Quite often you finish a film, he told me, youve had no contact with the distributor, you hand it to them, you get a quick look at the poster. I didnt think it was terrible. Katz: Harvey Weinstein called the agent and said, How could you give a Sofia Coppola movie to this new? I can only imagine. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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.. 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. Eggers: In the very beginning, when we went to Sundance initially, I didnt think that this was going to have such a large audience. On the TV side, Jaxs current projects include the recently released Russian Doll on Netflix, starring Natasha Lyonne; The Other Two, which was just picked up for a second season; and the final season of Broad City for Comedy Central. January, February, we didnt know we had The Lobster. No one cared about our language or our clothes. That was tough. The companys expansion into film is a natural progression as the company continues to produce scripted and non-scripted television as well as stand-up comedy specials. 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. Katz: That was a good learning experience for us. [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. A mother undergoes reconstructive facial surgery, but her two twin boys dont recognize the woman beneath her bandages. Aizenberg: There was a week in January where we dropped the trailer of Spring Breakers. 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. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next., Added Hodges, I am incredibly proud of the company we created and of the amazing team at A24 that has been integral to its success. What are you working on? Thats someone else. Jon Hodges - Chief Executive Officer/Founder - LinkedIn Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign: Consider This Shit.Zoe Beyer. The company said he will exit to focus on "future opportunities," but did not clarify beyond that statement. Heavey: People were, like, crying. Eddie Guy. Most importantly, an A24 film is a happening. [19], In January 2017, the company acquired the United States and Chinese distribution rights for their first foreign language film, Menashe. Theres music labels I can think of as well. 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). John Hodges - Entertainment Executive | Variety.com 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. Barry Jenkins (director, Moonlight): A24s the kind of company where they say, Yeah, they dont need to know what its about. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE|SUBSCRIBE|CONTACT. Some dissatisfied customers later accused the marketing campaign of misrepresenting the movie as a fun adolescent romp. Fenkel: And then I started saying, No way. Im thrilled to be joining the team at Jax, Hodges said. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24. Were putting together a gift basket of glass guns and a gift basket with munchies. I want to be A24, he said. Fenkel: Do you have to be a genius to do Sofia Coppolas movie, or Harmonys? 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. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Other indie labels, like Megan Ellisons Annapurna Pictures (which co-produced Spring Breakers), tend to go in the other direction, releasing a minuscule handful of movies into the currents of Oscar season in the hopes that the waters will carry them toward a crowd. So what is an A24 film? Were always cognizant of trying to sell the film by not selling it, said marketing exec Jesse Patrone-Werdiger, speaking to A24s rare faculty for promoting around the product its trying to push, shifting the tectonic plates of culture in the hopes of giving rise to a mountain. 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. And, like, within two blocks, I have to stop. He also produced . Radcliffe (actor, Swiss Army Man): I could see them saying, like: Weve got a reputation now, and have money now. A lot of people in that position would then go, Okay, lets become quite conservative in our choices. And whats lovely is they are choosing to still channel that stuff back into supporting weird, different, ambitious ventures. Everybody was talking a few years ago how cinema had died. 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. On the most literal level, an A24 film is budgeted from anywhere between $1 million (Obvious Child) and $20 million (A Most Violent Year). Good A24 films anticipate the zeitgeist, and the best ones galvanize it. It premiered at Sundance in January, where it deservedly won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. I woke up one morning to an e-mail from Daniel that was sent at three in the morning: Can you go to Pittsburgh? I come into the office, and there are interns running around like in some crazy factory. Drinking champagne at nine in the morning. See what happens.. If its gonna be released the same way by another company, we usually dont go after it. 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. . Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Katz: By the way, a thousand times out of a thousand, youre wrong. Only Lovers Left Alive drips with style, wisdom and ironic humor as Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play hip, immortal layabouts. If you were paying attention, you had to wonder: Who were these strange upstart New Yorkers who were making Hollywood a little bit great again? [14], In May 2015, A24 announced that it would start a television division and began producing the USA Network series Playing House, as well as working to develop a television series that would later become Comrade Detective, produced by Channing Tatum. Youre incredible. Which is vanishingly rare in the film industry. Deploying for Major CAT Events, tornadoes . We tried to get the Union Square movie theaterwe didnt have a theatrical booking yet. I thought it would get a distributorI thought it was good enough for that. Fenkel: Well, it wasnt a heartbreak, because they wouldnt actually call us back. 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]. A24s television division released The Carmichael Show.. A24 Apr 2012 - May 20186 years 2 months Head of Production and Development Big Beach Films 2008 - 20124 years Greater New York City Area Development and Production Executive Michaels Goldwyn. 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.. Description. 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. That suits a company whose websites About page consists of nothing beyond an Eadweard Muybridge plate of a cockatoo flapping its wings. I think when we started [2016], it was another, like, what Id consider a building year. Your eyes dont gloss over James Franco as a trap music Jesus. Maybe even that guy with a two-way radio who keeps you from walking through a movie set. Love that movie. When it wasnt us. John Hodges is Head of Film for Jax Media, where he heads Jax's feature film development and production. I felt like we were all on the same team. Focused on High Net Worth Policy holders where policy coverage exceeds $1 million. Gif excerpt from the film Under the Skin via A24 Films. Jennifer Kents drama is a psychological heavyweight that examines how parents feed their demons to quell the pain. The things about it that didnt were what made me most excited, both for Moonlight and the future of a company thats confident enough in its sense of self to stretch toward something new. It wasnt going to get lost in the shuffle. John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. Talk me through it. Here's who: Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, John Hodges and James Schultz. 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. 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. Fenkel: I remember we were just getting to know Scott Rudin. We werent doing anything like that. 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. Key grip. Saulnier expertly contains conflict, depth and gore within small confines. in the past 3 years a24 has managed to make from 90 - 110 million at the yearly box office. Patrick Stewart (actor, Green Room): [The premiere of Green Room] was at the Toronto Film Festivals Midnight Madness. Ainzenberg: I remember I went and had to meet with Selena Gomezs team to prove that we were real people and we were gonna be legitimate in releasing the film. No one in the office is older than 42, including co-founders John Hodges, David Fenkel, and Daniel Katz. Fenkel: And we had a booker at the time, this big old school guy, gentle giant, hes a sweet guy, but kind of a gangster, but levels of, like, cool gangster. Miramax, they were a huge deal, and also Fox Searchlight. A24 Co-Founder John Hodges Exits - Variety Films distributed by A24 ended up getting nominated for seven Academy Awards that year, including Best Picture (Room), Actress (Brie Larson), Documentary (Amy), and Original Screenplay (Ex Machina). The deal excludes films that are already part of the Apple partnership. Lets do Kevin Smith horror! First movies gonna be so exciting! And I remember everyone came back from that test screening. Since then, A24's success has been immeasurable, especially for an independent Production company founded the same year The Avengers came out. And I was ready to say: It was me! Hes not gonna be able to do this right now. Our first release. The company may be a lovely acquisition target for a buyer seeking an arthouse pipeline,but A24 is still building itself as a brand one that is synonymous with quality. 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 that was Nicolette, actually: Consider This Shit.. We literally didnt know what to do. II was tasked. Theyre just on it. Signed on as producer beginning with the third season. Likewise, A24 loves Sundance acquisition Mississippi Grind, a tremendously appealing riff on Robert Altmans California Split that co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn as compulsive gamblers on a road trip to nowhere. When the film comes out in early 2016, it will arrive exclusively in theaters, and its trial by fire will be exclusively in theaters. Katz, Fenkel and Hodges prior to A24 worked in film and production, before leaving to eventually co-found the company, The films backers will be made whole, its makers will get another chance at bat, and its distributors will continue to enjoy the financial solvency provided by the DirecTV dealnot to mention the $50 million line of credit the company secured last fall. We closed the deal on The Bling Ring on the way to Sundance. Ravi Nandan (co-head of TV, A24): Paramount Vantage, which had released, like, There Will Be Blood and a bunch of other movies, was [folded into] Paramount. Prior to joining Jax in 2019, John was a founding partner of A24, where he helped oversee acquisition and distribution on some of the company's roster of more than 70 films, which includes Spring Breakers, Ex Machina, Amy, Lady Bird, and Best . I dont think it was related to her professional career. Filmmakersoften the toughest audiences for their own films marketing campaignsrecognize the companys real excitement for their films. (He won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Supporting Actor). A24 Founding Partner John Hodges to Exit - The Hollywood Reporter 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. Jeanie Igoe (production, A24): None of us really knew what we were doing. 