CinemaVault

• Cinema Vault

Cinemavault was a Toronto-based motion picture and television distribution company. After graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Image Arts in 1978, company Chairman and CEO Nicholas Stiliadis began his career as a writer and film producer. Alongside business partner, Syd Cappe, Stiliadis founded SC Entertainment. The pair produced several industrial and educational films, including the Genie-nominated short Productivity and Performance by Alex K (1984). But Stiliadis and Cappe found their niche as producers of low-budget romps, thrillers, and action-adventure films such as The Pink Chiquitas (1986), Still Life (1990), and Gladiator Cop (1995). These films were often shot in Toronto, with principal photography sometimes starting before financing had even been secured. While widely considered to be B-movies (a 1990 MacLean’s article characterized them as “shlock”), these genre films had broad international appeal, and SC Entertainment found eager buyers on the international marketplace. Some critical successes followed, with the true crime drama Murder One (1988), which garnered some positive attention from American critics. Stiliadis also served as Executive Producer on Pump Up the Volume (1990), a title that was initially developed for SC Entertainment, with New Line Cinema brought on to co-produce and distribute. The darkly comedic teen movie starring Christian Slater was widely praised at the time and continues to enjoy a reputation as a cult classic.
Stiliadis and Cappe parted ways in 1994, and amidst expanding international film markets, the company’s focus gradually shifted from production to distribution. Under the Cinemavault banner, Stiliadis and company worked with both Canadian and international producers, financiers, and independent filmmakers to secure the distribution rights to a substantial catalogue of films. In some cases, Cinemavault would license these films to other companies to handle distribution in individual worldwide markets. In other cases, Cinemavault was brought on by filmmakers as the principal worldwide distributor. While representing international titles, Cinemavault also played a role in promoting Canadian cinema to the world. They were the international distributor of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), the first feature film in the Inuktitut language. They also represented the Genie award winner Savage Messiah (2002), as well as the Genie nominated film Histoire de Pen (2002). Cinemavault was a frequent participant in the international film festival circuit, taking their films to Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. Beyond feature film distribution, the company found many new sales avenues in DVD and VHS sales, pay television, free television, video on demand, and streaming video on demand.

1980-2014

English (predominantly), French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish, Czech, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Serbian, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese