The Strategy Behind A24’s Rise: Positioning Framework + Barry Jenkins Case Study

Hey, it’s Jerrica.

A trailer for A24's The Legend of Ochi stopped me mid-popcorn at a recent screening. As a filmmaker, marketer, and creative, it hit me immediately: that kind of impact doesn't just happen. It's built. Intentionally. Strategically. Boldly.

So I did what I do best: I dug in.

A24 has built a brand that turned "small and weird" into Oscar-winning and culture-shifting. It's not just inspiring—it's a blueprint for underdogs. For independent filmmakers who don't have studio backing, who can't outspend the competition, who need to build audience through vision rather than marketing budgets.

This essay breaks down A24's brand positioning and what you can learn from it, exploring how a scrappy distributor became one of the most influential brands in cinema by doing something radical: treating audiences like intelligent people who crave distinctive voices.

Here’s what’s inside this issue:

• The A24 Blueprint – A framework you can steal for your own brand

• The Barry Jenkins Case Study – How it all comes together in practice

• Actionable steps to define your voice, vision, and impact as an independent filmmaker

THE MAIN ATTRACTION

When A24 launched in 2012, the independent film landscape was in crisis. The mid-budget film had all but disappeared. Streaming was beginning its takeover. Theatrical distribution for anything that wasn't a franchise or Oscar bait was becoming impossible. The conventional wisdom said: play it safe, chase trends, give audiences what they already know they want.

A24 did the opposite.

They built a brand on a simple bet: there's an underserved audience hungry for films that feel different, that trust viewers to be smart, that prioritize artistic vision over market testing. They didn't try to compete with studios by making cheaper versions of blockbusters. They competed by offering something studios couldn't or wouldn't make: films with distinctive voices.

The results speak for themselves. In just over a decade, A24 has become synonymous with quality independent cinema. They've produced or distributed Best Picture winners (Moonlight, Everything Everywhere All at Once). They've launched filmmakers into the cultural conversation (Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, the Safdie Brothers, Greta Gerwig). They've built a brand so strong that "A24" is now shorthand for a specific aesthetic and sensibility.

But here's what matters most for independent filmmakers and media creators: A24 demonstrates the power of strategic positioning. They've built a brand, not just an entertainment company, cultivating a loyal audience through a distinct cinematic voice.

This wasn't luck. It was deliberate branding.

What A24 Understood That Others Missed

The film industry has always been hit-driven. No one knows what will work. Studios hedge their bets with franchises, sequels, and IP. They make films by committee, testing every decision against demographic data and overseas market considerations. The result? Homogenization. Films that feel like they were designed by algorithm.

A24 made a different calculation. They understood something fundamental about media in the 21st century: in an attention economy where audiences have infinite options, distinctiveness is more valuable than broad appeal.

You don't need to be for everyone. You need to be essential for someone.

This is the insight that powers A24's entire strategy, and it's the same insight that can power your career as an independent filmmaker. While you don't have to replicate A24's specific approach, their example highlights a crucial truth: in 2025 and beyond, talent alone isn't enough.

To truly 'Greenlight Yourself' and build a sustainable career, strategic positioning is essential.

Why Positioning Matters More Than Ever

The barriers to making films have never been lower. You can shoot a feature on an iPhone. You can edit on free software. You can distribute through streaming platforms, YouTube, or your own website. Technology has democratized production.

But it's also created a discovery problem. There are millions of films available. Thousands of new ones every year. Your competition isn't just other independent filmmakers. It's Netflix's algorithm, TikTok's infinite scroll, and the entire history of cinema available on demand.

In that environment, how does your work get seen?

Positioning is your answer. It's how audiences find you, remember you, and return to you. It's how you cut through noise not with volume, but with signal. It's how you build a career that compounds over time, where each project strengthens your brand and expands your audience.

Just like A24, you need a clear position in the creative landscape. It's not enough to be talented; you need to be known for something specific. You need to give audiences a reason to seek out your work, a framework for understanding what you do, a promise of what they'll experience when they engage with your films.

