This dissertation examines the historical emergence, business strategies, and cultural impact of “boutique” film distributors, defined as small, financially independent companies that cater to the “art house” market by releasing international, repertory, and/or documentary cinema. The author finds that boutique distributors, despite their marginal size, perform key functions within the conglomerated film industry today. This project focuses primarily on U.S.-based companies operating between 1980 and 2024, with principal subjects including Milestone Films, Janus Films, The Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, Cohen Media Group, and New Yorker Films. The author argues that boutique distributors have remained independent, solvent, and relevant by exploiting ancillary markets, such as home video and streaming; by collaborating with other institutions, including major studios, nonprofits, and other boutique firms; and by catalyzing cultural discourse through the promotion of new ideas concerning history, authorship, nation, and representation. As a work of historical-analytical research, this dissertation draws evidence from archival documents, trade press, financial data, promotional paratexts, and original interviews. The resulting qualitative analysis attends to questions of film aesthetics, cultural studies, and political economy, specifically engaging with current scholarship in media industry studies, digital distribution, transnational cinema, and global art cinema. This dissertation dedicates each chapter to a foundational practice in contemporary boutique distribution. Chapter 1 historicizes the emergence of boutique distribution companies through the phenomenon of corporate branding. Chapter 2 examines the pragmatics of releasing subtitled, international cinema today, considering how boutique distributors, on one hand, persist in promoting national (as opposed to transnational) categories and, on the other, collaborate and compromise with other film institutions. Chapter 3 maps the contemporary market for repertory film, rationalizing the release strategies of major studio libraries and boutique distributors alike through the “evergreen” to “discovery” analytical heuristic. Chapter 4 draws attention to how boutique distributors work together in the streaming economy, distinguishing the supply-side logics of The Criterion Channel, OVID, MUBI, and myriad TVOD platforms through the concept of “licensing coalitions.” Throughout, the project compares boutique firms like Milestone Films to specialty divisions like Sony Pictures Classics and new American indie distributors like A24 and Neon.