User:Granddukesfinances/Benten Films

Benten Films is a video-distribution company that releases contemporary independent and arthouse films on DVD in the United States. Like the releases of the Criterion Collection, Benten's DVDs are known for their design, detailed special features and the high quality of their transfers. Founded in 2007 by Brooklyn-based film critics Aaron Hillis and Andrew Grant with the intention of distributing lesser-known and low-budget films in high-quality DVD releases, its motto is "DVDs curated by critics."

The company is known for the production quality of its releases and for its association with the mumblecore movement, many of the key works of which were released on home video by Benten.

History
Prior to writing about movies, Andrew Grant worked for ten years as a business analyst on Wall Street. After his original plan for founding a DVD distributor fell through in 2005, Grant teamed with Aaron Hillis, a fellow freelance critic and the current writer of the GreenCine Daily film blog. The company was founded with $80,000 of Grant's savings and roughly $50,000 in loands. Grant is the company's CEO, and Hillis serves as its Vice President and Art Director. The company's name is derived from Benzaiten, the Japanese name for Hindu goddess Saraswati.

In 2009, Benten entered a partnership with Watchmaker Films, a UK-based DVD distributor that deals in film restorations.