The Cult of A24

There have been a ton of A24-related articles written in the past year, including a few from France where moviegoers strangely look at the A24 phenomenon as a total enigma.

How can a movie studio actually have a cult following? It goes against everything we know about the rules of the game. Even in the ‘90s, an indie boutique arthouse company like Miramax couldn’t muster up this kind of unabashed following.

Here’s an email I got this morning from Patrick, a reader:

Not a fan of Vulture, but this piece about A24 was honestly kinda interesting. I remember being annoyed by their Twitter feed all the way back in 2016 (brands shouldn't have personalities), and I worry that Neon is moving in a similar direction. Unfortunately, this seems to be par for the course. People think a studio or distributor has a greater impact on the quality of a film than the actual filmmaker, which is ridiculous. UNDER THE SKIN isn't one of the greatest films of all time because A24 distributed it. It's one of the greatest movies of all time because Jonathan Glazer is a genius.

Vulture says A24’s brand has turned into “self parody.” That is not an incorrect statement. Writer Willy Staley once joked, “A24 is short for ‘A 24-year-old guy will think this is the best movie ever made.’ Funny, but apt.

As the article states, studios aren’t supposed to have fans. What distinguishes A24 from the others is that it is very much a Twitter-driven brand.

Your experience of an A24 film did not end when the credits started to roll; so much of the fun was what you did with it after.

I like this quote. What A24 has basically been able to do is make the post-screening experience just as interesting as the film itself. People will watch something like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and then go straight to social media, sharing memes, gifs, tweets of the film. The actual screening experience gets lost for branding. Oh, and look, you can also buy those damn hot dog fingers on A24’s online store.

The idea of turning a cinematic experience into something you can own via physical object is concerning and not far-off from the marketing ideas behind Marvel or Star Wars. Being an A24 fan now is a “status,” a kind of cult that, to the total obliviousness of the fan, removes them from the cinema.

Then again, A24 has become a last bastion for marquee independent productions in the US. And for that we should be grateful that they exist. Marketing the brand is one thing but helping develop filmmakers like The Safdies, Sean Baker, David Lowery and others is damn-near miraculous.

At the end of the day, it’s the filmmakers that count. The best A24 movies might have been greenlit by the studio, but wouldn’t have been great without the directors behind the camera. I loved “Uncut Gems,” “The Florida Project,” and many more A24 productions, but their greatest greatest accomplishment is dishing out the money to get these films made.