It feels like the end of an era. Variety reported Friday that Miramax President, Daniel Battsek, is stepping down and that the studio will now only be releasing three films a year.
To see the studio that did more than any other to push indies and foreign films into the mainstream be relegated to such an afterthought is quite sad. While the studio lost much of its name value with the departure of the Weinstein brothers, Miramax had continued to release a slate of very strong and intelligent films- Most notably 2008′s Oscar Winner for Best Picture, “No Country for Old Men.”
Miramax introduced the world to Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, Danny Boyle, Rob Marshall, and Baz Luhrmann to name a few. That is an impressive list to say the least. I would argue that most anyone has a favorite film directed by one of those directors. With studios like Miramax being relegated by studios more interested in opening weekend grosses and movies that will play to the biggest and broadest audiences possible it will be interesting who will step up to nurture new and exciting cinematic voices. I agree with Russ Fischer over at /Film that the outlook is most uncertain.
Any way you slice it, losing Miramax is a potentially big blow for unique and original filmmaking. As a film fan that grew up in the wake of the 90′s indie and foriegn film explosion, the news certainly hit me rather hard when I read about it this morning.
What about you guys? You sad to see Miramax go or am I being a bit dramatic?
