A24 Is the Movie Studio to Put Movie Studios on the Map

The studios behind our movies have routinely been overlooked. But A24 has changed that

A24

Film appreciation has arrived for me in phases. As a child, it was hard to see a movie beyond a simple, binary perspective. We tend to like and dislike. Sometimes we love and hate. But it’s uncommon for a five-year-old to walk away from a movie with any meaningful critique of its plot, actor performances, sound score, or just about anything else. The reference points simply aren’t there for us yet. When we’re naive enough, we hardly have the context to distinguish It’s a Wonderful Life from Christmas with the Kranks.

As a pre-teen, I started to appreciate actors and the colossal difference they could make for a movie. I began building a list of favorite performers that I could point toward — instead of just a list of all-time favorite films.

As a teenager, I learned the difference a director could make, and how otherwise great actors could be cast in subpar projects. I learned how a director’s vision can over-arch each movie they release, even as the actors they cast vary year after year. A film was more worth seeing because it was directed by Christopher Nolan than because it simply contained Cillian Murphy.

A great actor can make a mediocre role shine, but there’s only so much they can do to rise beyond what the writers and directors give them to work with. If the script and direction are incohesive, no amount of Triple-A actors can save the day.

Once I was an adult, I’d grown more of an ability to compartmentalize movies into their separate facets. I developed more of a vocabulary to discuss those components that I liked and didn’t. But before stumbling onto a few A24 films, the studio that made a movie still wasn’t an aspect I gave much thought to.

Yet ultimately, A24 was the movie studio that introduced me to the difference that a movie studio can make. I discovered around 2019 that those bold three characters, “A24,” were a common thread between a few of my very favorite films of recent years. Prior to that epiphany, the words “movie studio” amounted to nothing more for me than those cryptic vignettes that rolled across screens before films started to play (which Family Guy riotously satirized).

Curious whether other people had a similar experience of A24, I chanced into a video by Vox titled, “How A24 took over Hollywood,” which opened, “When you think of great films, you might think of their directors — like Spielberg, Hitchcock, Peele… or actors like Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman. But recently, there’s a new name in the mix. And it’s not a person, but a studio: A24.”

If A24 isn’t a name you’re already familiar with, you’re almost certainly familiar with some of its movies. Responsible for everything from The Killing of a Sacred Dear, Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Swiss Army Man, and The Lobster to The Witch, Hereditary, Midsommar, Uncut Gems, Ex-Machina, Moonlight, Civil War, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the recently-completed X Trilogy, its influence has been hard to overstate.

A24 began in 2012 when three film aficionados and former Lionsgate staff members, David Fenkel, Daniel Katz, and John Hodges, united forces in the interest of a shared vision: providing a platform for aspiring artists, writers, and directors to express themselves authentically without the constraints of mainstream studio interference.

For its first three years, A24 was a distributor rather than a producer. It wasn’t until films like Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina and Lenny Abrahamson’s Room that the company had built enough of a name for itself to grow into the film powerhouse many recognize it as today. In addition to the artistic vision that distinguishes A24 movies, the studio has also differentiated itself from other studios in how it traffics its new releases by ear. Rather than relying on the intensive marketing campaigns that movie studios of the past hinged their success on, A24’s approach has been uniquely modern.

Much of the fame they have achieved has been through word of mouth and carefully orchestrated, subtle social media campaigns. They sell limited edition products, carefully strategize their releases, and have effectively become the first film studio to achieve a cult following.

Stacked against comparably sized studios, A24 has achieved a disproportionate level of success, winning award after award and single-handedly spawning the careers of trailblazing directors like Ari Aster, Bo Burnham, Greta Gerwig, as well as Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (the two directors behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Swiss Army Man). Even up against industry titans, it routinely steals the spotlight from studios with far more enduring legacies and deep-pocketed producers.

In fact, in 2023, the studio was the very first in the 95-year history of the Oscars to win awards for the four acting categories — Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. It won awards for Best Picture and Best Director that very same night as well. Out of 18 total nominations, the studio went on to win 9.

It’s a challenge to pinpoint what exactly defines an A24 film. But it’s difficult to deny there are certain cinematic and stylistic undercurrents shared between the studio’s expanding plethora of projects. According to The Guardian’s Betsy Reed, “‘Voice’ is a word that comes up a lot when you talk to people at A24 or the artists who have worked with them. The company works almost exclusively with writer-directors, and distinctiveness of tone and storytelling is the ideological theme connecting its increasingly disparate projects.”

While A24 began modestly, some might argue that it’s begun to grow over-saturated as a company as it’s expanded beyond borders and found its reputation increasingly hard to contain. But despite its burgeoning successes, it remains what’s likely the most reliable, honest, and unaltered purveyor of independent films within the industry today.

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This article was originally published on Medium.

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