It's what makes someone choose Moonlight over any other film. Not because it's "better" in some objective sense, but because they know what A24 represents, they know what Barry Jenkins explores, and they trust that combination will give them something they can't get anywhere else.

That's positioning. And you can build it for yourself.

The A24 Positioning Framework: Voice, Vision & Impact

I've broken down A24's success into a framework you can apply to your own career. This isn't about copying their aesthetic or their business model. It's about understanding the strategic principles that made them successful and translating those principles to your own work.

The framework has four stages that map to how audiences discover, engage with, and ultimately support creative work: Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Conversion. Or, in creative terms: Voice → Vision → Impact → Engagement.

Each stage builds on the last. You can't skip steps. But if you execute all four, you create the conditions for sustainable audience growth.

Step 1: Awareness → Defining Your Unique Voice

What this looks like:

Voice is what makes your work immediately recognizable. It's the sum of your aesthetic choices, your tonal sensibility, your thematic obsessions, and your formal approach. It's what makes people say "That's so clearly a [your name] film."

A24's voice as a distributor is eclectic but coherent: they champion filmmakers with strong points of view. They're drawn to films that take risks formally, that don't condescend to audiences, that trust in cinema's power to unsettle, move, and surprise. Whether it's the folk horror of The Witch, the anxious comedy of Uncut Gems, or the genre-blending chaos of Everything Everywhere All at Once, there's an A24 sensibility bold, unapologetic, weird in the best way.

A24 Example: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once is the perfect example of A24's commitment to distinctive voice. The Daniels could have made a safer multiverse film. They could have sanded down the rough edges, simplified the tonal shifts, made it more conventionally marketable.

Instead, they made a film that's simultaneously a martial arts action movie, a family drama, an absurdist comedy, a science fiction epic, and a meditation on meaning in a nihilistic universe. It shifts between slapstick and sincerity in seconds. It features a universe where people have hot dogs for fingers. It asks audiences to do the work of keeping up.

A24 distributed it wide. It made $140 million worldwide extraordinary for an independent film with no stars and no existing IP. It won Best Picture at the Oscars. And it worked because the voice was so distinctive, so singular, that it became an event. You couldn't see that kind of film anywhere else.

Why it works:

Establishing a clear, distinct voice is crucial for attracting your ideal audience. In a sea of content, sameness is death. Weirdness the right kind of weirdness, the authentic kind is life.

Your voice doesn't have to be for everyone. In fact, it shouldn't be. A24 doesn't try to make films for the Fast & Furious audience. They make films for people who want something different, and that specificity is what builds loyalty.

Actionable: Review your last 3 projects. Do they convey a consistent and recognizable artistic voice?

Look at your body of work. Can someone watch three of your films and understand what you're about? Are there recurring themes, visual approaches, tonal sensibilities? Or does each project feel disconnected from the last?

If you're early in your career and don't have three projects yet, look at your influences, your scripts, your creative impulses. What patterns emerge? What do you keep returning to?

Your voice is already there. The work is clarifying it, honoring it, and having the courage to commit to it even when it means some audiences won't connect with your work.

Step 2: Interest → Articulating Your Creative Vision

What this looks like:

Voice is the how. Vision is the why. It's the deeper purpose animating your work, the questions you're trying to answer, the perspective you're trying to share. It's what you believe about the world and what cinema can do.

A24's vision as a company: independent film can be both artistically uncompromising and commercially successful. They reject the false choice between art and audience. They believe that if you give people something genuinely distinctive, they'll show up.

A24 Example: Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade is a perfect case study in vision. Burnham, known primarily as a comedian, made his directorial debut with a film that's almost painfully intimate and observational. No jokes at the characters' expense. No nostalgic gloss. Just the raw, awkward reality of being 13 in the age of social media.

The vision was clear: eighth grade is a universal experience that cinema has mostly gotten wrong. Teen films tend to be either Mean Girls comedy or dystopian drama. Burnham's vision was to show the actual texture of that age the social anxiety, the desperate attempts at self-creation, the gap between how we present online and who we actually are.

