Speaking at his first public appearance since Neon won its seventh consecutive Cannes Palme d’Or, founder and CEO Tom Quinn addressed media consolidation and the ”Uberisation of entertainment” at Hollywood’s Produced By Conference.
“It concerns me. The lack of competition is bad,” Quinn said of consolidation, adding that he “would not survive a day” at a corporation with its inherent “politicking” and “layers of middle management to get to a decision”.
The independent veteran drew a laugh when he said, “The idea of putting two of those together… How would you feel is A24 and Neon merged? That would be ridiculous.”
Quinn also decried what he called “the Uberisation of entertainment, the algorithm”. He continued, “I don’t want to understand it, I want no part of it. It’s really important for us as a company that we’re a true independent and stay true to our filmmakers.”
Just over one week since the Palme d’Or success of Cristian Mongiu’s Fjord, to which Neon holds multiple territories, Quinn issued his familiar mantra on the subject, asserting that he has never expected to win any of the company’s top prizes in Cannes and prefers to focus on working with the best filmmakers in the world. He also noted that he never won a prize on the Croisette in his first 23 years of attending Cannes with various companies.
Neon has reportedly been in talks to take a large investment from Department M, and while Quinn did not address that subject, he spoke about the company’s growth in recent years, which has been powered by its burgeoning production and international sales business.
“We do have a cap and a ceiling on the size [of films] and the reason being is […] there’s a certain budget level that I personally don’t understand,” he said. “If we’re large enough as a company do movies in excess of $50m we’re going to forget the core mission of doing movies like It Just An Accident by Jafar Panahi and that is the lifeblood of who we are. But I want to be big enough that we can grow with certain directors and while they may go off and do their Marvel movie, that may do their Star Wars film, that’s awesome, they’ll come back to us.
Quinn implied that Bong Joon-ho’s sub-$35m Snowpiercer was the budget ceiling when he drew up the business plan mor than seven years ago. “That seems to be a very reasonable place for how we can achieve all of our ambition.”
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