But then also do things that other companies arent doing. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Its infamously irreverent official Twitter account, run by an employee named Zoe Beyer, is as likely to tweet about the Spice Girls or trash-talk Tom Cruise as it is to tweet about one of the companys own movies. 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. So I suppose the question now surrounding A24 is what Fenkel and Katz plan to make of it. @ After a brief flurry of acquisitions gossip, and Monday's announcement that A24 co-founder John Hodges will exit the company, A24 and/or Apple "insiders" let it be known that Apple wasn't. [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. Get it now by subscribing here. And, like, within two blocks, I have to stop. Take the fate of John Macleans Slow West, one of the years best films, a neo-Western starring Michael Fassbender as a bounty hunter. Stay plugged in to the industry with our free newsletter. He recently profiled Conor McGregor for GQ Style. And we just hounded him. And then there was another one where hes deep-throating the gun, and we replaced it with a gold statue. A vital piece of work far too delicately perverse to have sustained a theatrical run, it was the ideal choice to launch the program. Daniel Katz (co-founder, A24): We used to always talk about Oh, theres gotta be a better way.. Its trio of foundersDaniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges, whod known each other through years of work in New Yorks indie movie circuitrarely granted interviews. All rights reserved. But in general distribution is like plumbing: unseen, unnoticed, and notable only when it malfunctions. The films were darlingsincluding David Michds The Rover, starring Robert Pattinson; Denis Villeneuves Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal; and Jonathan Glazers Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johanssonand, by and large, box-office underperformers. Nicolette Aizenberg (distribution executive, A24): It is very cyclical. Sacco: Youre not like, Oh, we got a Best Picture winner! Youre just like, Oh, we got a great movie.. Hollywood is run by accountants at this point. We wish Hodges the best of luck with his next endeavor, since the indie landscape has certainly benefited from his contributions. They dont have the personality of movie executives. Pattinson: Theyre definitely the place to be now. BREAKING: John Hodges, one of the founding members of A24, has announced his departure from the production and distribution studio to focus on future opportunities. James Franco (actor, Spring Breakers, The Adderall Diaries): This is one of the things theyre great at: taking something small and delicate and giving it the kind of support that other people cant. Because they didnt expect the traffic. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Probably the best place to screen-test the movie. Discover Johnny Hodges's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. In 2017,[4] Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture (the first such award for the company), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali). Since its inception in 2012, A24 has become one of the hottest destinations for indie filmmakers, ushering such edgy films to theaters as The Bling Ring and Spring Breakers. Your vision is incredible.. 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Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More. Dont get left behind. John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, . SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Sundance, SXSW Comedy 'Never Goin' Back' Sells to A24. If the companys success continues apace, it might not be long before a profitable mid-budget movie no longer seems like a unicorn, and it might not be much longer until being an A24 film is the only hook a film needs. I think I made out with my wife in front of people. Since the small blast of trade articles that greeted the companys inception, theyve remained unusually quiet. Ali Herting (acquisitions and development, A24): We were never gonna get Place Beyond the Pines. Katz: We broke the record that weekend. And even this public face represents the companys nonhierarchical structure: Thats only funny, Beyer once observed, because youre not quite sure whos saying it. According to Ponsoldt, who recently became the companys first repeat filmmaker: A24 films run the gamut of genre and style, but they all seem to be incredibly specific, personal visions.. A24, which was founded in 2012, said that no additional changes in management will be made. We tried to get the Union Square movie theaterwe didnt have a theatrical booking yet. By the end of its opening weekend, it had raked in more money than all of Korines other films combined. Franco: I actually did win some awards. There has been speculation for the past six months that the company is for sale. So what is an A24 film? Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. The world opened itself up. And it satisfied something they werent getting. John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. Fenkel: That kind of hit. How do we get Spring Breakers? And then Noah got Spring Breakers. Whatever lingering reservations I had about the VOD side of A24s business were dismantled by the recent rumblings of a demonically possessed goat: The DirecTV logo may still be lurking toward the bottom of The Witchs teaser poster (which accurately identifies and champions Black Phillip as the movies breakout star), but at some point along the way it was decided that this crowd-pleasing, pants-ruining work of art has the makings of a communal sensation, and A24 pivoted. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. Everybody wants to be A24. Hodges, who previously served as head of production at the indie production company Big Beach (Little Miss Sunshine), did not announce any immediate career plans. They just seem like theyre the first company thats really abandoned a lot of the old models. Alex Garland (director, Ex Machina): They make things work that according to standard procedures really shouldnt work. Its exciting. And the interns are running around trying to find a glassblower. I was proud of the film but I thought it was weird and boring. [Sofia] was like, Oh, will you at least partner with Harvey? We were like, No!. John. When the film comes out in early 2016, it will arrive exclusively in theaters, and its trial by fire will be exclusively in theaters. Youre incredible. Genre hounds stoked by the Sundance hype would surely seek it out, but Eggers extraordinary debutabout a family of early American pilgrims who get banished to the wrong forestwould never be given the opportunity to meaningfully connect with its audience and worm its way into the culture. We werent doing anything like that. 