A24
From the hit Emmy-winning show Euphoria to the Oscar-winning movie Everything Everywhere All at Once. They’ve produced it all.
A24. A production company infamous for producing movies with subdued yet dynamic visuals and equally breathtaking storylines. A corporation like no other indeed.
If you aren’t familiar with what A24 does or what a movie producer/distributor even does in the first place let me break it down for you.
Similar to how in the music industry, artists publish eps and singles via a music distributor service, movies work quite the same way. Once a movie has been directed and gone through post, it needs itself a means to have the public view the final cut. This is where film distributors come into place. These distributors essentially license the right to distribute the film for a set amount of time in a set territory and from now are solely responsible for marketing the movie with the help of trailers, etc. Popular film distributors include 20th Century Studios, MGM, and Warner Bros.
This is exactly what A24 does but what sets A24 apart from a typical film distributor is its discography of films. Skimming through A24’s releases, a common theme observed is that most films are indie movies. These movies themselves again have a common theme almost always sharing the same genre i.e. contemporary horror and experimental arthouse films. They’re profoundly known for their thriller/sentimental films rarely ever releasing lighthearted content. However, contrary to this, A24’s first film, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III was in fact a comedy. A24 has seemingly drifted towards the more out-of-the-box genre with the theatrical release of Moonlight.
The movie Moonlight was released in the year 2016. As listed on Wikipedia. “The film presents three stages in the life of the main character: his childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. It explores the difficulties he faces with his sexuality and identity, including the physical and emotional abuse he endures growing up.” Obviously, a very sentimental plot communicating a lot of sensitive topics. What makes Moonlight “A24 branded” is the movie’s take on “sexual identity” and off-putting scenes. Moonlight received eight Oscar nominations and eventually won the Oscar for best picture in 2017. Ever since A24 has found tremendous success with future films to come.
Another prominent and rather, more popularly known film Hereditary released by A24 in 2018 sticks to the typical A24 format. This movie now being the template for other similar movies to come such as Midsommar.
A24 now being the staple distributor for all movies horror and off-putting. While following the general composition of what A24 wanted, these movies had a genuinely promising plot which is what makes most A24 films Oscar-worthy.
Upon A24 maintaining this theme, this garnered a massive fanbase of loyal A24 enthusiasts, myself included.
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Personally, what I find satisfying about an average A24 film is the cinematography. A24 never misses with its lighting and direction.
The choice of lighting, and playing around with colours allows the film to innately represent a character’s thoughts and feelings and sets the mood evoking emotions in the viewers that the plot intends to. A24 visibly does a great job with this as observed in the show Euphoria and the movie Moonlight.
This mixture of an interesting theme that is somewhat off-putting conjoined with a film’s pleasant cinematography equates to a typical A24 film.
Nevertheless, A24 hasn’t necessarily stuck with this theme and has proved this with films such as Ladybird(2017) and the recent movie Dicks: The Musical(2023) starring rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Both these films exist as comedies. A24 has also ventured into the rom-com scene with the movie You Hurt My Feelings (2023). This is proof that A24 experiments with a diverse set of films no matter their theme, but what stays the same is that A24 still look out for independent directors such as the Daniels responsible for Everything Everywhere All at Once(2022).
A24 is set to release tons of new films this upcoming year. MaXXXine, Y2K and so many more.
A24 which started off as a small indie studio is now responsible for the now, Oscar-winning films they distribute and truly unforgettable plots which make their work one of a kind.
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A24
https://variety.com/lists/best-a24-movies-ranked/
https://www.reddit.com/r/euphoria/comments/tuazeg/obsessed_with_the_film_references_in_s2/
