Art house film
Art house films are motion pictures that were not intended by their producers to appeal to a mass audience, but rather seek a niche amongst specialty theatres usually found in large urban areas. These films are often produced on small budgets and lack the lavish advertising campaigns of films in wide release. Art films, foreign films, and documentaries are usually art house films but from time to time they catch the appeal of the mainstream viewing audiences. Some recent examples of such break-out films include Life is Beautiful (Italy, 1998) and the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (United States, 2004). Many major motion picture studios have special divisions dedicated to these films, such as the Fox Searchlight division of Twentieth Century Fox and the Sony Pictures Classics division of Columbia Pictures. Miramax is a company that got its start releasing art house films but has more recently produced more commercial pictures.