Inside ‘Anora’s’ Oscar Victory: How Scrappy Indie Neon Pulled Off Its Second Best Picture Win in 5 Years – Variety
In the run-up to the Academy Awards, Neon took a unique approach to scoring the season’s top prize for “Anora.” While other studios spent their money on tried-and-true strategies, from tastemaker screenings to glossy ads, Neon pulled up a tow truck in front of a Los Angeles auto body shop for a pop-up “Anora” merchandise sale in November — complete with branded T-shirts and thongs. Some 300 fans queued up before the vehicle even arrived. And for its first screening of the film about a Brooklyn escort who marries a Russian oligarch’s kid, the boutique distributor filled the audience with sex workers rather than Oscar voters.
“We follow the beat of our own drum,” says Tom Quinn, Neon’s CEO. “The idea of pandering to the campaign as opposed to being who you are as a film is a big, stark difference. We never play to the campaign. We always play to the film, filmmaker and audience — in that order.”
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The strategy may be unconventional, but it’s hard to beat the results. For the second time since it launched in 2017, Neon captured the best picture statuette. For context, neither the legacy studio Disney nor the deep-pocketed Netflix has ever landed a single best picture Oscar, never mind two. Neon, with a staff of 60 people, has pulled off the achievement twice in five years, making the indie film company the hottest label in town.
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“They have climbed to the top of the mountain,” says Marc Simon, a veteran film finance attorney. “And they’ve reached the pinnacle by being disciplined and smart. They know when to take swings and how to manage risks.”
This year, Neon’s rivals spent lavishly, with one entertainment company said to have plunked down $60 million on a single film’s awards-season campaign. By his standards, Quinn spent a lot — $18 million on the marketing, distribution and awards campaign of “Anora.” In other words, three times the budget of Sean Baker’s movie itself. Still, it was slightly less than the $20 million that the company spent on “Parasite,” its first best picture winner.
Some of the coverage of “Anora’s” victory has focused on it being one of the lowest-grossing best picture winners in history, having earned $16.1 million domestically and $41.4 million globally to date. Neon controls domestic rights to the film, while Universal Pictures International handles most overseas territories. Quinn thinks the skeptical coverage of “Anora’s” box office results misses the point. The film will be profitable after digital rentals and licensing deals are considered.
“[Box office] is not the only revenue stream,” he says. “‘Anora’ is No. 1 across every entertainment platform — Amazon, Apple. That is massive.”
David Thion, the producer of “Anatomy of a Fall,” which Neon guided to a best picture nomination and an original screenplay Oscar in 2024, praised Quinn for being scrappy. Thion noted it was Quinn’s idea to make the film’s scene-stealing dog a central part of its campaign. He also appreciated Quinn’s candor.
“Tom told us from the very start, ‘We’re going to demand a lot from you’” Thion says. “‘It’s going to be very intense, you will have to set your own limits, and we will listen to the signs you will send us.’ That was an important message.”
In late 2023, Neon nearly sold itself to Steven Rales, a billionaire industrialist, for a reported $100 million, only to see the deal collapse at the eleventh hour. When the pact failed, there were rumors that the studio, like many other indies in the post-Covid era, was in trouble.
The narrative has clearly changed. In the past few months, Neon nabbed its fifth Palme d’Or in a row for “Anora” at Cannes while its low-budget horror movies “Longlegs” and the still-playing “The Monkey” became box office breakouts, earning $127 million and $31 million worldwide, respectively. The company says that 2024 was its most financially successful year to date.
“Neon has established themselves as one of the preeminent art-house distributors in a very short time and recently embraced one of the most consistent and profitable box office genres in the history of Hollywood — horror,” says analyst Jeff Bock at Exhibitor Relations. “This pivot could legitimately see the indie darling copy A24’s blueprint and expand their reach, boosting their bottom line exponentially.”
There’s been chatter that Neon and A24 are locked in an art-house death match to be the hippest player in cinema. But Quinn insists that’s not the case, saying the A24 team could not have been more gracious when “Anora” triumphed on Oscar night over its film, “The Brutalist.”
“The industry thinks there’s a rivalry, and there’s not,” he says. “It’s good headlines. I thought they might be our biggest competitor. But as it turns out, our biggest competitor has been Netflix. They desperately tried to beat us to buy ‘I, Tonya’ and ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire,’ and we ended up losing out to them on ‘Hit Man,’ ‘May December’ and ‘Fair Play.’ There’s a slew of movies where I’m the second-highest bidder [to Netflix].”
Netflix may have prevailed in several bidding wars, but it isn’t the only company Neon has failed to beat for certain films. Quinn says Neon tried to buy “The Brutalist,” which he hails as a “stone cold masterpiece.” But its director, Brady Corbet, ultimately went with A24 partly because of a disagreement over the release strategy. Corbet wanted the movie to be exhibited in 70 mm, which Quinn thought would be hard to pull off.
“I just thought, ‘Brady, you’ve spent eight years making this. Let’s make sure that you have enough time to build every theater 70 millimeter prints,’” Quinn says. “‘Let’s not sacrifice anything. And I feel that we’re going to be rushed.’ … As much as it hurt to say goodbye, I think Brady made the right decision. He wanted to go this year.”
At certain points during a tumultuous awards season, it seemed as though “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez” or “Conclave” might have the inside track at the Oscars, particularly after “Anora” lost out to these films at other ceremonies such as the Golden Globes and BAFTAs. But Quinn says he never despaired.
“You have to have the conviction and stamina to stick with the whole campaign,” Quinn says. “It’s tough; it’s arduous. Even though we went home completely empty handed at some of those shows, it didn’t change where we were going.”
Quinn never believed, as many pundits did, that “Emilia Pérez,” Jacques Audiard’s genre-spanning musical from Netflix, would prevail on Oscar night. The film’s awards campaign was derailed after a series of offensive social media posts from its star Karla Sofía Gascón resurfaced. The conventional wisdom is that “Emilia Pérez” was headed for a best picture win until the scandal hit. Quinn doesn’t buy it.
“I never did [think it had the momentum],” Quinn says. “And that’s from someone who from ‘Read My Lips’ to ‘The Beat My Heart Skips’ to ‘The Prophet’ and is a big Jacques Audiard fan. I think the movie is very entertaining. It’s no discredit to the film.”
Quinn expects Neon’s two best picture victories to make it easier to attract talent, among them Baker, with whom he’d love to reunite.
“We’re in a better position to be very intentional about who we want to work with,” he says. “We have a really clear idea of who we are and what we want to do in an industry that can be quite flawed and focused on the trend of the day, and approaches every film as a one size fits all.”
Given that Neon almost sold itself once before, is Quinn still entertaining offers?
“Every independent company is for sale,” he says. “We just have no exit plan. The mantra of this company is to support cinema from all over the world and to never have to make sacrifices in pursuit of that based on the P&L. I will do whatever I can do to make it more sustainable, to ensure that we work with exactly who we think is worthwhile to work with. That’s the company we’re building.”
Although “Anora” drew raves, it could have used at least one coveted review … the stamp of disapproval from President Donald Trump. After “Parasite”’s win, Trump railed against the 2020 Oscars being too woke and slammed the South Korean black comedy, asking “What the hell was that all about?” This time around, the president has remained mum about the Cinderella story about a sex worker.
“The day is young,” Quinn says of Trump’s silence. “He might love it. Who knows?”
Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.
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