Netflix, Amazon, Sony Classics, and Focus Features all passed on ‘First Reformed' before A24 picked it up, reveals director Paul Schrader.

“First Reformed” was the second most-listed movie on critics top ten lists last year (357), right behind Roma’s 388 lists. [Via CriticsTop10] That in itself is a miraculous achievement for the Bressonian indie, which premiered at festivals such as Telluride and Toronto back in the fall of 2017 and was only released a year later. It’s a richly detailed, but minimalist film, which features an all-time best performance from unfairly Oscar snubbed Ethan Hawke, and which tried to be a sort of state-of-the-union address, an encapsulation of sorts, for 2018 America.

In a recent post on Facebook, writer-director extraordinaire Paul Schrader admitted that Netflix, Amazon, Sony Classics, and Focus Features all passed on his masterful “First Reformed” before A24 picked it up. The rest is, as they say, history.

The filmmaker described the situation as such:

“Netflix, which could have snapped it up as easily as it swats a fly on its ass, passed. As did Amazon. As did Sony Classics and Focus. But A24 saw a commercial path for this austere aesthetic film,” revealed the filmmaker.”

It’s not surprising that studios would pass on such a hard-sell, a no-bulls and personal artistic statement which was tailor-made to have studio bigwigs running away from it. A24 must be commanded for doing the right thing, having the guts to pick up this film for release. I sadly don’t think there is another studio of their caliber that would have been able to take on “First Reformed” and promoted it as efficiently as they did.