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.. Correction, Sept. 30, 2015:This article originally contained a photo of John Hodges, a film producer, rather than John Hodges, co-founder of A24. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. I remember the thing that got him was like, Listen. Right after we did those three films, I dont think we had really purchased a film for the following year. And the interns are running around trying to find a glassblower. 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? Signed on as producer beginning with the second season. No Comments Yet Be the first to comment on John Hodges! And we still have a great relationship now. Take its efforts on Spring Breakers, for example. No one had a voice. A vital piece of work far too delicately perverse to have sustained a theatrical run, it was the ideal choice to launch the program. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. On a notepad and Post-Its. By surgically inserting each release into the zeitgeist, it has paved a new road for provocative, modestly sized cinema, bridging the gap between microbudget indies and monolithic studio products in much the same way Italys Autostrada A24 connects Rome to Teramo. Not like we should have paid more. 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. March 3, 2018. Beyer: I remember when we had Room, like, six months after Ex Machina or something, Fenkel was like, Whats the Tinder for Room? And I was like, No, no! Katz: I dont think we had The Bling Ring yet. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. Or a screenwriter. Coppola: That was the worst. Mr Katz had worked in film financing at Guggenheim Partners, and . Lets go wide! Other companies wanted to do stuff with it. Katz: I was very concerned that people were gonna think Room kind of stepped into shit and got lucky with awards. Scott didnt say anything. Fenkel: I was at the Union Square theater, and they couldnt have had enough theaters. 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. We wish Hodges the best of luck with his next endeavor, since the indie landscape has certainly benefited from his contributions. I just And weve been so consistent about thanking them. Sacco: To engrave the Spring Breakers logo onto the glass-gun bong. Sasha Lane (actress, American Honey): They were like, You guys are who you are and were not going to change that. No one had to be perfected for anything. Theyre super-smart people. It was like being in some kind of arena. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. It took us ten minutes to get a block. Fenkel: We may have had to fire a fake intern for that. A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. Although A24's actual net worth is not known. Katz: And we were all like, You know what? Itd be very unlikely for that to happen. A24 is an American independent entertainment company founded on August 20, 2012, by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges and based in New York City. 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. Not heyday. No way., Katz: It was just like, Wait. And theyre aiming at them. [18] In June, the company, along with Oscilloscope and distributor Honora, joined BitTorrent Now to distribute the work of their portfolio across the ad-supported service. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. I was like, Fuck yeah!, Sacco: I think its inspiring and motivating to a younger generation: Oh, that movie cost this, and it did this. The latest is Hereditary, the debut film of Ari Aster that premiered at Sundance and is quickly earning a reputation as one of the scariest movies ever. We still dont. A24 thinks hard about the landscape of distribution, and they think hard about the models, and the models are changing. And while they invited me into their headquarters to get a feel for the place and chat on background with the core team, they stressed that theyd prefer their movies to speak for themselves. I just trust, you know, Drag City or Merge or SST or Dischord. Franco: I actually did win some awards. A24 founding partner John Hodges announced that he will be leaving the indie studio that he helped launch nearly six years ago, the company announced Monday. Fenkel: Look at The Witch. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. 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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. Robert Pattinson (actor, The Rover, Good Time): Its crazy that there is an article about a distribution company. That was the first time it screened for U.S. audiences. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter, As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role in putting A24 on the map, culminating with last year's best picture winner, 'Moonlight.'. Its coveted because six of the past seven winners were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and the harrowing, emotional Room looks poised to follow in their footsteps after it opens in October. Daniel Katz and David Fenkel will continue to oversee the NYC-based indie. [9], The company began its distribution of films in 2013. The fact that we were able to sign any movies out of that office is absurd. 