A24 supported that vision. They gave Burnham final cut. They marketed the film not as a teen comedy but as a serious work of empathy. They positioned it in the cultural conversation around social media's impact on young people.

The film resonated because the vision was specific and authentic. Burnham wasn't making a film about teens. He was making a film about what it feels like to be constructing an identity in public, which is something everyone in 2025 can relate to.

Why it works:

Communicating your creative vision helps build a deeper connection with your audience. When people understand what you're trying to do and why, they become invested in your success. They're not just watching a film. They're engaging with an artistic project they believe in.

Vision is what transforms audiences into advocates. They don't just recommend your film because it's "good." They recommend it because it's saying something they think needs to be said.

Actionable: Are you effectively sharing the "why" behind your creative choices?

Can you articulate, in simple terms, why you make the work you make? Not in pretentious film theory language. In human language. What are you trying to make people feel, understand, or question?

If someone asks "What's your film about?" do you just describe the plot, or can you describe the deeper inquiry?

Practice articulating your vision in different contexts: in director's statements, in interviews, in social media posts, in grant applications. The more clearly you can communicate your vision, the more people will connect with it.

Step 3: Consideration → Delivering Impactful Work

What this looks like:

Voice and vision matter, but they're not enough. You also have to execute. You have to make work that's genuinely good, that demonstrates mastery of craft, that justifies the audience's investment of time and attention.

Impact is where voice and vision meet craft. It's the emotional, intellectual, or aesthetic experience your work creates. It's what people remember and what they recommend to others.

A24's films consistently deliver impact. Even when they're polarizing, they're never forgettable. They create experiences that demand to be discussed, processed, recommended.

A24 Example: Moonlight

Barry Jenkins's Moonlight is a masterclass in impact. The film could have been a conventional coming-of-age story. Instead, Jenkins crafted something formally distinctive and emotionally devastating.

The visual language James Laxton's cinematography with its blue and purple tones, the shallow focus that creates intimacy, the way the camera moves with patient observation creates a dreamlike quality. The triptych structure, showing Chiron at three stages of life, creates both pattern and rupture. The use of silence and restraint makes every moment of connection feel precious.

The impact is undeniable. Moonlight won Best Picture. But more importantly, it entered the culture. It sparked conversations about Black masculinity, about queerness, about intimacy and vulnerability. It proved that a film about a poor Black queer kid in Miami could be universal.

That's impact: creating work that doesn't just entertain but expands people's sense of what cinema can be and what stories deserve to be told.

Why it works:

Impactful work demonstrates your creative authority and builds trust with your audience. When you deliver something that resonates, audiences will give your next project the benefit of the doubt. They'll show up opening weekend. They'll tell their friends. They'll invest in your career.

Impact is also cumulative. Barry Jenkins made one great film, Medicine for Melancholy, before Moonlight. But Moonlight's impact was so profound that it retroactively made people seek out his earlier work and heightened anticipation for everything he'd make next.

Actionable: Does your content create a memorable and impactful experience for your audience?

Be honest: Is your work truly distinctive, or is it competent but forgettable? Are you taking creative risks, or are you playing it safe? Are you showing mastery, or are you hiding behind limitations?

Impact requires commitment. You can't phone it in. You can't rely on "good enough." You have to care about craft, about detail, about creating something that will stay with people.

Watch your work with fresh eyes. Would you remember this film if you weren't the one who made it? Would you recommend it to someone you respect? Would you be proud of it in ten years?

If the answer is anything less than "yes," keep working.

Step 4: Conversion → Fostering Collaborative Engagement

What this looks like:

The final stage is conversion: turning audience interest into tangible support. This isn't mercenary. This is the economic reality of building a sustainable creative career.

A24 understood this from the beginning. They built a brand people wanted to participate in. They created merchandise that wasn't just movie posters it was fashion. They built a membership program (A24+) that offers exclusive content and community. They made audiences feel like they were part of something, not just consumers of something.

