Tom Bernard

Tom Bernard is the co-President and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics (with Michael Barker) since January 1992. Sony Pictures Classics distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from the United States and around the world.

Bernard 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).

Over the past 25 years he has worked with many of the world's finest independent filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa, John Boorman, Louis Malle, David Mamet, James Ivory, Zhang Yimou, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Agniezska Holland, John Sayles, Fred Schepisi, Errol Morris, Pedro Almodóvar, Woody Allen, François Truffaut, R.W. Fassbinder, Lily Tomlin, Richard Linklater, Merchant Ivory, Neil LaBute, Sally Potter, David Cronenberg, Hector Babenco, Guillermo del Toro, Gary Oldman, Paul Schrader, Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman, Norman Jewison, Ang Lee, Paul Verhoeven and Francis Coppola.

Honors bestowed on his films include 25 Academy Awards 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.

Mr. Bernard is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Sundance Advisory Board, the Tribeca Film Festival Advisory Board and the Monmouth University Communication Board.

Mr. Bernard has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Current and Upcoming Films:
Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme), Frozen River (Courtney Hunt), Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman), The Class (Luarent Cantet), I’ve Loved You So Long (Philippe Claudel), Tyson (Jim Toback), Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar), Whatever Works, (Woody Allen) and An Education (Lone Scherfig).

SPC Past Highlights include:
The Counterfeiters, (Stefan Ruzowitzky) Perselpolis (Marjane Satrapi), The Lives of Others (Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck), Black Book (Paul Verhoeven), Interview (Steve Buscemi), Volver (Pedro Almodóvar), Quinceañera (Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer), Who Killed the Electric Car? (Chris Payne), Friends With Money (Nicole Holofcener), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones), Why We Fight (Eugene Jarecki), Caché (Michael Haneke), Breakfast on Pluto (Neil Jordan), Capote (Bennett Miller), 2046 (Wong Kar Wai), Junebug (Phil Morrison), House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou), Saraband (Ingmar Bergman), Kung Fu Hustle (Steven Chow), Spider (David Cronenberg), Baadasssss! (Mario Van Peebles), The Company (Robert Altman), The Fog of War (Errol Morris), Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet), Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin), All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green), 13 Conversations About One Thing (Jill Sprecher), Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar), Dogtown and Z-Boys (Stacy Peralta), Pollock (Ed Harris), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee), Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen), American Movie (Chris Smith), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer), The General (John Boorman), Central Station (Walter Salles), The Opposite of Sex (David Roos), Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet), In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute), Suburbia (Richard Linklater), Waiting for Guffman (Christopher Guest), Lone Star (John Sayles), Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz), The City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro), Safe (Todd Haynes), Persuasion (Roger Michell), Crumb (Terry Zwigoff), Vanya on 42nd Street (Louis Malle), Mi Vida Loca (Allison Anders), Orlando (Sally Potter) and Howards End (Merchant Ivory).