The film doesn't just poke fun at 2005's massively successful March of the Penguins, it skewers the feel-good nature flick, which grossed a stunning $122-million (U.S.) at the box office and went on to claim the best documentary feature prize at the Oscars.

Mr. Sackman smirks. That should show them. After all, it was March of the Penguins that beat out ThinkFilm's edgy Murderball at the Academy Awards this year, even though many critics pegged it as the best documentary of 2005.

But aside from the pleasure he may get from poking fun (Mr. Sackman insists he isn't anti-penguin, as Farce was in the works long before the Oscars), the coming release is the quintessential ThinkFilm movie. It is controversial, relatively inexpensive to get the distribution rights for and will practically market itself through buzz on the street.

That, in a sentence, has become the ThinkFilm recipe. The company doesn't merely court controversy, it milks scandal for all it's worth. Five years after launching ThinkFilm, Mr. Sackman and his colleagues have carved out a niche as the distributor that goes after the kinds of movies most companies won't touch.

Browse through a list of their titles and you get a sense of ThinkFilm's strategy as a movie distributor. There is the documentary, Fuck, an exploration of the world's most famous expletive. There is The Aristocrats, a film no other distributor would touch because it involves comedians telling the same crass joke over and over. ThinkFilm bought the rights for it and parlayed the movie into $7-million at the box office, a healthy sum for a small production, despite threats of being banned from some theatres.

Then there is Shortbus, the much anticipated film at this year's Toronto International Film Festival that drew gasps from audiences at Cannes for its vivid sex scenes. ThinkFilm picked up on that reaction, saw the potential for controversy and media attention, and jumped aboard as a distributor for the film.

Shortbus is a perfect example of ThinkFilm's strategy, Mr. Sackman says. The distribution business is all about marketing. The biggest companies will spend dollars, but the smaller ones find other means to generate buzz. When a theatre chain in the United States threatened to refuse The Aristocrats, Mr. Sackman admits he loved every minute of the free advertising the film got from the media coverage.

With Shortbus, Mr. Sackman may be the only person at the Toronto film festival this week to have hired an obscenity consultant. A lawyer familiar with the content of Shortbus approached ThinkFilm recently to counsel the company if it gets into trouble in U.S. states where decency laws may come into play.

When ThinkFilm started five years ago, courting controversy was a conscious decision. The company intentionally stays out of the industry association in the United States that requires all members to have their films rated. That way, ThinkFilm can pick up risky movies that other companies would avoid because they require a rating. The company then sends them into theatres without a rating, usually drawing headlines along the way.

That approach hasn't kept the company from garnering respect, however. ThinkFilm's picks have won several accolades, including an Oscar for the documentary Born into Brothels and the nomination for Murderball.

"Once you're at the theatre, it's an equal playing field," Mr. Sackman says. With Shortbus set to be released soon, Mr. Sackman is hoping to draw the ire of someone. It will help the film immensely.

Once again, he is stoking publicity for the firm, which has lasted five years in a business with much bigger competitors threatening to trample people like Mr. Sackman.

Taking the controversial film The Aristocrats to better-than-expected box office success, even though the film centres around the repeated telling of a lewd joke by a variety of comedians and no major distributor would touch it.

This is cache, read story here