Becker Group

Becker Group, formerly R. A. Becker & Co., was an Australian independent film and television distribution company founded by Russell Becker. It was established in 1965 and sold to Prime Television in 2007.

In 2008, a new company, Becker Film Group, was created by Richard Becker. In 2018, Becker formed a new film distribution company with Robert Slaviero, called R & R Films.

History

Becker Group was established in 1965 as R. A. Becker & Co.^[1] by Russell Becker.^[2] In 1976, his son, Richard Becker took over the Australian unit of Fremantle International, and went on to expand into television production in 1977.^[3]

In 1987, the company's group was expanding into two subsidiaries, PRO Films, to produce films in the Los Angeles area and REP Distribution (stood for Richard Entertainment Partners) to distribute films locally in Australia.^[3][4][5] The group then formed Becker Entertainment in 1995 by combining the assets of Becker Group's Australian entertainment subsidiaries into a single unit.^[4]

In 2002 it took over Dendy Films and became known as Dendy/Becker; however, both continued to operate separately. It also owned OnSite Broadcasting, Moonlight Cinemas,^[6][2] and Dendy Cinemas,^[1] and had offices in New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore and London.^[2]

In April 2006 Richard Becker, the managing director and son of Russell, announced he was stepping down and the chief operating officer and finance director Tim Keens would become the managing director on 1 July 2007.^[6] In June 2007 the group was sold to Prime Television.^[7][8] The Dendy chain was sold off to Icon Film Distribution around the same time.^[9]

Becker Film Group

In 2008 Richard Becker started a new company called Becker Film Group,^[10][11] and was managing director of the company.^[1]

R & R Films

In 2018, after Richard Becker had decided to "put Becker Films to the side", he asked Robert Slaviero, former CEO of Hoyts Distribution (which was sold to StudioCanal in 2012^[12]) to join him in a new venture, a distribution and consultancy company called R & R Films.^[13] The company was registered as R & R Films Pty Ltd in April 2018, and as of April 2022^[update] is still operational.^[14] The focus of the new company is Australian films,^[15] to date distributing both feature films for the cinema, such as Black Water: Abyss, H Is for Happiness,^[16] and The Wishmas Tree;^[17] and DVDs and digital media (Angel of Mine).^[18]

Films

Becker Group was involved in the production or distribution of the following films:^[19]

• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
• Scream (1996)
• Two Hands (1999)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Emma (1996)
• FairyTale: A True Story (1997)
• Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
• Margin Call (2011)
• Amélie (2001)
• Brassed Off (1997)
• Black Dog (1998)
• An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)
• Enigma (2001)
• Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
• Swingers (1996)
• Vera Drake
• A Simple Plan
• Primary Colors
• Supersize Me
• Wonder Boys (2000)
• Waking Ned Devine (1998)
• Candy (2006)
• Control^[20]
• Like Minds^[20][21]
• December Boys^[21]
• Feed^[21]

References

1. "About Us". Becker Film Group. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
2. "Becker chief to step down". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 April 2006.
3. "AUSSIE FILM MAKER SETTLES DOWN IN L.A." Australian Financial Review. 27 July 1990. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
4. Kerr, Greg; Kalina, Paul (1 November 1991). "The Independents". Cinema Papers. pp. 48–50.
5. Groves, Don (4 September 2001). "Becker exec will handle int'l at Hoyts distribbery". Variety. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
6. , Film & TV Database, British Film Institute
7. "Prime buys Becker stake in film biz". Encore Magazine. 1 July 2007.
8. . The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 June 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013.
9. George2008-02-22T12:41:00+00:00, Sandy. "Icon Film Distribution buys Australian arthouse brand Dendy". Screen. Retrieved 16 June 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
10. Boland, Michaela (15 July 2008). "Becker returning with new shingle". Daily Variety.
11. "Richard Becker leaps back into Australian distribution".
12. . IF Magazine. 4 March 2013. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013.
13. "Take Two: Robert Slaviero and Richard Becker". IF Magazine. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
14. "Current details for ABN 99 625 092 659". ABN Lookup. November 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
15. "About". R&R FILMS. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
16. "Cinema". R&R FILMS. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
17. "The Wishmas Tree (2019)". IMDb. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
18. "Home media". R&R FILMS. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
19. . Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
20. Ian Mohr (3 November 2005). "Morton takes hold of indie 'Control'". Variety.
21. "Becker offers rich tax opportunity". SMH. 21 June 2005.

External links

• Official website