True Fan of Independent Film, Donald Krim Succumbs

Donald Krim, president of Kino International and co-president of Kino Lorber Inc., died on Friday in his New York home after a one-year battle with cancer. He was 65.

As president of Kino International, Krim helped introduce now influential film directors including Wong Kar-Wai, Michael Haneke, Amos Gitai, Aki Kaurismäki, Julie Dash and Andrei Zvyagintsev. During his career, he received the Mel Novikoff Award from the San Francisco Film Festival in 2000 for his work to “enhance the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema.” Six years later, Krim received the William K. Everson Award for Film History by the National Board of Review. He also was honored with the Film Preservation Honors Award by the Anthology Film Archives that same year. Most recently, Krim received the Visionary Award at the 24th annual Israel Film Festival.

After graduating from Columbia University, Krim worked at United Artists, where he met Bill Pence, who founded Kino International. In 1977, Krim bought the company and began to expand by releasing new films. In 1987, Kino International opened up a home entertainment section, Kino on Video, which then became the most respected independent labels in the field.

Over the years, Kino International has released many influential films, including Shôhei Imamura's Vengeance is Mine and The Ballad of Narayama; Percy Adlon's Sugarbaby; André Techiné's Scene of the Crime; Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee; Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita; Amos Gitai's Alila and Kedma; Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild; Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy; Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami; Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust - a film the Library of Congress deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In place of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Fresh Air Fund, the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and Red Hook Rise. They do not make them like Donald Krim any more. R.I.P.