So rather than looking at the potential winners or nominees, which this year includes everything from The Green Knight to Spider-Man, instead we’re looking at previous winners and seeing where the Best Picture winners of the last 10 years rank against each other based on their IMDb and Metacritic ratings

10. The Shape of Water (2017)

Guillermo Del Toro’s homage to Creature From The Black Lagoon is a love story between the creature (Doug Jones) and Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaning lady. One of the stranger films to have won, critics seemed to love it more than audiences, as it sits at a 7.3 on IMDb, but has 87 on Metacritic. The film was also nominated in several other categories for a total of thirteen nominations, winning four, including Best Picture, Best Director for Del Toro, Best Production Design and Best Orginal Score.

9. Moonlight (2016)

Widely considered one of the more progressive choices to win Best Picture. Based on an unpublished semi-autobiographical play, it shows the life of Chiron, at three separate stages of his life. Beginning as a child, through into adolescence and ending in early adulthood. While it may not have made a huge impression on audiences, judging by its 7.4 on IMDb, critics loved it, as it sits at a 99 on Metacritic. It was the first LGBTQ film to win Best Picture, as well as first to win featuring an all-black cast.

8. Nomadland (2020)

Another historic win at the Oscars. Based on a non-fiction book about the rise of older people living nomadic lifestyles in the US. The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as she loses both her job and her house after the death of her husband, and her life on the road living in a van and travelling the country. Most of the cast is made up of real-life nomads, who play themselves. While it only has a 7.4 from audiences on IMDb, it was the third highest-rated film of 2020 on Metacritic. Director Chloe Zhao became the second woman and first woman of colour to win Best Director.

07. Argo (2012)

Based on true events, although sometimes criticised for its historical accuracy. This dramatisation of the “Canadian Caper” was written by Chris Terrio, who also wrote the screenplays for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. Terrio won the Best Adapted Screenplay, while Ben Affleck won Best Director, as well as starring. Critics loved Argo more than audiences, with a 7.7 on IMDb compared to a 86 on Metacritic.

06. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (2014)

The Oscars love a film with a huge technical challenge and a film about the arts. Birdman has both. Micheal Keaton lampshades his own career as an actor famous for playing a superhero tries to be taken seriously. Set in and around a theatre, the film is shot so that (with one exception) it appears to be done in one take. Interestingly this fared about as well as Argo with audiences and critics, also having a 7.7 rating and 87 respectively. As well as Oscars for Directing, Orginal Screenplay and Cinematography, director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s next film The Revenant finally won Leonardo DiCaprio his Oscar.

05. The Artist (2011)

Despite being released in 2011, The Artist invokes the silent film era of the 1920s. Shot in 4:3, black and white, as well as being mainly silent, it was certainly the most unique amongst the nominees of its year. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards it won five, including Best Director and Best Actor. It was the first mostly silent winner since the first-ever Academy Awards, back in 1929. Loved by both audiences and critics, with a 7.9 on IMDb and 89 on Metacritic.

04. Spotlight (2015)

Another film based on true events, this time focused on the power and importance of journalism. The script was based on various accounts and articles from the Spotlight team. The Boston Globe published several news pieces that revealed the widespread child sex abuse in the Catholic church in the Boston area in 2003. Praised for its screenplay and performances as well as its historical accuracy, it has an impressive 93 on Metacritic, as well as an 8.1 from audiences.

03. 12 Years A Slave (2013)

Based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The book details his experiences at market, cotton and sugar farming, as well as the life and experiences of being a slave. He was eventually freed, after getting information from friends and family. Widely praised by critics and audiences, it also won for its screenplay and a supporting actress win for Lupita Nyong’o. It also sits at 8.1 on IMDb, while it has a 96 on Metacritic.

02. Green Book (2018)

Another film about race relations in the US, and also based on a true story. The eponymous “Green Book” was a guide written for African-Americans and other non-whites, to help aid safe travel. Focusing on the friendship between pianist Don Shirley and his chauffuer/bodyguard Frank Vallelonga. Although there was some controversy, it was very positively received with an 8.2 from audiences. Interestingly most critics were not as impressed, with it only scoring a 69 on Metacritic.

