Let a Thousand A24s, Neons, and Mubis bloom

Over the weekend, the Hollywood Reporter published a piece called “Battle of the Cool Kids: Inside the A24, Neon and Mubi Turf War." For those who think the entirety of movies that matter these days are superhero blockbusters and live-action remakes of old animated movies, this development is good news for the movies.

Essentially, while A24 has been the hot indie studio/distributor for the past several years, and has been joined of late by Neon, which put out last year’s Best Picture winner Anora, as well as the last six winners of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Now, Mubi has started to emerge as a third big contender in the Indie Movie Wars.

Known until relatively recently as a high-end streaming service with a small but high-quality selection of international films, Mubi has made a push of late into theatrical distribution. The Substance was them, and they grabbed some stuff from Cannes this spring that should be arriving on screens in the fall.

A24, Neon and Mubi are all true indie operations- none are controlled by larger corporations. As the Reporter points out, their strategies in terms of what they acquire and release are different from one another, and A24 and Neon are beginning to do more production, as opposed to acquiring and distributing. I also find it sort of refreshing that none of these companies have a CEO or head who has emerged as a major star executive and media figure, the way a certain ex-Miramax boss did back in the ‘90s indie boom.

All of these companies acquired movies from Cannes last month, and I expect them to be there in Venice and Toronto too, with A24, Neon and Mubi likely competing at the Oscars next spring.

Of course, none of the three companies is anything close to infallible, and if you look at their release slates from the last few years, they’ve all put out some duds.

But I’m very glad these companies exist, because they put out a lot of movies which are original, challenging, sexy, and a lot of other things that we’re often told modern-day movies just aren’t anymore.