Gif excerpt from the film Slow West via A24 Films. Daniel Katz (co-founder, A24): We used to always talk about Oh, theres gotta be a better way.. Beyer: And respect them and treat them the way they would by any other company. And although it describes itself as Midnight Madness, the film didnt start until close to one oclock in the morning. Not necessarily, like, to win Best Picture and ten Oscar nominations. So everyones wrapping up this gift basket that Im supposed to deliver to Megan [Ellison, one of the producers of Spring Breakers, who was on location in Pittsburgh] and say, like, This is why you should go with us. So I just called the guy. So, how much is Johnny Hodges . Because even the companys failures are interesting. But its present success and continued survival are dependent on a massive deal that seems to directly contradict everything thats made the company so special. In 2021, A24 won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Yuh-jung Youn in Minari, who became the first Korean actress to win an Oscar). And they did. Wouldnt call us back. And then it was consolidation. And there are studio subdivisions, like Fox Searchlight, that have consistently guided films like 12 Years a Slave and Birdman to Academy Awards and box office success over the past twenty years. Saulnier expertly contains conflict, depth and gore within small confines. A24, which was founded in 2012, said that no additional changes in management will be made. I think what theyve understood is theres a sufficient number of people out there who want more challenging or different material. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful. You lost. The companys best known movies include Ex Machina, Room, The Witch, Amy and Moonlight, which won the 2016 Academy Award for best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali. Hodges had been an integral part of the studio since its inception in 2012, along with co-founders David Fenkel and Daniel Katz. [25], On November 13, 2019, A24 entered into a premium cable television broadcast deal with Showtime Networks, covering all film releases through November 1, 2022. The fact theyre vampires might just be an excuse for them to wear sunglasses indoors. [11][12], In September 2013, A24 entered a $40 million deal with DirecTV Cinema, where DirecTV Cinema would offer day-and-date releases 30 days prior to a theatrical release by A24; Enemy was the first film to be distributed under the deal. Igoe: At SXSW, we had Spectacular Now, and Spring Breakers showed there. We spoke with the companys friends, collaborators, and employees to make sense of how A24 became the most interesting, creative, and reliable film company of the 21st century. If its gonna be released the same way by another company, we usually dont go after it. And then you meet Barry and hear Barry talk, and its like, Of course! Film-distribution companies tend to be important but invisible: They buy finished films, cut trailers, make posters, and put movies into movie theatersor, more often these days, dump them onto VOD, never to be heard from again. Franco: I remember the South by Southwest festival, the screeningit was like a rock concert. Were good. Zoe Beyer (marketing, A24): Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign. Losing a movieI wanted to jump off a bridge. John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. New York, no one gives a shit. So I think they were hoping, and discovering, that they might be able to do that with The Witch. Yes, Scream VI Marketing Is Behind the Creepy Ghostface Sightings Causing Scares Across the U.S. David Oyelowo, Taylor Sheridan's 'Bass Reeves' Series at Paramount+ Casts King Richard Star Demi Singleton (EXCLUSIVE), Star Trek: Discovery to End With Season 5, Paramount+ Pushes Premiere to 2024. The question with any company that lavishes attention and resources upon a modest amount of product is, of course, where does the money come from? They didnt have a ton of movies, you know? It was like Broadcast News. In 2012, Fenkel, Hodges, and Katz left their jobsat Oscilloscope, Big Beach, and Guggenheim Partners, respectivelyto start A24. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. But I feel that the fact that it was their first filmthere was a lot of idealism around the process. Fenkel: We test-screened [Spring Breakers] in downtown Manhattan. In pretty decent seats, actually. Maybe we werent geniuses with Spring Breakers, but we were the ones who said, Lets put it in theaters, because we could build on that. People liked Spring Breakers. [laughs] I remember I had to have a conversation with Alicia about it, where she was saying, What the hell? and I was saying, I dont know. Franco: All the distributors knew it was great. For a truly great film like this, being excluded from the conversation into which A24 works so hard to insinuate its main slate can feel like a fate worse than Harvey Weinstein. We had a good history. That was tough. PARK CITY, Utah At the Sundance Film Festival here in January, executives at A24, the upstart movie and television studio, stood in the back of a makeshift theater looking as if . Other similarly sized outfits tend to flood the flooded marketplace with a steady barrage of quality independent and foreign fare in a way that can feel indiscriminate: Send the DCPs to Film Forum and let God sort em out. [16] The company, with cooperation from Bank of America, J.P. Morgan & Co. and SunTrust Banks, also raised its line of credit from $50 million to $125 million a month later to build upon its operations. And with the opening weekend, with the numbers that we did, it became very clear that, yes, this is a viable strategy, to keep this very small, gay, art-house hood-ass filmlike, yeah, were just gonna keep it in theaters. A24 knew that Slow West was great well before it premiered to rave reviews, but the company also recognized that it was an odd duck, neither broad enough to be a prestige picture nor strange enough to galvanize a legion of fans. And I think it is down to companies like A24. 