01. Parasite (2019)

Sitting at number 31 on IMDb’s top 250 Movies of all time, Korean director Bong Joon-ho made history by directing the first non-English language film to win Best Picture. Telling the story of a poor family who slowly infiltrate a wealthy one, the film was universally acclaimed. Focusing on class relations and the wealth gap in Korea, it struck a chord with audiences and critics around the world, with a 8.6 and 96 respectively.

Also Read: Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho Once Described The Oscars As “Very Local” Does He Have A Point?

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The Odd Beginning

The first film the company produced was A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III back in 2013 and seems to be as odd as the title suggests. It’s not a film I’ve seen but it starred Charlie Sheen, who to put it mildly, is not the most reliable of actors. The film has an IMDb rating of 4.8 and an appallingly low score of 16% on Rotten Tomatoes and had a near-universal drubbing by film critics. The film did not lack for talent, directed and written by Roman Coppola, and aside from Sheen featured Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Patricia Arquette but seems to have not been a good film. I can’t help but feel it was a mistake to cast Sheen, who according to distribution executive, Nicolette Aizenberg, didn’t show up to the premiere. Sheen landed this role after his very public firing from Two and a Half Men. So an inauspicious beginning but it didn’t hold them back for long.

The Founders

Co-founder Daniel Katz already had a lot of experiences in the film industry, being the head of the film-finance division of Guggenheim Partners (they have lots of money and invest in stuff). Katz was involved in Zombieland, The Social Network and the Twilight franchise, showing a grasp of everything from cult hits, critical smashes and hugely successful franchises.

David Fenkel’s background is a little odd, before A24 he was a co-founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories, a film production and distribution company. The other co-founder was Adam Yauch best known as a member of The Beastie Boys and as can be imagined it was an odd company. If you google Oscilloscope the little blurb beneath the website says that only work in the film industry to raise money for their time machine. Similarly interested in independent film, Oscilloscope Laboratories has not shared the runaway success of A24.

Three Important Films

I am going to look at three key films in A24’s story, Spring Breakers, Hereditary and Moonlight. Spring Breakers is often seen as the start of their success, a very unusual film that tested very badly with audiences and that no one thought would succeed. Not only was the film a huge success it helped make their name. A24 were the distributors of this film, rather than the production company, making the notorious “Consider This Sh*t” Oscar campaign for James Franco.

Second, we have Hereditary. a film considered one of the best horror movies of recent years and said by at least one critic to be this generation’s The Exorcist. It is A24’s second most financially successful film. And it is one of the most unnerving films I have ever seen and in the era of horror film franchises and endless jump scares it felt new and original.

Finally, Moonlight. This is not A24’s only Oscar success but winning the 2017 Best Picture award was incredible. For a company that makes – relatively – small films winning that Oscar is probably the clear sign that they’ve made it. Moonlight was adored by critics and because of its subject matter of huge cultural importance. It also won two other Oscars that year, for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and was nominated for five more. You could say Moonlight won the Oscars that year.

The Secret Of Their Success

An article in GQ interviewed many of the directors, writers and actors A24 had worked with and the founders received nothing but praise. Again and again, the message seems to be – these guys are not in it for the money. Now I personally don’t believe anyone who runs a company can completely shut out financial concerns, but it does seem like they think the best way to be successful is to let talented filmmakers do what they want to do. Their most financially successful film is the still the very niche Lady Bird which made around $50,000,000 and with IMDb estimating the budget at $10,000,000 that is a very successful film. While to many pretentious indie film fans – i.e. me – the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig was something very special it was hardly a sure-thing success. Another success story was The Witch (estimated budget of 3,500,000 box office of $25,000,000) and while it is a great film it must have been a hard film to pitch. It’s the story of one family, living alone in the 1630s while odd things, possibly magical/satanic things, happen around them but maybe nothing happened at all.

This strategy is by no means always going to be successful. A Glimpse Inside The Mind of Charles Swann III was directed by Roman Coppola, a long-time collaborator of Wes Anderson and clearly someone with a lot of talent but the film was a failure. And we can all think of pet projects of extremely talented people that go completely off the rails.

I think the surest sign of their success is that I would go to see a film purely based on it was made by them and I can think of no other studio where that is true. A24 is becoming synonymous with brilliant and original films.

Also Read: The Formula for a Successful Film

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