Peter Bart: A24 covets Oscar Haul, but its drivers are more wary of the spotlight than ever

Now that the noise has died down, were there any food stalls from the Oscars that came in handy?

If you ask the people in charge of A24, the distributor that won six categories, their answer will be the same as six years ago moonlight was the surprise winner. “I can’t think of anything to say,” they said.

A24 likes to surround its victories with the sounds of silence, as was made deafeningly clear the last time I sat down with them (they resist sitting: more below).

But actually, there were a few questions to ask after this year’s Oscars. Hopefully the field will be promoted next year? Not really, according to early evidence: see the strange lack of hype for future Oscar show hits, even in the pre-show.

Disney and its subsidiary ABC seized the moment to argue The little mermaid and Universal ran an ad for its core film Oppenheimerbut otherwise there seemed to be a strange lull over the next year.

Has the influx of new (mostly foreign) Oscar voters boosted the academy? Or affect the taste?

Not really, but improved ratings suggest the show will run until 2028. Ratings rose 12% this year to 18.7 million. The all-time low was 10.5 million in 2021.

HBO has scheduled the season finale of its zombie drama The last of us for the Oscars, another reminder that awards shows are no longer a daunting competition. Advertising prices are higher for Super Bowl or postseason football.

A survey of 4,400 moviegoers Wall Street Journal implied that few viewers had even heard of the Oscar nominees that year, other than that avatar/boss/Black Panther “Public domain films”. competitors hold triangle of sadness could score in Cannes, but finds no supporters among Academy voters.

Still, media coverage of the Oscars was surprisingly strong in a year that saw films like this women talk or After sun Setting records for empty seats. In recent years, the media has focused on Oscar campaigns – complaints about Harvey Weinstein’s tactical snipers or the high party spending.

But the campaigns themselves weren’t news this year: Steven Spielberg’s presence seemed shady, and of course neither Tom Cruise nor James Cameron made an appearance at the Oscars.

Which brings us back to the mysteries of A24. While other indie chefs are omnipresent at festivals and premieres – check out the boastful presence of Sony Classics’ Tom Bernard and Michael Barker – the founders of A24 value their invisibility.

After moonlightThe success Six years ago I proposed a meeting and was hastily refused, only to be invited back hours later, but with new rules. All three partners would be present (Daniel Katz, David Frenkel and John Hodges), whose background was primarily financial (Hodges has since left the company).

Okay, but when I arrived at the dingy headquarters in lower Manhattan, twenty other A24 employees were also gathered in the conference room (no, there wasn’t enough coffee for everyone). Katz made it clear in his introduction that I was not allowed to ask questions, but that I was there to answer them.

A24 was apparently still formulating its management strategy, and I had to explain the origins of certain films – projects I was responsible for putting together: Being There, Rosemary’s Baby, The Godfather, Harold & Maude between them.

The questions were clever, but when I started asking about some of A24’s improbable achievements, the curtain fell. movies like school holiday goers (Harmony Korine), ex machine (Alex Garland) and ladybird (Greta Gerwig) was off the table for discussion. So do budgets and media strategy (“We prefer guerrilla marketing to ad buys,” Katz muttered).

On the way out there were profuse thanks and warm comments about future meetings that never took place. “We’d like to tell you about our TV plans,” said an enthusiastic staff member, who then hung up.

“It’s not so much a business as it is a kind of indie mafia,” an A24 executive assured me. “We are really nice people, but the public attention drives us crazy. Also, nobody wants to know about success in the indie world. The indie world is all about failure. Ask anyone who has been here.

Tried asking but waiting for another invite maybe to next year’s hits.