On May 15, the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival hosted a panel titled “Connecting Europe and USA in Film Financing & Distribution,” moderated by Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival, in conversation with Tom Quinn, CEO and founder of NEON. 

Quinn talked through his career, particularly his time at Radius-TWC the boutique indie label which was an offshoot of The Weinstein Company, “We invented the paradigm of combining video-on-demand (VOD) and theatrical in a way that it was no longer a dumping ground,” he said, citing some of the titles he worked on – “Citizenfour,” “Bachelorette,” “20 Feet from Stardom,” “Goodnight Mommy,” and “It Follows.” The release strategy for “It Follows” consisted of having a VOD launch date set within two weeks of the movie’s theatrical release. If the audience showed up in good numbers, they’d eliminate the VOD window and would go wider in theatres. “So I contacted all VOD providers and they said ‘great, go wide, see you in three months.’ So the audience decided what was the best release plan and the movie turned out to gross $15 million,” Quinn said.

The case of “It Follows” is interesting, but the movie was released in 2014, and since then the power dynamic between streamers, exhibitors, and studios has shifted significantly, making this an anecdote from another era. In Europe, it’s also an experience harder to replicate considering how soft money (tax credits) and public funding rules tend to differ depending on whether a title  is produced for a streaming platform or a theatrical release as well as if the movie is from a first or second time filmmaker or the work of an established filmmaker.

NEON has launched several European titles (e.g. “Flee,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and “Titane”) at a time when it has been hard to market them in the United States. “I view our entire slate as equally valuable, regardless of whether a movie is subtitled or belongs to a certain genre,” said Quinn. Film curation and maintaining a firm identity have proved the right approach for many companies, although this statement must be taken with a pinch of salt as it comes from an executive who defined his team of 50 people as “quite small,” which may be a bit of a romantic view of theatrical distribution when most distributors in the sector have fewer than a dozen staff members.

The Palme d’Or Whisperer
Whether through sheer luck or an impressive ability to devine which films will win Cannes’ most desired prize, NEON has managed to win distribution rights for the last five Palme d’Or winners – including Sean Baker’s “Anora,” this year’s recipient of the trophy. This is a highly commendable feat, one that led to Quinn being nicknamed the Palme d’Or Whisperer, but most players in the industry – especially those outside of the US market – work with limited resources, for smaller territories and thus have far less influence and opportunity to live up to such bold claims.

For example, Quinn later explained how NEON is already involved in Julia Ducornau’s new effort “Alpha,” and admitted how he was one of the seven people who could directly speak to the French committee picking their country’s Oscar contender. He guaranteed the committee that “Anatomy of a Fall” would win an Academy Award if they selected it to represent France. The committee went on to pick Trần Anh Hùng’s “The Taste of Things,” yet such contact is a privilege that is hard to ignore. Besides, Triet’s film scooped the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, along with nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Editing.

Quinn also zoomed in on the topic of “oversubscription,” namely the overabundance of screens. “The idea of going to see a movie and there are just five people for me is… [ed. Quinn probably meant something along the lines of ‘sad’ or ‘depressing’]. You know, sometimes the best character in the movie is an energized audience.”

He also feels the whole industry is disjointed and overly competitive. “The idea that VOD providers aren’t working directly with theatres, distributors, and content providers to streamline the efficiency we communicate with the audience is wrong,” Quinn highlighted, adding how this audience is shrinking owing to this fragmentation and lack of reciprocal support.

Towards the end of the conversation, Quinn spoke about festivals which, despite the uncertain times, still play a crucial role for distributors as well as NEON’s open relationship with directors. An interesting insight he provided is that they ask themselves to write a list of the seven reasons why a given film is not going to work. “It forces us to be honest with ourselves, and forces the director to hear the movie’s weaknesses,” he pointed out.

Quinn admitted how he’s “completely agnostic about animation.” This didn’t impede him from working on titles such as “Flee” (which was in the running  Best Film, Best Documentary, and Best Animated Film at the Oscars in 2022) or “Robot Dreams” (“a film with no dialogue and an incredible score”), but in this case, the themes tackled and storytelling compelled NEON to work on both titles.

Quinn’s positions highlight both the innovative and challenging aspects of today’s film distribution. All in all, his confident attitude and views, while insightful, reflect the unique advantages and resources available to NEON as an independent distributor from a large region. To be sure, operating from such a privileged position, even if hard won, may not be easily replicable by smaller or less connected entities operating elsewhere in the film industry.