When Americans hear A24, they don’t picture a highway. They picture movies that linger in memory and stand apart from the mainstream—many of them with queer sensibilities. A24 is an American film production and distribution company based in New York (and of course also in Los Angeles), whose logo is widely regarded as a seal of quality. Yet recent developments around investors and artificial intelligence have stirred up some unease.
The company was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges, with Hodges leaving in 2018 while the other two remained at the helm.
The name A24 actually references a highway, but not the German Autobahn; it’s the Italian Autostrada A24, the story goes, and Katz is said to have been driving on it when he decided to start the business. That anecdote is part of the brand’s lore.
A24 has accomplished something that traditional studios and streaming platforms often struggle to pull off: a devoted audience that almost blindly trusts the brand’s eye for moving, memorable content. This level of loyalty is normally achieved only by a handful of directors and a select few film stars—often only temporarily.
Films People Talk About A Lot
Nearly every film that generates conversation in the past decade or so has come from A24. The lineup is remarkable, including the dystopian sci‑fi romance “The Lobster” (2015) with Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, and the horror film “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017) featuring Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Barry Keoghan, both directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Other standouts include Charlotte Wells’ coming‑of‑age drama “Aftersun” (2022) with Paul Mescal, Noah Baumbach’s mystery drama “White Noise” (2022), Darren Aronofsky’s queer-adjacent drama “The Whale” (2022) starring Brendan Fraser, and Jonathan Glazer’s Auschwitz-era drama “The Zone of Interest” (2023) with Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller.
Not to forget Luca Guadagnino’s writerly drama “Queer” (2024) with Daniel Craig, Alex Garland’s Iraq-war drama “Warfare” (2025), Josh Safdie’s table‑tennis player biopic “Marty Supreme” (2025), Harry Lighton’s gay BDSM romance “Pillion” (2025), Kristoffer Borgli’s psychological drama “The Drama — Start Again” (2026) with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, and Olivia Wilde’s relationship comedy “The Invite” (2026) with Wilde herself, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
Many A24 hits fall under the umbrella of Elevated Horror—the kind of horror that seeks artistic ambition beyond gore and jump scares. Examples include Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” (2018), a family drama wrapped in occult terror, and “Midsommar” (2019), a disturbing daylight-era folk horror. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ “Heretic” (2024), a chamber piece about tormented Mormon women that doubles as a theological exploration, stands as another prominent example.
Yet the studio’s biggest success to date came with Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms.” Parsons, now 21, created as a teenager a YouTube series about the online phenomenon of endless, yellow, empty office spaces. He adapted that material—centered on fear, trauma, loss, and madness—on a modest theatrical budget of roughly $10 million (with stars such as Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve) into a wildly successful film about a frightening parallel reality. The movie has grossed over $400 million worldwide to date.
A24 Also Makes TV Series
The studio’s influence extends to television as well, producing provocative series such as “Euphoria” (Sky/Now and HBO Max), “Beef” (Netflix), and “Only Margo” (Apple TV; original title: “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”).
Fresh on the scene is the horror-thriller series “Crystal Lake” (as of October 15 on HBO Max), a sort of prequel to the iconic slasher franchise “Friday the 13th.” In the U.K., the comedy‑drama series “It Gets Worse” (since October 14 on Channel 4) follows comedian Leo Reich and a trio of friends in their mid‑20s who fear losing their London flat.
A clip that went viral features Andrew Scott alongside the twenty‑something Reich in what appears to be a therapy scene, though it’s actually a sex date with a submissive young man (a line from the clip: “I’m just a hole for daddy”).
It’s the idiosyncratic, sometimes queer moments, inventive storytelling, and daring casting that define A24 projects and attract top-tier film stars. Anyone who’s had a serious career in acting today would relish the chance to appear in an A24 movie.
Superstars Are More Often Found in A24 Projects
Superstars such as Nicole Kidman (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “Babygirl”), Hugh Grant (“Heretic”), Robert Pattinson (“The Drama,” “Primetime”), and Gen‑Z darlings Timothée Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”) and Pedro Pascal (“Eddington,” “The Materialists”) have all gravitated toward A24 projects.
In its early years, A24 focused on distributing some of the most singularly eccentric films—such as “Swiss Army Man,” in which Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing Harry Potter, plays a farting corpse alongside Paul Dano.
Two Oscars for Best Picture for A24
The studio’s breakthrough as a production company came in 2016 with Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight.” The drama follows the adolescence and emerging adulthood of a Black gay man in Miami, told in three chapters. At the 2017 Academy Awards, after the infamous mix‑up with “La La Land,” Moonlight won Best Picture. In 2023, the A24 sci‑fi multiverse spectacle “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (The Daniels) also won Best Picture.
Some A24 fans—loyal to the indie studio through merchandise, the in‑house podcast, and the AAA24 members club—now worry that the mythos surrounding “their” company is under threat. After several rounds of private funding, the company that once lived outside the stock market now carries a market value of roughly $3.5 billion. It is no longer the small player some still pretend it is.
Google Joins In
In the summer, tech giant Google stepped in with an investment—the first direct investment by the company in a film studio. A24 and Google DeepMind announced a research collaboration to develop new AI tools. The goal, according to A24, is to shape technological development rather than letting others dictate the tools used in the film business.
In 2024, Thrive Capital joined A24 as an investor. Thrive’s founder, Joshua Kushner, is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, a high-profile adviser and son‑in‑law to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
There isn’t a clear throughline linking A24 to Trump, but in the highly politicized American landscape, the company’s financial trajectory is watched closely. It’s seen, by some, as a beacon of anti‑establishment cinema and a bastion against hypercapitalism—embodied in a Hollywood that’s both new and commercially formidable.
