Sony Pictures Classics
Jessica ChouThe Museum of the Moving Image has named Sony Pictures Classics co-chairman Michael Barker as co-chairman of its board of trustees, replacing current co-chairman Herbert Schlosser, who will become chairman emeritus of the New York museum, it was announced Monday.
Barker will join remaining co-chairman Ivan L. Lustig.
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Schlosser, the former NBC president and CEO, served as Museum of the Moving Image chairman from 1985-2013, when he became co-chairman with Lustig. Schlosser told the board a year ago that he intended to retire and began to search for a successor. The 88-year-old fainted at April’s Museum of the Moving Image salute to Kevin Spacey, due to a combination of jet lag, a cold and the excitement of the evening.
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Barker serves as co-president of Sony Pictures Classics with Tom Bernard. Sony’s specialty division is releasing Oscar hopeful Foxcatcher on Friday and is also home to fellow potential Oscar contenders Whiplash; Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore; and Mr. Turner.
“Museum of the Moving Image is a great institution devoted to motion pictures of all shapes and sizes,” Barker said in a statement. “Filled on any given day with hundreds of school kids, teachers, tourists, New Yorkers, from the general public to the die-hard cinephile, there is an incredible energy to the place. Its programs and exhibitions are exemplary, and this is an institution that serves the public and community first. Filmmakers, artists, and industry practitioners adore it as much as I do. I am honored to have been chosen as co-chairman to succeed Herbert Schlosser, who has been a tireless champion on behalf of the Museum from its very start, and to work with Ivan Lustig.”
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Schlosser said about Barker in a statement: “He is the best in the business, and is passionate about film and about the Museum’s mission, which focuses on all forms of the moving image, including television and digital media. He will be a great leader during this exciting period when the Museum is truly thriving and the moving image is undergoing a state of great change.”
Barker was elected to co-chairman of the Queens-based museum at an October board meeting and will officially assume his new position on Feb. 1, 2015.