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Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More. Since then, A24's success has been immeasurable, especially for an independent Production company founded the same year The Avengers came out. But in a shift from its typical way of doing business, A24 acquired Room based on its script, before shooting had even begun. Thats the chief message of an A24 campaign, really, from elegant design to sharp social media to clever co-branding choices: This is a company that gets it. Earlier this year I was drinking in a hotel bar with the head of another distribution company at a film festival. Like, standing ovation, fucking applause in the middle of the movie. Hodges teamed with Daniel Katz and David Fenkel to launch the company, which is based in New York City. Fenkel: We had a meeting. Lets go wide! [7], Guggenheim Partners provided the seed money for A24 The company was started to share "movies from a distinctive point of view". When it happens again and again, thats very, very intelligent work and planning. And I think it is down to companies like A24. Katz: David and I are sitting next to each other. For instance, an actress. I want to be A24, he said. There are more glamorous things to be, in Hollywood, than an independent distribution company. They had heart to them. This is Rudin. An Industry Arts Company. And that takes time. A24 went on a spending spree and released 11 movies in their second year of operation. They wanted, like, the Disney, massive one. It was a perfectly good jet! And suddenly its all over, and you think, Of all people, I knew the most about my film, so why was I was on the periphery of its release? But working closely with A24 throughout Rooms pre-release has altered his philosophy on film marketing: I used to think that the publicity process was both morally questionable and smoke and mirrors, that it was one of those invented jobs. Jenkins: What theyre doing is so fluid and free-form that two years from now, it could be quite different than it was two years ago. But I think in experiences since then, doing mid-budget or relatively low-budget movies, if you try to do a toned-down version of thatIve just seen it not work, again and again and again. [13] That same year, A24 entered a deal with Amazon Prime, where A24-distributed films would be available on Amazon Instant Video after becoming available on DVD and Blu-ray. Kapadia: Theyve won Best Picture. That was 2013. Because even the companys failures are interesting. Art and Experience : John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. Robert Pattinson (actor, The Rover, Good Time): Its crazy that there is an article about a distribution company. Lets run there. And we got Best Picture [also for Room]. In pretty decent seats, actually. 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. The company said he will exit to focus on "future opportunities," but did not clarify beyond that statement.. Beyer: It was all about this tension between, like, trying to legitimize ourselves as a real company that can handle working with, like, big. Aizenberg: Remember he didnt show up to the premiere? When we started, we wanted it to be about the films and filmmakers, not us, Katz told the Hollywood Reporter at the end of 2013, and that culture remains evident in all aspects of their business. And they were like the third guy at the company. Hollywood is run by accountants at this point. And they did. And so with [The Rover], they took that into account, and instead of blowing loads of money, [they did] more targeted marketing and also really sophisticated online campaigns and stuff. Set in 1630s New England, a family is banished from their village and starts to unravel when their baby vanishes. No one in the office is older than 42, including co-founders John Hodges, David Fenkel, and Daniel Katz. So I think they were hoping, and discovering, that they might be able to do that with The Witch. Dave Franco & Alison Brie Take a Couples Quiz, Heres a First Look at Daniel Lees Burberry, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez Are Shaping NASCAR's Future, Inside Daniel Lee's Burberry Debut, London Fashion Week's Biggest Show. Lets do Kevin Smith horror! Rather than carpet-bomb the whole country with prohibitively expensive television ads, A24 partnered with a social marketing agency called theAudience in order to more precisely reach its target demographic. Not necessarily, like, to win Best Picture and ten Oscar nominations. Franco: I would bet that [Alien] was one of the biggest, most popular Halloween costumes that year. No one cared about our language or our clothes. The tech titan is reportedly in the midst of dropping $1 billion on original content, but has yet to make a major film market move. Signed on as producer beginning with the third season. When I was explaining to people what I was doing, it felt like a political campaign. Wanna follow A24 (company)'s net worth? A24 has also been nominated and won many Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards. Place Beyond the Pines, wed worked with the producers before. Its not remarkable that A24 had set such a goalits remarkable that the company is accomplishing it. And they even never uttered the words, What would it be like in a cheaper state? The optimistic way to view this situation is that A24 is getting much better at buying good movies for its DirecTV deal, rather than filler like Barely Lethal. Katz: There was still, I think, the element ofthey thought we got lucky. You could tell that they wanted to be great. When your business model is predicated on treating each movie like an event, how do you get bigger without changing who you are? For a start, it was founded on the wrong coast - New York, not Los Angeles - by three relatively young arthouse film executives, Daniel Katz, David. