Biography
Michael Barker is the Co-President and Co-Founder of Sony Pictures Classics (with Tom Bernard) 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.
Honors bestowed on Barker'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 (Howards 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.
Barker serves on the Board of Directors for the American Museum of the Moving Image, on the Entertainment Media and Technology Dean's Advisory Board at NYU's Stern School of Business and is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Barker was previously the co-founder of Orion Classics (1983-1991) and an executive at United Artists (1980-1983) where he released films by Akira Kurosawa (Ran), R.W. Fassbinder (Lola, Veronika Voss), and François Truffaut (The Last Metro). He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas.
