NEON's Christian Parke discusses the strategy behind the success of "Anora"
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00:00I think, you know, not to get too granular, but we obviously have a variety of cover the awards industrial complex very closely, despite being a big part of it.
00:08We're very proud of that. You had to carry on this campaign for Enora through a really wild precursory awards season,
00:17where I think there was a very clear presumptive winner, if you asked a couple of, not a couple, a lot of people, and then out of nowhere,
00:24you guys came back with such a vengeance through the PGA awards, the DGA awards, and you're talking about a film that you made for six million,
00:29and I just, as of today, I think you eked over 60, which is a wonderful return for an independent film.
00:35But what was it like having to push through, not just getting audiences to see it on the back of your many accolades,
00:40but also facing this prospect that you might not take home what you did, which is a record-breaking four Oscars,
00:47only Sean Baker and Walt Disney, like that, you had to have gloated that night a little bit.
00:50It was a really good night. It was a really good night.
00:54And more than anything, we were happy less for ourselves and more for Sean and for Mikey and for the filmmaking team
01:02because, as I just said, we're stewards for these films. Excuse me.
01:07It's Sean's film, and it's Sammy's film, and it's Alex's film, and it's everyone else who worked to bring that film to life.
01:14We then have to shepherd this thing and get it to the best audience that we feel the film will resonate with.
01:23For the awards component of it, I'm not going to lie, the awards races, they're hell.
01:29Because you also have no idea whether things are working up until the point that someone opens an envelope
01:37and does or doesn't call your name.
01:39And so the highs and lows are ridiculous, but you're throwing stuff out there hoping that this voting body
01:47that is spread across the world, that some are in the industry, some are out of the industry,
01:53all different trades within the film industry, you hope that they love what you're talking about.
02:01And it was funny.
02:04There was a filmmaker on another film.
02:06I said, how's it going?
02:08And he was like, I'm just trying to spend every second of every day not getting canceled.
02:13And that's how we feel as well because the wrong piece of material can suddenly unravel,
02:20and then there's this whole hyperbole that spins out.
02:23But the hardest part, and we've been incredibly fortunate in the success that we found at Cannes
02:31and then carrying that through first with Parasite to a lesser extent with Anatomy of a Fall,
02:36but Palme d'Or winner and obviously a Nora Palme d'Or winner into the Oscar campaign.
02:41And I was saying, you know, talking with JP earlier, at the front of an awards campaign,
02:49you don't want to be the front runner because all eyes are on you and everyone's trying to take you down.
02:54So you want to be kind of slow and steady and build momentum as you go.
02:58And Nora was at the front, and then the perception was that it fell back.
03:04But people that really understood that film from a craft standpoint,
03:09and this is where the DGA, the PGA, like that weekend when everything shifted,
03:14it was like those were the significant moments,
03:18and those were the significant voting bodies that recognized the craft of Sean's work.
03:25And it wasn't, like it wasn't, you know, Neon did a lot of work,
03:29but if Sean didn't make the film that he made, it would not have succeeded.
03:34But it's a lot of work.
03:38It's a ton of work.
03:40And this one was incredibly strategic because we were coming at it from a completely different place.
03:46So we had to target a series of different audiences at different times,
03:50and then different essentially plot lines or narratives, those were woven through.
03:55So it was, you know, we mapped it out, but you're also changing in real time
03:59because you don't win an award somewhere,
04:02or someone is in a competitive race is climbing,
04:09and so it's like, okay, what do we have to do to get around that?
04:13But the through line in everything is being respectful of the film,
04:17respectful of the filmmakers,
04:19and just trying to present that film in the very best way possible.