7. IFC Films (www.ifctv.com)
Key Players: Jonathan Sehring and Caroline Kaplan, who run the IFC distribution and production label affiliated with the IFC cable channel, were already having a great year when distribution chief Bob Berney suggested that they pick up My Big Fat Greek Wedding. At $200 million and still counting, the movie has broken all indie records. IFC made a service deal, though, and has scored a mere $4 million, while producers Gold Circle Films (which is paying for the labor-intensive collection process and the Oscar campaign) and Tom Hanks's Playtone Pictures are raking in the big bucks.
Staff: 25 in N.Y.C.
2002: Seven films, $224.9 million. $ Breakouts: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mamá También. $ Breakdowns: The Château, Big Bad Love, Gangster No. 1.
Strengths: IFC has enormous momentum and goodwill going forward as a distributor. It also has the freedom to release a movie like Y Tu Mamá También unrated.
Weaknesses: IFC's parent, the financially conservative cable company Cablevision, imposes draconian accounting standards on the unpredictable film division. IFC is more committed to producing movies like Boys Don't Cry and Tadpole, and selling them to other distributors for a profit, than in becoming a bigger company. IFC lacks a foreign sales arm like those of Paramount, Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus, and Lions Gate.
Outlook: Greek Wedding, Lost in La Mancha, and Y Tu Mamá could claim Oscar nods. Slate for 2003 includes Cannes French pickup Sex is Comedy; Intermission, starring Colin Farrell; John Sayles's adoption drama Casa de los Babys, starring Marcia Gay Harden; Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects; and Kristian Levring and Janet McTeer's The Intended.

8. Artisan Entertainment (www.artisanent.com)
Key Player: Since the corporate shakeout following 1999's $140 million The Blair Witch Project, Artisan Entertainment CEO Amir Malin has refocused the company to maximize home video profits and minimize theatrical exposure. Artisan, which has backed Darren Aronofsky (Pi and Requiem for a Dream) and Steven Soderbergh (The Limey), plans to keep a toe in the art-film market.
Staff: Total company, 202; film company, 40 in L.A., 15 in N.Y.C.
2002: Eight films, $53 million. $ Breakouts: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, National Lampoon's Van Wilder. $ Breakdowns: Roger Dodger.
Strengths: Artisan reduced its debt and secured $210 million credit to fund production and other corporate activities; it boasts a 7,000-title video library, and DVD sales are soaring (Van Wilder sold 1.5 million DVD units). Malin knows the home entertainment business (he acquired the rights to two made-for-video Barbie movies). He cut a deal with Miramax to make Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2.
Weaknesses: Malin is not known for his taste, or for his commitment to the specialty market.
Outlook: The documentaries Standing in the Shadows of Motown and Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony; the Marvel comics hero The Punisher; and a VeggieTales spin-off.

9. Paramount Classics (www.paramountclassics.com)
Key Players: Paramount Pictures vice-chairman Rob Friedman oversees the studio's classics arm, run by copresidents Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein. The company follows the Paramount studio's economic paradigm: Risk little, stay profitable. Even in-house producer Scott Rudin, who would love to not have to partner with Miramax on his artier output, has shied away from Classics' uneven, if modestly profitable, track record. Their hits (You Can Count on Me, Sunshine) have been tempered by such nonperformers as My First Mister, Company Man, and Cabaret Balkan.
Staff: 16 in L.A.
2002: 14 films, $6.8 million. $ Breakout: Mostly Martha. $ Breakdowns: Bloody Sunday, Triumph of Love, Who Is Cletis Tout?, Mean Machine.
Strength: A lean, mean, profitable approach to acquiring and releasing movies cuts risk.
Weakness: Not rolling the dice on bigger opportunities keeps the company in the bargain basement and noncompetitive with its studio rivals.
Outlook: Patrice Leconte's Man on the Train; Mike Hodges's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, starring Clive Owen; and Michael Petroni's Till Human Voices Wake Us, starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter.

10. Newmarket Films
Key Player: One of the architects of IFC's success, distribution chief Bob Berney, couldn't resist the chance to become president and equity partner in film banker (Cruel Intentions, Donnie Darko, Topsy-Turvy, etc.) Newmarket's new releasing company. Berney had spearheaded the release of Newmarket's 2000 surprise hit Memento.
Staff: 11 production people in L.A., eight distribution staff in N.Y.C.
2002: One film, $4 million. $ Breakout: Real Women Have Curves.
Strengths: Newmarket's deep pockets and strong studio ties, and Berney's filmmaker relationships and distribution know-how.
Weaknesses: As a small start-up, Newmarket lacks the momentum of past successes and the leverage of a fat upcoming slate. Still setting up home video and foreign partnerships.
Outlook: Two Oscar candidates: Swedish entry Lilya 4-Ever and Danish entry Open Hearts. In just a few months, Berney has already lined up several 2003 releases, including the lowlife drama Spun, starring Jason Schwartzman and Mickey Rourke, and Whale Rider, New Zealand's winner of the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.