As Playback counts down to the end of the year, we’re rolling out our Best Of stories from our Winter 2012 issue. Read on for more on Vancouver-based Lionsgate’s big year, which included acquiring Twilight franchise producer Summit Entertainment, releasing the first Hunger Games installment, and extending its worldwide distribution network via multiple international output deals.

Indie Studio of the Year: Lionsgate

Some year. Some Canadian studio.

Leaving behind the mini-studio tag to challenge Hollywood studios on their turf, Lionsgate acquired Twilight movie franchise producer Summit Entertainment in January 2012 for $412 million in cash and stock.

To get the leveraged buyout done, Vancouver-based Lionsgate had to assume Summit’s $500 million debt. Then, in early October, Lionsgate paid down that $500 million loan four years before the final payment was due.

It was that kind of a year for the Vancouver-based studio, whose deal for Summit and its Twilight franchise combined two of Hollywood’s biggest producers of teen tentpoles, given Lionsgate’s success with The Hunger Games franchise.

Besides the first Hunger Games installment, which grossed nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office, Lionsgate’s recent film slate includes The Possession, Sinister, The Expendables 2, Cabin in the Woods, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection and Arbitrage.

And with the Summit acquisition, Lionsgate also added to its library notable box office hits like Red, which was shot in Toronto, Letters to Juliet, Knowing and the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker.

And the studio’s home entertainment business is feeding a burgeoning box office-to-DVD and VOD pipeline, underpinned by a library that now has around 15,000 titles.

That library also contains, in addition to the movie division properties, titles from Lionsgate’s expanding cable TV business.

Besides popular titles like Mad Men, Weeds and the Charlie Sheen comeback sitcom Anger Management, Lionsgate is also enjoying success with network TV, most notably this fall’s ABC breakout hit Nashville.

Here’s where Lionsgate especially sets an example to rival Canadian producers for creating a cradle-to-grave approach to product exploitation. The film and TV slates are seen as complementary to feeding an international and increasingly digital pipeline for content exploitation.

That allows the studio, backed by a new five-year, $800-million credit facility, to develop, finance and produce content on its own, before selling product to broadcasters and film distributors in North America and internationally.

Then Lionsgate squeezes earnings from the content in home entertainment and digital platforms.

Finally, Lionsgate exploits older/long tail content, whether in syndication or via Netflix for end-to-end value creation.

Lionsgate has equally excelled in the last year building out its international distribution network.

The company made good use of Summit principals Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, with Friedman stickhandling movie production, while Wachsberger uses his experience in foreign sales to build out the not-so-mini studio’s international distribution network.

The strategy is creating a worldwide network of independent distributors where Lionsgate doesn’t give up upfront money from territories, while gaining partners for wide release of its product internationally.

In recent months, Lionsgate inked separate output deals with Belgium’s Belga Films, StudioCanal in Germany, Nordisk Films in Scandinavia, Alliance Film’s Aurum Producciones in Spain, Roadshow Pictures in Australia and Metropolitan Filmworks in France.

Meanwhile, the Canadian studio still releases its own titles in the U.K., and has a self-distribution partnership with IDC in Latin America.

And Lionsgate is laying down a distribution route into Asia, via a pact with Celestial Tiger Entertainment. The Hong Kong-based cable channel operator releases Lionsgate TV content and film library titles, and Summit Entertainment films, in East Asia, including China.

A more recent deal with Celestial Tiger for Southeast Asia now covers the Japanese and Korean markets. Lionsgate earlier this year acquired a stake in the company, along with Saban Capital.