Michael Barker

Michael Barker is the co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics (with Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom), an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in January 1992. Sony Pictures Classics distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from the US and around the world.

The trio has worked with many of the world’s finest independent filmmakers. Honors bestowed on this team include 23 Academy Awards—most recently, for Best Foreign Language Film (The Lives of Others, 2006)—and 90 Academy Award nominations, including three for Best Picture (Howards End; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Capote), as well as nine opening-night presentations at the New York Film Festival. Mr. Barker and his partner Tom Bernard (with SPC co-founder Marcie Bloom) have also received the Honors Award from the Directors Guild of America, the IFP / West Independent Spirit Award, the GLAAD Media Award, the Gotham Industry Lifetime Achievement Award from the IFP, and the FINDIE Spirit Award.

Mr. Barker serves on the Entertainment Media and Technology Dean’s Advisory Board at New York University’s Stern School of Business and is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany.

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