (I Am Trying to Break Your Heart).

33. The Criterion Collection

Taking great care in its selection, restoration and packaging of classics old and new, The Criterion Collection provides an important stamp of approval on key DVD releases.

34. Wellspring Media

Recent highlights: Palindromes, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Kings & Queen, Tarnation, Red Lights
Upcoming: Unknown White Male
» This theatrical and DVD distributor adores edgy stuff and contemporary French-speaking auteurs (Godard, Desplechin, Dumont), picking up work less-nervy outfits ignore. Moviegoers are richer because Wellspring lives up to its name.

35. Sheila Nevins

Recent highlights: Spellbound, Bus 174, Last Letters Home
» As president of HBO’s Documentary and Family divisions, Nevins is known as the “dominatrix of docs.” She oversees a coveted platform for massive exposure that’s led to a shelf of Academy Awards—and has every aspiring Michael Moore clamoring for her approval.

36. New York Times / Starbucks

Every Friday, The New York Times reviews every film opening in New York that week. Of course, many arthouse films never leave Manhattan—except on DVD. Now film buffs from Peoria to Portland can walk into one of their many local Starbucks, pick up a New York Times and add intriguing films to their ever-expanding Net?ix queue. It’s never been easier to heed the words of all-knowing critics.

37. HBO Films

Recent highlights: Last Days, The Holy Girl, Maria Full of Grace, American Splendor
Upcoming: The Notorious Bettie Page
» Through its many partnerships, HBO is a strong force in the ?lm industry. Its in-house ?lm division—which produces original programming for both the network and theaters—has developed a strong track record of critically acclaimed programming, from Band of Brothers to Gus Van Sant’s latest works.

38. Richard Peña / Film Society at Lincoln Center

He’s program director for the New York Film Festival, which has been a cinematic royalty-maker since the heady days of the 1960s—and can supply a crucial pre-release spotlight, whether your name is George Clooney or Hong Sang-soo.

39. Elvis Mitchell

Mitchell is the very definition of ubiquity in the film world. Just try avoiding running into him at any major film festival. The entertainment critic for NPR’s Weekend Edition since its inception, Mitchell is also a visiting lecturer at Harvard University and hosts KCRW’s The Treatment. His appreciation for arthouse fare is evident just in the list of Treatment guests in October: Mike Mills, Noah Baumbach, Curtis Hanson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and David Cronenberg. The former New York Times critic also hosted Independent Focus for IFC and has written for innumerable publications.

40. SXSW Film Festival

This indie breeding ground is no mere sidebar to Austin’s sprawling SXSW music festival. It’s a mega-happening in its own right—an alternate universe of moviemaking. Under the leadership of Matt Dentler, the festival has risen in profile as a launching pad for documentaries like Spellbound. It’s one major narrative-film signing away from the upper echelons.

41. American Film Institute

Its AFI Festival (now coordinated with the American Film Market) and SILVERDOCS festival host a number of key U.S. premieres in the heart of Hollywood. Recent world premieres include Monster and Monster’s Ball. The institute’s workshops, programs, conservatory and awards also provide valuable resources and recognition.

42. Tribeca Film Festival

Robert De Niro’s brainstorm has evolved into so much more than an American Express commercial for post-9/11 Lower Manhattan. Eclectic, inclusive and exhaustive, it’s become an important “first-look” fest for documentaries and debut features.

43. indieWIRE

Online since 1996, indiewire.com is one-stop shopping for indie info: from news and gossip to interviews and reviews. It’s an indispensable community resource.

44. Palm Pictures

Recent highlights: DIG!, Crónicas, Director’s Label series
Upcoming: The Mother of Invention: The History of Jamaican Music
» Island Records founder Chris Blackwell’s media outfit is synergy in motion, combining film, video, music and web projects while backing the work of innovative types like Michael Almereyda and Spike Jonze. Palm is also the “label” behind this issue’s “Director’s Label Roundtable” (p. 76).

45. Zeitgeist Films

Recent highlights: 10 on Ten, The Corporation, Since Otar Left
Upcoming: Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage
» An American home to far-flung visionary types as well as docu-rabble-rousers, Zeitgeist strives to reflect our times and open minds. The company’s aggressive efforts on The Corporation following film’s Toronto debut paid off.

46. Kino

Recent highlights: OR (My Treasure), Watermarks
» Kino International and Kino on Video specialize in bringing world cinema to American audiences. Kino’s restorations (including Fritz Lang’s M, The Art of Buster Keaton and the 50th-anniversary reissue of The Bicycle Thief) are also important contributions.

47. Docurama

Founded by Steve Savage and Susan Margolin in 1999, this home-entertainment label has assembled an astonishing collection of new and classic documentaries—including more Oscar-nominated docs than any other distributor. Last January, Docurama partnered with the Sundance Channel to bring its original productions and acquisitions to DVD.

48. Chris Gore / Film Threat

The impish host of IFC’s Ultimate Film Fanatic has turned cult-film fandom into a kind of gonzo visionquest with his long-running magazine Film Threat (now a web-only publication, Filmthreat.com). Two decades after he first published out of his Royal Oak, Mich., bedroom, Gore has become an unlikely, and wonderfully subversive, tastemaker.

49. National Film Board of Canada

For over 60 years, the NFB has produced and distributed more than 10,000 films, which have garnered over 4,500 international awards (including 11 Oscars, most recently for Chris Landreth’s 2004 animated short, Ryan). Best known for its documentaries, animation and short films, the organization received its own honorary Oscar for its “commitment to originate artistic, creative and technological excellence.”

50. James Quandt

As senior programmer of the Cinematheque Ontario (a year-round part of the Toronto International Film Festival Group), Quandt is responsible for some of the most important retrospectives that have traveled around the world in the last 10 years. He’s currently putting together one on Roberto Rossellini.

Arthouse Emergent: Wheel Greasers

1. Eric Kopeloff - Recent highlights: Stay, Pretty Persuasion, Monster’s Ball
» Closely affiliated with Marc Forster, who has Will Ferrell comedy Stranger Than Fiction on deck, the producer is rapidly moving into the big time.

2. Alamo Drafthouse - From its film selection to its dine-in service and overall vibe, the original Drafthouse in downtown Austin is one of the coolest theaters anywhere. The cinema/eatery has begun expanding by offering franchise opportunities.

3. Jeffrey Abramson / Gen Art - Through the Gen Art Film Festival, Gen Art’s year-round screenings and his general advocacy for indie filmmakers, Abramson has become an important figure in the New York film community.

4. Green Cine - One of the largest web-only competitors to Net?ix, the rental service specializes in arthouse (as well as anime and B-movie) fare. Its selection of foreign films surpasses all its larger competitors, and it offers a streaming service. (greencine.com)

5. David O. Sacks - The PayPal creator entered the movie biz by financing Thank You For Smoking, the Jason Reitman film that sold at Toronto for $6.5 million to Fox Searchlight (amid a signing controversy with Paramount Classics).