A24 Example: Merchandise and Community Building

A24's merchandise strategy is brilliant. They don't just sell t-shirts with movie logos. They sell carefully designed fashion items, coffee table books, limited edition prints, and collectibles that feel like art objects.

When Midsommar came out, A24 sold flower crowns, embroidered patches, and a coffee table book about the film's production design. They made fans feel like they could carry the aesthetic of the film into their lives. They created "A24 people" a recognizable identity, like "Criterion people" or "Sundance people."

This isn't just revenue (though it is that A24 has built a multi-million dollar merchandise business). It's community building. It's giving audiences ways to signal belonging, to show they're part of the A24world.

Why it works:

Building a collaborative environment strengthens your connection with your audience and builds a loyal following. When people can support your work in multiple ways, they feel more invested. They're not just passive viewers. They're active participants in your creative journey.

This is especially important for independent filmmakers who can't rely on studio backing. Your audience is your studio. The more pathways you create for them to engage and support, the more sustainable your career becomes.

Actionable: Are you creating avenues for your audience to actively engage with and support your creative work?

Think beyond ticket sales. Can people:

• Support your work through Patreon or crowdfunding?

• Buy production stills, scripts, or behind-the-scenes content?

• Attend Q&As, workshops, or virtual screenings?

• Join a newsletter or community space where they can connect with you and each other?

• Recommend your work to others and feel rewarded for doing so?

The goal is to create multiple entry points for support. Not everyone can back your next film for $1,000. But many people could support you for $5/month. The question is: have you made it easy for them to do it?

CASE STUDY: BARRY JENKINS

A Masterclass in Brand Building

Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, demonstrates how a director cultivates a powerful personal brand within the A24 ecosystem—and how that brand translates to creative freedom and career longevity.

Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, demonstrates how a director cultivates a powerful personal brand within the A24 ecosystem.

• Voice: His films are immediately recognizable for their poetic visual language and focus on intimate, often marginalized narratives. He uses a distinctive, quiet, and deeply emotional storytelling style.

• Vision: His films are characterized by a clear artistic vision, exploring themes of identity, love, and social justice through an empathetic lens. He maintains a consistent visual aesthetic and narrative approach.

• Impact: Moonlight resonated deeply with audiences and critics, sparking cultural conversations and earning critical acclaim. His films leave a lasting emotional impact, solidifying his reputation as a groundbreaking voice.

Your Takeaway:

• Develop a distinctive artistic voice that sets you apart.

• Cultivate a clear and consistent vision that guides your creative choices.

• Create work that has a lasting impact on your audience.

THIS IS HOW YOU GREENLIGHT YOURSELF

A24's success and Barry Jenkins's career offer clear lessons for independent filmmakers:

Develop a distinctive artistic voice that sets you apart. Don't try to make films for everyone. Make films only you can make. Find your aesthetic, your tonal sensibility, your thematic obsessions. Commit to them. Let your voice be polarizing if it means it's also passionate.

Cultivate a clear and consistent vision that guides your creative choices. Know why you make what you make. Articulate it clearly. Let it inform every decision. Your vision is your compass when the industry tries to push you in directions that don't serve your work.

Create work that has a lasting impact on your audience. Don't settle for competence. Pursue excellence. Take risks. Make work that demands to be remembered, discussed, recommended. Impact is what separates a film from a career.

Build multiple pathways for audience engagement and support. Your audience wants to support you. Make it easy. Create community. Offer value beyond just your films. Build relationships that will sustain you through the inevitable ups and downs of a creative career.

This is how you greenlight yourself in 2025. Not by waiting for A24 to discover you, but by building your own version of what A24 built: a brand that audiences trust, a body of work that demonstrates consistent vision, and a sustainable model for making the films only you can make.

A24 started with nothing but taste and conviction. Barry Jenkins made a microbudget film, waited eight years, and came back with a masterpiece. Neither had advantages. Both had clarity.

You can build the same thing. Start with voice. Clarify your vision. Commit to impact. Build community.

The audience is waiting for filmmakers who know who they are and what they want to say.

Be undeniable. Be specific. Be you.

That's how you greenlight yourself.