Triumph Films

History[edit]

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).^[2]


In 1985, Triumph Films announced that they would cut back down on their production slate, focusing on foreign-language films with English subtitles.^[3] 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.^[4][5]


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.^[6] It was officially incorporated on March 24, 1988.^[1] In 1989, Triumph began to distribute films from Crédit Lyonnais's Epic Productions Inc..^[7]


On November 23, 1994, Triumph Releasing Corporation was renamed as Sony Pictures Releasing Corporation,^[1] and the Triumph name was spun off as Triumph Films, now primarily a label for low-budget and direct-to-video releases. After being shut down in 1997, the Triumph Films label was re-activated in 2003. The label went dormant again, becoming an in-name-only division of Sony Pictures Releasing Corporation.^[1] In 2014, the label was revived yet again for the release of The Remaining. Their direct-to-video role has been taken by Stage 6 Films within Sony.