Donald Krim, president of Kino International and co-president of Kino Lorber Inc., died Friday in his New York home. At 65, Krim endured a yearlong battle with cancer.

He was missed at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times writes, Over the more than three decades that he ran Kino, the widely liked Mr. Krim, a gentleman in a business filled with braggarts, enriched American lives by bringing some of the world's greatest filmmakers...into American theaters and homes (through an excellent DVD catalog). Mr. Krim enriched our lives and expanded our vision.

As president of Kino International, Krim helped introduce prominent directors Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Kar-Wai, Michael Haneke, Amos Gitai, Aki Kaurismaki, Julie Dash and Andrei Zvyagintsev.

He also earned several honors during his career: the Mel Novikoff Award from the San Francisco Film Festival in 2000; the William K. Everson Award for Film History by the National Board of Review; the Film Preservation Honors Award by the Anthology Film Archives; and the Visionary Award at the 24th annual Israel Film Festival.

Krim graduated with a bachelor's in American history and a law degree from Columbia University. After which he worked for United Artists where he met Bill Pence, founder of Kino International.

Kino International, founded in 1977, is a film and video distributor based in New York City. The company specializes in low-budget current films, early classic films, and world cinema.

Some of the top influential films Kino International released are:

Shouhei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine and The Ballad of Narayama

Percy Adlon's Sugarbaby

Andre Techine's Scene of the Crime

Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee

Volker Schlondorff's The Legend of Rita

Gitai's Alila and Kedma

Wong's Days of Being Wild

Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy

Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami

Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth.

On Monday, a funeral service will be held at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. A memorial service is planned for late June.

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