Sony Classics' Bernard on Bargain Hunting

Sitting in the Java Cow coffee shop, Tom Bernard, the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, was listening in on a conference call that included filmmaker Erroll Morris, Andrea Chalupa reports from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. They were talking about next month's Berlin film festival.

"I'm running from the gorilla," Bernard says into his phone, right in the middle of answering a question on ways to reform the Sundance marketplace. "There was this guy in a gorilla suite running around outside, didn't you see him? I put him on the phone for a second."

Bernard didn't have the greatest of nights. He lost out on American Teen. "I lost only sleep, not money,' he says, and adds that this year's Sundance offering was disappointing, calling the films too personal and depressing. "There are no real treats this year. What, they have one comedy?"

Bernard has strong opinions about the Sundance marketplace and insists that it's Robert Redford's and the festival's responsibility to help connect filmmakers to the smaller distributors. "There should be a marketplace, greater organization, to make this a better place for doing business."

Bernard says that bidding has been conservative this year and that unlike last year, none of the sellers had to make some outrageous deal to make headlines for themselves. He cites Paramount Vantage's Son of Rambow and the Weinstein Co.'s Grace Is Gone as two deals last year that were more attention-grabbing than profit-making. Son of Rambow, which sold for $8 million, has yet to be released, while Grace is Gone, which went for $4 million, brought in only $31,000 at the box office.

"People who did that last year got burned," Bernard said. "We always go to the bargain bin and buy after the festival." Last year Sony Classics bought the smart comedy Interview, starring Sienna Miller as a movie star interviewed by cynical journalist Steve Buscemi. This year he's looking at Frozen River, The Wackness (which he calls "The Wackiness" for the process of trying to buy it), and Sugar, which follows the dream of a Dominican baseball player to the American Midwest.

Sony Pictures Classics releases around 20 movies a year. "We buy movies we like," Bernard said. "You may not like the movie, but you'll always find it interesting."