10001 NEW YORK, USA. Jul 2021 - Present1 year 7 months. And even this public face represents the companys nonhierarchical structure: Thats only funny, Beyer once observed, because youre not quite sure whos saying it. Anything in between is dead in the water. Rather than focusing on acquisitions, as was its early strategy, A24 is now producing its own movies, as well as its own podcast. So that was like their heyday. Like Under the Skin, Locke, Enemy. Trey Edward Schultz's moody, atmospheric thriller plays on our country's present division and how mistrust in others can come back to harm us. A24s biggest success, Lady Bird, grossed $49 million domestically, so can that ceiling support the duos ambitions, or will a larger distributor make them an offer they cant refuse? Lady Bird remains its biggest success, earning $49 million domestically to date. Coppola: That was the worst. A24s television division released The Carmichael Show.. There was nothing bad-spirited about it. Which is vanishingly rare in the film industry. Lets go wide! Still, A24 has never enjoyed a box-office breakout hit. Agent. Over the past six years I have been fortunate to work with a diverse group of talented storytellers across film and TV and look forward to continuing those collaborations in my future endeavors.. Key grip. But the back end was so crazy. Fenkel: I think we had to sell them on, like, Hey, were gonna push this thing.. . None Of Us Thanked Them. These films speak for themselves. We tried to put together a slate in, like, four months, as opposed to just really growing it, building it in the right way. And when youre a loser, you think for a split second, Maybe they got it wrong. They dont have the personality of movie executives. Im thrilled to be joining the team at Jax, Hodges said. And then there was another one where hes deep-throating the gun, and we replaced it with a gold statue. A24 co-founder John Hodges is exiting the indie company to "focus on future opportunities," he and the company jointly announced on Monday. At a time when young people are increasingly going to the movies only for blockbuster spectacle, A24 has established itself as the film industrys most forward-thinking company by releasing the kind of midsized, stylish, quality films that seemed on the verge of going extinct, transforming them into a collective theatrical experience, and aiming them squarely at a demographic that would rather watch movies on their phones. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. No one in the office is older than 42, including co-founders John Hodges, David Fenkel, and Daniel Katz. Put it on screens. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. The bottom line is that there were 677 new releases in 2013, and that number is only getting bigger. If the cost of helping great movies find their theatrical audiences and lure them into theaters is to release other great movies that audiences have to find for themselves, thats probably a price most of us are willing to pay. Coppola: I was a little nervous about not going with a company that I knew had a track record, but I knew that they were going to really do their best. Theyre just on it. It is based in New York City. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Halfway through the campaign, I think it went the other way. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. He later left A24 on March 2018 to focus on future opportunities. Beth was also the first A24 movie since its inaugural release, the Charlie Sheen-starring A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, not to receive a fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Asif Kapadia (director, Amy): I suppose most filmmakers have had bad experiences in the past where you do all the hard work, and then these guys in slick suits come along and theyre like, We know what were doing now! We were watching it the whole time. Whoa! Because theyd made a curated, awesome, crafted film. When I saw Robert Eggers The Witch at that same festival, I stumbled out of the 9 a.m. press screening convinced that I had just seen a masterpiece. [10] The company's first theatrical release was Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, which had a limited release. Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges have unveiled New York-based A24 as a distribution, financing and production company with plans to release eight to 10 titles annually. It specializes in film distribution, and film and television production. Essie Davis is insanely good as a single mother on the brink of a mental breakdown as she attempts to care for her troubled young son. Fenkel: Charlie Sheen was in this interesting place where maybe he was on the verge of a comeback, and Im saying that with a straight face. Fenkel: Well, it wasnt a heartbreak, because they wouldnt actually call us back. I Just Raised The Oscar At Them. Fellow founding partners Daniel Katz and David Fenkel will continue to oversee the NYC-based indie studio, which has seen great success with Oscar-winning films such as Room, Ex Machina and last years surprise Best Picture winner Moonlight.. Many of the countrys most vital filmmakers, unwilling to accept that their next movie would have to be either shot on an iPhone or connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have begun to abandon ship. It would cost too much to buy Mississippi Grinda fighting chance in theaters, so the film is making its way into the world through 20 million smaller screens rather than a few dozen large ones, and more viewers will have a chance to appreciate it as the sublime hangout movie that it is. Thats completely nuts. As Korine told Rolling Stone: I want to do the most radical work, but put it out in the most commercial way. A24 just took him up on it. I think he would say something now. Fenkel: And then I started saying, No way. raised the Oscar at them. Take its efforts on Spring Breakers, for example. But I put no limitations on what theyre capable of. Usually you talk to somebody and they tell you all the reasons they shouldnt make something, and why its so difficult. And we still have a great relationship now. Leave it to Jim Jarmusch to make the coolest vampire movie ever. The story behind the studio that brought you Moonlight and It Comes At Night, as told by Barry Jenkins, Sofia Coppola, James Franco, Robert Pattinson, and the founders of A24 themselves. I found it so deep in Google Image searches. They kept shutting us down. They entered into deals with DirecTV Cinema and Amazon Prime in late 2013, with some films distributed through them, and the name was changed to A24 in 2016.[3]. You could tell that they wanted to be great. I felt bad that David had to be put through that. Franco: I actually did win some awards. I think theatrical will always be there, but most of my biggest experiences of cinema have been in front of a TVno one was screening Fellini films in Ireland when I was 19 or 20.. And they were like the third guy at the company. Jeanie Igoe (production, A24): None of us really knew what we were doing. Heading into production nearly a decade after the premiere of Jenkins only other feature (the excellent Medicine for Melancholy), the film has been waiting a long time for a company with the confidence required to finance it. The indies can be liquid and fluid. A24 may be growing fast, but no one has displayed greater agility in navigating the waters of a business that constantly seems to be changing course. She looked great. Katz, Fenkel and Hodges prior to A24 worked in film and production, before leaving to eventually co-found the company, And then we drank a huge amount of red wine. The world opened itself up. And it satisfied something they werent getting. Zach Baron is GQs staff writer. There are exceptions to this rule, such as Miramax, the company that upended indie cinema in the 90s, backing then unknown filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino. Aizenberg: I think we knew we had something at South By. As of 2023[update], the company's films had received a total of 49 Academy Award nominations. Moonlight we hadnt seen yet. We took a risk on the movie, and it fucking paid off, so why should we cut down our back end? First movies gonna be so exciting! And I remember everyone came back from that test screening. (Blindsided teens, many of whom had been intrigued at the thought of seeing former Disney star Selena Gomez in a more mature performance, assailed the Internet with complaints that they had paid to see the Worst Movie Ever Made.) Fenkel: And the Spring Breakers trailer dropped the first day of Sundance, and MTVs servers fucked up, because we gave them the exclusive, and they stopped serving the video. Harvey Weinstein (via email): A24 is a great company. Fenkel: Lenny [Abrahamson, for Room] beats out Ridley Scott! Aizenberg: That Oscar-nomination morning, I remember walking into the office that day, and I was like, Please, dear God, just let Amy and Brie get nominated. Oh my god, its new! The company said he will exit to focus on "future opportunities," but did not clarify beyond that statement.. Talk me through it. But we liked them. But A24, it became clear when I spoke to the companys employees, saw Spring Breakers as a Trojan horse for progressive cinemathe company less concerned about the nine kids who found the film too weird than they were the one kid who went home and rented Gummo. Jenkins: I just would never allow myself to believe that something I made could win Best Picture. Love that movie. When it wasnt us. Sacco: We probably saw 20 versions. The whole thing was really intense. I was proud of the film but I thought it was weird and boring. A24 co-founder John Hodges is exiting the indie companyto focus on future opportunities, he and the company jointly announced on Monday. Pattinson: I mean, with Twilight, the first tour we did was literally going to suburban shopping malls and doing local-news stuff. They rented some office space in Manhattan. A24 is cool and I know they say great things about Miramax, which makes me feel proud and old at the same time. That company and the old Miramax and Fox Searchlight had a real brand and a hold on their audience.
Homes For Sale In Brandon, Ms By Owner,
Dana Katz Obituary,
Bands With Drinks In Their Names,
Critical Value For Tukey Test Calculator,
Jj Grey's Anatomy Cause Of Death,
Articles A