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next., Hodges said in a statement, I am incredibly proud of the company we created and of the amazing team at A24 that has been integral to its success. The news of Hodges exit was abrupt, but one source said the move has been in the works for some time. Surely theyve learned by now that theres a ceiling for arthouse films these days. Theres aesthetic and political values to the people behind the company. Theyre one of the few companies that have shown that indie films can still be viable. A24 also released 2017s Lady Bird, an acclaimed coming-of-age story from Greta Gerwig, picking up a best picture nod. As of April 2022[update], twenty-seven episodes had been released. John Hodges is a producer and the founder of A24 alongside David Katz and David Fenkel. John Hodges will be leaving A24 to pursue other opportunities, the indie distributor announced Monday. Fenkel: We knew we were releasing the movie. And I think thats the main thing, Id say. I dont even look at him. Fenkel: I just cannot stop. Hodges: I started my career at USA Films, which became Focus Features. A24, which was founded in 2012, said that no additional changes in management will be made. Aizenberg: When I came to A24, they had Charles Swan already. If anything, it was the bastard stepchild at that point. Were putting together a gift basket of glass guns and a gift basket with munchies. But I put no limitations on what theyre capable of. There is no Tinder for Room! 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. March 3, 2018. And we werent thinking about that. We step up to a guy we really respect. We allowed them to come on set to see what was happening, and they in turn were sharing their release plans and their marketing materials, and we were commenting on that. That shift points to a greater move afoot at A24, as the company begins to develop its own projects from within. The fact theyre vampires might just be an excuse for them to wear sunglasses indoors. I asked him what he wants his company to be. From It Follows to The Babadook, these horror gems didnt have blockbuster budgets. Noah Sacco (head of acquisitions and production, A24): I think some of our biggest movies had no stars in them at the time of releaseEx Machina, Moonlight, The Witch, Room, The Spectacular Now. Uncut Gems ($50 million). It Follows takes the horror trope of getting punished for having sex to a new level. I found it so deep in Google Image searches. A24 was founded on August 20, 2012, by film veterans Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges. And yeah, I just think that it takesit doesnt happen that often that a new studio starts. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. A24 is responsible for such films as Lady Bird, Moonlight, Eighth Grade, Hereditary, The Witch, The Lobster, Ex Machina & more. Fenkel: [Katz] is a better runner than I am. Beyer: I think the operating principle was, Dont ask for permission. In 2016, films distributed by A24 won Academy Awards for Best Actress (Brie Larson in Room), Best Documentary Feature (Amy), and Best Visual Effects (Ex Machina). On the most literal level, an A24 film is budgeted from anywhere between $1 million (Obvious Child) and $20 million (A Most Violent Year). Anything in between is dead in the water. It was also that A24 was releasing these films not with a sigh and a shrug, but with panache, style, and humor: bright neon colors, guerrilla marketing tactics, and in the case of James Francos Britney Spears-loving gangster character from Spring Breakers, an actual Oscar campaign. When Ex Machina director Alex Garland was asked what he liked about working with A24, he compared the major studios to ocean liners: To change direction it takes them two days to even start to make that turn. We sit in. People want to see movies. Igoe: At SXSW, we had Spectacular Now, and Spring Breakers showed there. Theres music labels I can think of as well. Katz formerly led the film finance group at Guggenheim Partners, Fenkel was the president, co-founder and partner at Oscilloscope, and Hodges served as Head of Production and Development at Big Beach. "I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Jax,". Also Read: Sundance, SXSW Comedy 'Never Goin' Back' Sells to A24, John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, the studio said in a statement. How do you know when an ad campaign is working? Katz: Tusk, we were like, oh, Kevin Smith! Jeremy Kleiner (producer, Plan B, Moonlight): It wasnt like, Oh, this is low-hanging fruit, lets grab on to this one. It was a passionate embrace of the movie. And The Place Beyond the Pines. Katz: Tuesday morning, I remember, we had a little whiskey for him. TV production powerhouse Jax Media is expanding into film and tapped John Hodges, one of the founding partners of A24, as its new head of film. Its exciting. Without the same star power or effects as your typical studio horror film, these scary movies rely on mood, style and character to create a feeling of dread, rather than jump scares. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. In 2023, A24 became the most nominated single studio of that year's awards with 18 total nominations between 6 of its films (Everything Everywhere All at Once (11 nominations, the most nominated film of that year's awards, including Best Picture), The Whale (3 nominations), Aftersun, Causeway, Close, and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (each with 1 nomination)).[5]. In the fall of 2012, A24 arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a plan to acquire several movies. Key grip. The initial agreement covered 12 films, the first of which was Denis Villeneuves jaundiced doppelgnger freakout, Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. So when I saw that, I was like, Okay, those guys, they know what they are doing.. But we liked them. The photo has been replaced. 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! In 2016, A24 expanded into original production with Moonlight. It also put out some of its weirder and most singular movies to date: Trey Edward Shultss micro-budget family drama Krisha; Swiss Army Man, in which Daniel Radcliffe plays a corpse; and Yorgos Lanthimoss romantic tragedy, The Lobster. In February, Robert Eggerss The Witch, which A24 bought at Sundance for one million dollars, made $40 million and became the companys highest grossing film to date (Moonlight has since surpassed it). Its funny. A24 typically pays a bit more for these movies than it does the ones the it buys itself, andlike most VOD content providersit doesnt make its grosses public. All Rights Reserved. Gif excerpt from the film Under the Skin via A24 Films. They kept shutting us down. Sacco: Frances Ha was the first heartbreak. 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..
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