A24 is scaling back its documentary division, laying off five employees from its nonfiction branch, IndieWire has learned. It’s potentially the sign of a shift away from documentary films at the indie distributor.
A24 in recent years has backed docs that have been or will be released theatrically by A24 itself, like the upcoming “André Is an Idiot,” which made its premiere at Sundance 2025, or last year’s “Look Into My Eyes.” Other recent A24 docs include some licensed films for streaming, including “The Last of the Sea Women,” the two-part Steve Martin documentary “Steve!,” and other bio-docs like “Amy,” “Val,” “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” and “The Deepest Breath.”
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Nicole Stott, who leads the division, is remaining at A24, as is Emily Osborne, the head of documentary production. They will stay on to work on other documentary projects already in the works, including Victor Kossakovsky’s doc “Architecton” about concrete, which first premiered at Berlin in 2024. There’s also a documentary about wrestling from the Philippou brothers (“Talk to Me”) called “Deathmatch,” still in production.
A24 isn’t ruling out working with other filmmakers on documentary projects, but a source indicated the struggling documentary business has made it too challenging to support an entire division.
It’s another blow for the forever up-and-down documentary marketplace, which in recent years has leaned heavily toward celebrity-driven biographical films, music films, and true crime. Even for those films, finding success in the theatrical space has been few and far between.
A24 though is not without some deeper pockets, as it has several ambitious films playing at Cannes, and just yesterday announced it would a film adaptation of the acclaimed video game “Elden Ring,” a big piece of fantasy IP that likely requires a hefty visual effects budget to do it justice. Alex Garland, who worked with A24 as a filmmaker on films including “Warfare” and “Civil War,” is set to direct.
Variety first reported the news of the layoffs.
