«I wouldn’t have survived a day in such conditions.».
That's how Tom Quinn, co-founder and CEO of independent distributor Neon, feels about working for a major studio, let alone two studios at once.
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In his first public appearance since winning his seventh Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or for Neon last week (this time for film "Fjord") , At the Produced By conference, he was asked about the upcoming major merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. and how it will affect Neon. This year, the Produced By conference is being held on the Universal Studios lot.
«"The very idea of two companies like that merging—how would you feel if A24 and Neon merged? It would be ridiculous," he exclaimed.
Explaining the downsides of the corporate structure compared to his low-overhead company, Quinn said, "The amount of political intrigue, the layers of middle management required to make decisions. I've worked in companies like that, participated in online meetings with 50 people... No one can make a decision. Everything goes nowhere (after the meeting). I don't want to work for a company like that," Quinn said.
«"The lack of competition is bad," he added.
«Another trend is the „uberization“ of the entertainment industry: algorithms,» Quinn continued, “I don’t want to understand them, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”.
Back in February, Deadline reported that Neon was in talks with Mike LaRocca and Michael Schaefer's Department M to acquire a significant stake in Neon.
Quinn explained that Neon has "limits of scope and scale." Initially, when he founded the company, the most expensive film of his career at the time was Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer., removed at the Weinstein Co.'s Radius studio. "I thought it was a perfectly reasonable point where we could realize our ambitions, which might not be possible today.".
Regarding his consistent triumphant performance at the Cannes Film Festival, Quinn modestly noted: "I haven't won an award at this festival for 20 years.".
He has achieved success at the Cannes Film Festival several times. As a publicist, Quinn worked on Mike Leigh's film «Secrets and Lies» 1996, which won the Palme d'Or, as well as Best Actress for Brenda Blethyn and the Ecumenical Jury Prize; he also worked on Lars von Trier's dystopian film« Meloncholy »", which did not win the Palme d'Or (von Trier made sympathetic remarks about Adolf Hitler, for which he was banned from the festival), but did win Best Actress for its leading lady, Kirsten Dunst.
«Never in my life did I think that we would ever win the Palme d’Or for «"Parasites", — and Quinn believed in it even at the scriptwriting stage.
«"We never set a goal to submit a certain number of films to Cannes," he added, despite having nine films this year, six of which were in competition.
Quinn said Neon remains "impartial to genre and country of origin... The U.S. is not the center of the world when it comes to cinema. There are uncharted and unexplored territories out there.".
He expressed his passion for filmmakers: «Even if he doesn’t understand their films or can’t appreciate them commercially, he will take a chance on them if he is impressed by their work,» says French director Julia Ducournau about his 2021 film. «Titan, which also won the Palme d'Or for Neon.
This year at the Cannes Film Festival, in addition to the Palme d'Or, film "Fjord"« , the distributor received the FIPRESCI award for the same film, as well as awards for Best Actress, played by Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto in in the film "Suddenly".
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