I’ve been thinking about which production and distribution company I want to pitch to. I’m leaning towards A24 because I’ve seen a few of their movies and they have a similar vibe to the one I want my film to have. However, I conducted more research to see if they were the right fit.
About A24
A24 is an independent New York based production and distribution company that was founded in 2012 by by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges. In its early days, it was only a distribution company. Its first box office hit was Spring Breakers (2013), followed by Ex Machina (2014), Room (2015), and The Witch (2015). More recently they have produced and distributed films such as Moonlight (2016) and Eighth Grade (2018). They began streaming their movies on Amazon Prime Video and DirectTV Cinema in 2013. As one of my sources said,“A24’s business model appears to be trusting bold filmmakers to do their best work, then figuring out how to sell it.” This approach is very unique, since most film businesses focus on what’s going to make the most money rather than artistic value.
Because of this approach and their effective campaigning, A24 distributed films are often considered for awards such as Oscars. Above is a graph I found in one of my sources that compares A24’s Oscar and Film Independent Spirit award nominations to larger production/distribution companies. As you can see, they do pretty well for an indie company. This shows their effectiveness as a company when it comes to marketing a film to critics, which in turn helps their films gain popularity and entices general audiences to watch.
Why A24?
A lot of the movies involving A24 have a distinct indie-feel to them that I really like and want my film to have. Bigger studios don’t have this feel, which is why I won’t be using a large production company. They have produced and distributed similar films to my own, such as Lady Bird (2017), Eighth Grade (2018), and Never Goin’ Back (2018). Because of this, I feel like they have enough experience with this genre to effectively produce, distribute, and market this film.
I think the best way to release A Lot To Learn would be via platforming. Lady Bird did this very successfully (see my post “It’s Given To Me, By Me.”) and I think this method has the potential to reach a smililar level of success with my film. If it is successful, it can be released to more theater chains. After a brief theater run, my movie will be available for streaming via Amazon Prime Video, since A24 has a contract with them. Most audiences will be viewing my movie through this platform.
Sources
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/lady-bird-how-greta-gerwig-created-2002-tell-her-coming-age-story-1055561
- https://www.imdb.com/news/ni61321386
- https://filmschoolrejects.com/history-of-a24/
- https://a24films.com
- I used various IMDB links throughout this post. Their specific URLs can be found when clicking on them.
A Lot To Learn 