Triumph Films

It was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures and the French company Gaumont to distribute foreign films in the US. In 1984, Marcie Bloom, who was formerly of the New York Film Festival, joined Triumph Films to serve as New York publicity director (Bloom would later co-found Sony Pictures Classics). In 1985, Triumph Films announced that they would cut back down on their production slate, focusing on foreign-language films with English subtitles. Shortly afterwards, Gaumont decided to cut ties, and Columbia Pictures, now the sole owner, decided to shutter Triumph Films, and fold it into the Columbia Pictures label. The arthouse functions were later taken by Sony Pictures Classics in 1992. On January 5, 1988, the then-newly founded Columbia Pictures Entertainment announced that they would revive the Triumph brand as a new worldwide subsidiary, Triumph Releasing Corporation; this incarnation of Triumph provided administrative services related to the distribution of Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures in the U.S. and Canada, while internationally, Triumph would be responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Columbia and Tri-Star films under the direction of each individual studio. It was officially incorporated on March 24, 1988. In 1989, Triumph began to distribute films from Crédit Lyonnais's Epic Productions Inc. under a theatrical distribution agreement. The company also started distributing films from 21st Century Film Corporation and SVS Films (owned by Sony) around the time, the latter after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment.