Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms, but the group's main focus is non-theatrical markets (some film sellers even called the group as one of super-ancillaries).

SPWA was formerly a division of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...

, but the group became a stand-alone division of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

 in 2007. Originally being called as Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG), the group's name was changed to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) in late 2010. The group has also been called Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) Worldwide Acquisitions Group in sometimes.

SPWA produces and acquires about 60 films per year. Most films of SPWA would go straight-to-video, but the group would also release few of its films theatrically; the group would analyze how much a theatrical release would impact a film's TV and home video

Home video

Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...

 revenue and then determine whether the film should bows theatrically.

In the case of theatrical releases, SPWA will offer the films to Sony's distribution labels (i.e. TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures

TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...

, Screen Gems

Screen Gems

Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....

, Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

, Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...

, and Triumph Films

Triumph Films

Triumph Films is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment geared towards theatre and direct-to-video film production and distribution....

) firstly; if Sony's distribution labels passed on the films, the company will release the films through other distributors (i.e. Samuel Goldwyn Films

Samuel Goldwyn Films

Samuel Goldwyn Films is an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn...

, Strand Releasing

Strand Releasing

Strand Releasing is a theatrical distribution company founded in 1989 and is based in Culver City, California. The company has distributed over 300 auteur driven titles from acclaimed international and American directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Gregg Araki, Francois Ozon, Jean Luc...

, FilmDistrict

FilmDistrict

FilmDistrict is an American multi-faceted acquisitions, distribution, production, and financing company focusing on wide release, commercial pictures. Founded in September 2010 by Graham King and Timothy Headington’s GK Films, in partnership with Peter Schlessel...

, etc.).

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions also manages three labels: Destination Films

Destination Films

Destination Films is Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions' independent film division. The company was originally founded and established by Brent Baum and Steve Stabler in 1999. The logo is two halves of a ring formed at the top and the bottom with a line with a crescent on one end and a star on...

, Stage 6 Films

Stage 6 Films

Stage 6 Films is a label created by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in fall 2007 that acquires, produces and distributes 10-15 low budget films and direct-to-DVD releases per year. It is Columbia TriStar's fifth specialty label. Overall, it's the 7th theatrical label by Sony Pictures...

 and Affirm Films

Affirm Films

Affirm Films is a label of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, dedicated to producing, acquiring and marketing films that are mainly aimed at evangelical Christians. The label also maintains titles such as: Fireproof, Facing the Giants, Faith Like Potatoes, Soul Surfer, and films of biblical...

.

2007

• Daddy Day Camp
  Daddy Day Camp
  Daddy Day Camp is a 2007 American family comedy film directed by Fred Savage in his feature film directing debut. It was the sequel to Daddy Day Care , with a recast of the characters that appeared in the original film. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and released by TriStar Pictures...
  
  
• Paprika
• Revolver
• Rise: Blood Hunter
• Seraphim Falls
  Seraphim Falls
  Seraphim Falls is a 2007 American Revisionist Western film directed by television producer and director David Von Ancken in his first feature film. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Von Ancken and Abby Everett Jaques. The fictional story focuses on a bounty hunt for a Union...
  
  
• Slipstream
  Slipstream (2007 film)
  Slipstream is a 2007 American science fiction film starring, written, scored, and directed by Anthony Hopkins, which explores the premise of a screen writer who is caught in a slipstream of time, memories, fantasy and reality. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival...
  
  
• Southland Tales
  Southland Tales
  Southland Tales is a 2006 American-Franco-German science fiction dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles...
  
  
• Tekkon Kinkreet
  Tekkon Kinkreet
  is a three-volume seinen manga series by Taiyō Matsumoto, which was originally serialized from 1993 to 1994 in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits and first published in English as Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White. It was adapted into a 2006 feature-length Japanese anime film of the same name, directed by...
  
  
• We Own The Night
  We Own the Night
  We Own the Night is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. It is the third film directed by Gray, and the second film to feature Phoenix and Wahlberg together, the first being The Yards...
  
  

2008

• 88 Minutes
  88 Minutes
  88 Minutes is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino, Benjamin McKenzie, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Deborah Kara Unger, Amy Brenneman, and Neal McDonough. Filming began in the Vancouver area on October 8, 2005 and wrapped in December 2005...
  
  
• Elegy
  Elegy (film)
  Elegy is a 2008 drama directed by Spanish director Isabel Coixet and based on a Philip Roth novel, The Dying Animal. Staring Penélope Cruz and Ben Kingsley. The film is set in New York City, but was filmed in Vancouver.-Plot:...
  
  
• Fireproof
  Fireproof (film)
  Fireproof is a 2008 American Christian drama film released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Affirm Films , directed by Alex Kendrick, who co-wrote and co-produced it with Stephen Kendrick...
  
  
• Kabluey
  Kabluey
  Kabluey is a 2007 comedy film written and directed by Scott Prendergast. It stars Prendergast, as well as Lisa Kudrow, Teri Garr, Christine Taylor, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Angela Sarafyan...
  
  
• Married Life
• The Perfect Holiday
  The Perfect Holiday
  The Perfect Holiday is a 2007 family comedy film starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, and Terrence Howard and is produced by Academy Award-nominated actress Queen Latifah, who also narrates the movie. The film was released on December 12, 2007...
  
  

2009

• Black Dynamite
  Black Dynamite
  Black Dynamite is a 2009 American film starring Michael Jai White, Salli Richardson, Arsenio Hall, Kevin Chapman and Tommy Davidson. It is a spoof of 1970s blaxploitation films...
  
  
• Blood: The Last Vampire
  Blood: The Last Vampire (2009 film)
  Blood: The Last Vampire, released in Japan as , is a 2009 horror-action film, a Hong Kong-French-British co-production; it is the remake of the 2000 anime film of the same name....
  
  
• District 9
  District 9
  District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
  
  
• Moon
  Moon (film)
  Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film about a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Earth's moon. It is the feature debut of director Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell stars as the employee Sam Bell, and...
  
  
• Planet 51
  Planet 51
  Planet 51 is a 2009 Spanish/British/American animated science fiction/family film directed by Jorge Blanco, written by Joe Stillman, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott, and John Cleese. Produced by Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios and...
  
  
• The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
  The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
  The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is the 2009 sequel to 1999's The Boondock Saints. Written and directed by original Boondock Saints creator Troy Duffy, the film stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, who return to their roles, as well as several of the other actors from the first...
  
  
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a 2009 fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown. The film follows a traveling theater troupe whose leader, having made a bet with the Devil, takes audience members through a magical mirror to explore their imaginations...
  
  
• The Young Victoria
  The Young Victoria
  The Young Victoria is a 2009 period drama film based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by screenwriter Julian Fellowes. Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of...
  
  

2010

• Chloe
  Chloe (film)
  Chloe is a 2009 erotic thriller directed by Atom Egoyan, a remake of the 2004 French film Nathalie.... This version stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried in the title role...
  
  
• Defendor
  Defendor
  Defendor is a 2009 Canadian superhero comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Stebbings, and starring Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Elias Koteas and Sandra Oh. The story tells of a mentally ill man who adopts the persona of a superhero named Defendor on a quest to find his arch enemy,...
  
  
• Faster
  Faster (2010 film)
  Faster is a 2010 American action film directed by George Tillman, Jr. It stars Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, Moon Bloodgood, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Maggie Grace. It was released in the United States on November 24, 2010.-Plot:...
  
  
• Harry Brown
  Harry Brown (film)
  Harry Brown is a 2009 British action drama film directed by Daniel Barber and starring Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jack O'Connell, and Liam Cunningham....
  
  
• Legion
• REC 2
  REC 2
  REC 2 or [●REC]² is the 2009 Spanish horror film sequel to 2007's REC. Written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, both of whom returned from the previous film, the story takes place immediately after the events of the first film, with producing company Filmax International describing...
  
  
• Red Hill
  Red Hill (film)
  Red Hill is a 2010 Australian thriller film written and directed by Patrick Hughes. The film stars Ryan Kwanten, Steve Bisley and Tom E. Lewis.-Plot:...
  
  
• The Tourist
  The Tourist (2010 film)
  The Tourist is a 2010 romantic thriller film directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. It is a remake of the 2005 French action film Anthony Zimmer....
  
  
• To Save A Life
  To Save a Life
  To Save a Life is a 2010 Christian drama film directed by Brian Baugh. The film was released theatrically in the United States on January 22, 2010, and was written by Jim Britts. It stars Randy Wayne, Deja Kreutzberg, Robert Bailey Jr., Steven Crowder and Sean Michael Afable...
  
  
• Welcome to the Rileys
  Welcome to the Rileys
  Welcome to the Rileys is a 2010 American independent drama film directed by Jake Scott, written by Ken Hixon, and starring Kristen Stewart, James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo. The film debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.-Plot:...
  
  

2011

• A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
• Attack the Block
  Attack the Block
  Attack the Block is a 2011 British science fiction action film written and directed by Joe Cornish. The film stars Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard. Set on a council estate in South London on Bonfire night, the film follows a street gang which have...
  
  
• Bloodworth
• Colombiana
  Colombiana (film)
  Colombiana is a 2011 French-American action film co-written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Megaton. The film stars Zoë Saldana in the lead role...
  
  
• Courageous
  Courageous (film)
  Courageous is an independent Christian drama film produced by Sherwood Pictures and was released to theaters on September 30, 2011. It is the fourth film by Sherwood Pictures, the creators of Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. Filming in Albany, Georgia concluded in June 2010...
  
  
• Elektra Luxx
  Elektra Luxx
  Elektra Luxx is a 2010 comedy film directed and written by Sebastian Gutierrez featuring Carla Gugino. The film is a sequel to the ensemble comedy, Women in Trouble. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival 2010, and was released to the rest of the country on March 11, 2011...
  
  
• Insidious
  Insidious (film)
  Insidious is a 2011 American independent supernatural horror film written by Leigh Whannell, directed by James Wan, and starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Barbara Hershey. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts...
  
  
• Jumping the Broom
• POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
• Salvation Boulevard
  Salvation Boulevard
  Salvation Boulevard is a 2011 comedy-drama film with religious undertones. It is based on the novel of the same name by Larry Beinhart.-Plot:...
  
  
• Soul Surfer
  Soul Surfer (film)
  Soul Surfer is a 2011 American drama film about the life of surfer Bethany Hamilton. At the age of thirteen, Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack. The film details the events surrounding this attack and her struggle during the aftermath...
  
  
• The Grace Card
  The Grace Card
  The Grace Card is a 2010 drama film directed by David G. Evans. It intends to illustrate the everyday opportunities that people have to rebuild relationships and heal deep wounds by extending and receiving God’s grace. The film stars Louis Gossett, Jr. and Michael Joiner...