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. Johansson plays something between an android and alien symbiote who seduces men in order to envelop them in a dark, infinite pool of nothingness. Tinder was yelling at us. Its DirecTV/A24 release grossed $229,094 and never played on more than 54 screens. Aizenberg: Remember he didnt show up to the premiere? I go, Huh., It Sucks, Man. This fall A24 enters the awards race in a serious way for the first time, with two movies: the accessible David Foster Wallace biopic The End of the Tour, and the Brie Larsonstarring literary adaptation Room, which recently won the coveted Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Like, there was one that was like the shotit was [Francos character] Alien with the two girls, and hes holding machine guns or something. And it was like a snowy and rainy day, and there was a ton of traffic. But I put no limitations on what theyre capable of. Theres aesthetic and political values to the people behind the company. Get it now by subscribing here. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. But I remember vividly that they had chosen some specific movies, one of which was Under the Skin. [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. A24 Films is a US theatrical distribution and production company founded by Daniel Katz, John Hodges and David Fenkel. Dede Gardner (producer, Plan B, Moonlight): When we and Barry said it was absolutely critical that we shoot in Miami, they said, Of course it is. And you know, many, many others wouldve said, Well, you can get the rebate if you go to Atlanta. But anyone whos read it knows that Liberty Square and that particular light and that particular culture was a character. But youre like, Why didnt other people see that? I have no idea. It was like Broadcast News. It Follows takes the horror trope of getting punished for having sex to a new level. They dont have the personality of movie executives. Leave it to Jim Jarmusch to make the coolest vampire movie ever. So that was like their heyday. The news of Hodges exit was abrupt, but one source said the move has been in the works for some time. Beyer: And respect them and treat them the way they would by any other company. And I think thats the main thing, Id say. Hodges teamed with Daniel Katz and David Fenkel to launch the company, which is based in New York City. Kleiner: They had the movie, I want to say, 22, 23 weeks in theatrical release? Harmony Korine (director, Spring Breakers): They have balls. [15], In January 2016, Sasha Lloyd joined the company to handle all film, television distribution and business development in the international marketplace. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next, said A24 in a statement. I was like, I think I need to find another job., Aizenberg: They were basically like, Dont release this movie.. [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 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. With Hodges leaving, the. 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? Its like, oh, this person has no idea what Moonlight is, and it just won Best Picture. As of 2023[update], the company's films had received a total of 49 Academy Award nominations. Hodges had been an integral part of the studio since its inception in 2012, along with co-founders David Fenkel and Daniel Katz. 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. Sacco: I used to think seeing people faint was what happened in movies. So when I saw that, I was like, Okay, those guys, they know what they are doing.. But we got A Glimpse Inside the Mind. Wouldnt call us back. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24 in a statement. There are more glamorous things to be, in Hollywood, than an independent distribution company. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. That didnt come with any veto rights or cut rights, Abrahamson told me. Producer: Safety Not Guaranteed. Hodges. James Ponsoldt (director, The Spectacular Now, The End of the Tour): Ive heard people refer to Miramax. 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. Katz: People say, Oh, Barry, why didnt you bring us Moonlight?As if that was the most obvious Best Picture! 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. A24 is not like other entertainment companies. Im glad it all worked out. Karyn Kusama is a rapidly rising female director, and for good reason. We had to get a second one. 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]. For a medium-size film to succeed without a marketing blitz twice the size of its production budget, its not enough for it to be goodit has to have a hook. Its such a really fucking well-executed movie. Hollywood is run by accountants at this point. Correction, Sept. 30, 2015: This article originally contained a photo of John Hodges, a film producer, rather than John Hodges, co-founder of A24. Which, if you look two years back, theres just no way in hell anybody would have thought that A24 would finance a film like Moonlight and release it in the way they did, to the tune of a Best Picture and $55 million in international box office. 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. Thats completely nuts. Surely theyve learned by now that theres a ceiling for arthouse films these days. But in a shift from its typical way of doing business, A24 acquired Room based on its script, before shooting had even begun.
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