Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Now that the noise has died down, were there any helpful takeaways from the Oscars?
If you ask the officials at A24, the distributor that swept six categories, their answer would be the same as six years ago when Moonlight was the surprise winner. “I can’t think of anything to say,” they said.
A24 likes to surround his victories with the sounds of silence that made them deafeningly clear the last time I sat down with them (they resist sitting: more below).
But actually, after this year’s Oscars, there were some questions that needed to be asked. Hopefully next year’s field would be encouraged? Not really, according to early evidence: witness the odd lack of hype for future hits on the Oscar show, even in the pre-show.
Disney and its subsidiary ABC seized the moment to push The Little Mermaid, and Universal ran an ad for its nuclear film Oppenheimer, but otherwise there seemed to be an odd calm over the next year.
Has the influx of new (mainly foreign) Oscar voters energized the Academy? Or influenced his taste?
Not really, but improved ratings suggest the show will run until 2028. Ratings are up 12% this year to 18.7 million. The all-time low was 10.5 million in 2021.
HBO has matched the season finale of its zombie drama The Last of Us against the Oscars, another reminder that awards shows aren’t a scary competition anymore. Ad prices are higher for Super Bowl or postseason football.
RELATED: Oscars TV Review: The ceremony tries to get past the slap in the face with a conventional but upbeat, history-making night
A Wall Street Journal study of 4,400 moviegoers found that few viewers had even heard of the Oscar nominees that year, with the exception of the “popular” Avatar/Top Gun/Black Panther. Competitors like Triangle of Sadness might score points in Cannes but aren’t attracting supporters among the academy’s voters.
Still, media coverage of the Oscars was surprisingly strong in a year when films like Women Talking and Aftersun set empty seat records. In recent years, media frenzy has centered on Oscar campaigns — complaints about Harvey Weinstein’s tactical sniping or party spending.
But the campaigns themselves weren’t news this year: Steven Spielberg’s presence seemed shadowy, 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 ubiquitous at festivals and premieres – check out the garrulous presence of Sony Classics’ Tom Bernard and Michael Barker – the founders of A24 appreciate their invisibility.
Six years ago, following the success of Moonlight, I proposed a meeting and was hastily turned down, only to be invited back hours later, but with new rules. All three partners would have to participate (Daniel Katz, David Frenkel and John Hodges), whose background was mainly financial (Hodges has since left the company).
Good for me, but when I arrived at the dingy headquarters in lower Manhattan, 20 other A24 employees also crowded into the conference room (no, there wasn’t enough coffee for everyone). In his introduction, Katz made it clear that I should not ask questions, but answer them.
A24 was apparently still formulating its management strategy and I was to explain the origins of certain films – projects I was responsible for putting together: Being There, Rosemary’s Baby, The Godfather, Harold & Maude among them.
The questions were smart, but when I started asking about some of A24’s unlikely achievements, the curtain fell. Films like Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine), Ex Machina (Alex Garland) and Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) were off the table for discussion. So are budgets and media strategy (“We prefer guerrilla marketing to ad buying,” Katz muttered).
On the way out there were effusive thanks and warm comments about future meetings that never took place. “We would like to tell you about our TV plans,” enthused an employee who was then switched off.
“It’s not so much a company as it is some kind of indie mafia,” an A24 executive assured me. “We’re really nice people, but the public attention drives us crazy. Also, no one wants to know about success in the indie world. The indie world is all about failure. Ask anyone who’s been here.”
I’ve tried to ask but am waiting for a return invitation, maybe after next year’s hits.