Searchlight Pictures

Background

Fox Searchlight Pictures was formed in 1994 under News Corporation (now owned by The Walt Disney Company) as a division of 20th Century Studios (previously 20th Century Fox Film Corporation) for independent, arthouse, foreign, horror, and African-American film releases. In January 2020, Disney announced that it would remove "Fox" from the company's name, presumably to avoid confusion with Fox Corporation, renaming it to "Searchlight Pictures", along with 20th Century Studios.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

1st Logo (1995)

Nicknames: "Pre-Searchlights", "Pre-Ultra-Majestic Tower", "Pre-Tower", "Pre-Fox Searchlight Structure"

Logo: On a black background is a vertical white line on the middle left which protrudes to the bottom of the middle. On the right of the line is:

FOX

SEARCHLIGHT

PICTURES

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Just the soundtrack of the trailer.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen after the 1994 20th Century Fox logo on the trailer for The Brothers McMullen.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (March 22-November 8, 1996)

Nicknames: "Searchlights", "Still Searchlights", "Fox Structure", "Still Fox Structure", "Fox Searchlight Structure", "Futuristic Structure", "90s Tower", "'96 Tower", "Ultra-Majestic Tower", "FSP Tower", "Great Structure"

Logo: It's the still version of the 1994 20th Century Fox logo, except "20th CENTURY FOX" is replaced with "FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES", with "SEARCHLIGHT" in the middle larger, and with "FOX" above and "PICTURES" below, respectively. The News Corporation byline is intact, but the registered symbol is removed.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie/trailer.

Availability: Rare. Seen on trailers for very early Fox Searchlight Pictures releases. However, the only releases with this logo are Girl 6, She's the One, and Looking for Richard. Current prints of the latter two films have the next logo or the 1994 20th Century Fox logo plastering it, though it survives on Girl 6 with the 1994 logo preceding it.

Editor's Note: Since this logo lasted for a short time, it's probably a placeholder.

3rd Logo (February 21, 1997-February 11, 2011)

Nicknames: "CGI City Skyline Searchlights", "Fox Structure II", "Fox Searchlight Structure II", "2000s Tower", "Futuristic Structure II", "Ultra-Majestic Tower II" , "FSP Tower II", "Great Structure II", "Turn On The Lights"

Logo: We start out looking at a city skyline (most likely that of Los Angeles). The camera begins to move right, past a searchlight. The searchlight turns on, followed by two more in the background turning on. We then reach the middle of the Fox "stack" structure, but instead of seeing a narrow "CENTURY", we see a large "SEARCHLIGHT". The camera pulls back and reveals "FOX" above and "PICTURES" below. After the logo is finished zooming out, the byline "A NEWS CORPORATION COMPANY" fades in, then the rightmost searchlight moves towards us, filling the screen with light, then we fade out.

Variants:

On some films, the News Corporation byline is slightly smaller. Primarily, this is used for films with a wider aspect ratio, but on some movies, such as Slums of Beverly Hills and Boys Don't Cry, it is used on the regular 16:9 version of the logo, while some wider films, such as Titus and Slumdog Millionaire, use the regular byline instead.
A bylineless version exists, but it was used solely for corporate purposes and never appeared on any film.

FX/SFX: The movement of the camera. Great CGI, Created by Tenth Annual Industries.

Music/Sounds: Few seconds of silence, as the searchlight turns on, the 1994 20th Century Fox fanfare plays. Later replaced in 1999 with the 1997 fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On some films like 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, there is a low-toned version of the fanfare.
The Darjeeling Limited uses the short version of the 1997 20th Century Fox fanfare.
On I Heart Huckabees, after the light covers the screen, the opening voiceover begins.

Availability: Common. It's seen on indie, art-house, and foreign movie releases distributed by Fox from this era. The logo was first used on Blood and Wine, and made its final appearance on Cedar Rapids (The trailers for said film use the next logo instead).

Editor's Note: Same as the 1994 20th Century Fox logo.

4th Logo (2010-December 13, 2019)

Nicknames: "CGI City Skyline Searchlights II", "Enhanced City Skyline Searchlights", "Fox Structure III", "Fox Searchlight Structure III", "2010s Tower", "Futuristic Structure III", "Ultra-Majestic Tower III", "Decade Tower", "FSP Tower III", "Searchlight's 25th", "Happy Anniversary, Fox Searchlight!" "Happy 25th, Searchlight!", "25 Years of Fox Searchlight", "Quadranscentennial Tower", "Great Structure II", "Turn On The Lights II", "Pre-Disney Tower"

Logo: This is a redone and more realistic version of the last logo, based on the structure of the 2009 20th Century Fox logo. This time, it is in a dark/orange evening environment. There are newer and more realistic textures added to the structure, we can see palm trees at the bottom at the start (as well as the addition of the Hollywood sign on the hills), and near the right at the end, and it's more obvious at the end that the right searchlight is pointing at us when it fills the screen with light.

Trivia: This logo is based on the 2009 TCF logo designed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, and was animated at Blue Sky Studios.

Variants:

There are variants where the structure is seen in an extreme close-up (ala cropped from scope into 1.78:1) or shown at a far distance in the entire 16:9 frame.
There is a 4:3 variant seen on some TV spots.
Starting with the release of Enough Said on September 18, 2013, the News Corporation byline is excluded and the logo is bylineless for the first time since the 1995 logo. This is mainly due to the split of News Corporation on June 28, 2013.
On the trailers for Tolkien and Antlers, as well of the actual films itself such as Ready or Not, Lucy in the Sky, Jojo Rabbit, and A Hidden Life, after the screen is filled with light, it fades to a dark grey background with a silver rectangle. The object has a large "25" on the left with "YEARS" inside the 5 on in the first quarter on the left, and in the other three quarters is the print logo, minus the searchlights.

FX/SFX: Very nice CGI.

Music/Sounds: The 1997 Fox fanfare or silence.

Availability: First seen on the trailers for The Tree of Life, Cedar Rapids and later trailers for Win Win (the logo premiered on the film itself). The last film to use this logo with the News Corporation byline was The Way Way Back, released on July 5, 2013. The last film to use this logo with the "Fox Searchlight" name was A Hidden Life, released on December 13, 2019.

Editor's Note: It's a suitable successor to the previous logo.

Searchlight Pictures

(February 14, 2020-)

Nicknames: "CGI City Skyline Searchlights III", "Enhanced City Skyline Searchlights II", "Searchlight Structure", "2020s Tower", "Post-Fox Structure", "Post-Fox Searchlight Structure", "Futuristic Structure IV", "Ultra-Majestic Tower IV", "Decade Tower II", "Searchlight Tower", "Great Structure IV", "Turn On the Lights III", "Disney Tower"

Logo: Nearly the same as the final Fox Searchlight Pictures logo, except "FOX" has been removed from the top of the structure and the words are slightly taller and bigger, a la the 2002 Fox Interactive logo. The Los Angeles cityscape is more realistic and bigger with greater depth, the sky is much different, and the mountains in the background are more layered. Also, the Hollywood sign is pushed up to resemble the one in real life.

FX/SFX: Still very nice CGI, this time created by MOCEAN.

Music/Sounds: The 1997 TCF fanfare, same as the finallogo.

Availability: First seen on "For Your Consideration" spots for Jojo Rabbit. It then first appeared theatrically on Downhill, released on February 14, 2020. Also appears as a de-facto Home Video logo on current Searchlight Pictures home media releases.

Editor's Note: Like the 20th Century Studios logo, it may take some time to get used to, but it is still an excellent logo.