Neon CEO and founder Tom Quinn has called for solidarity in the film industry to defend the right to freedom of expression, suggesting that some executives are failing to “hold the line”.
Quinn brought up the issue of threats to freedom of expression as he accepted the Game Changer Award at the closing dinner of the Zurich Film Festival’s Zurich Summit industry conflab over the weekend.
“It’s an interesting time that we’re all living and working in and I think it’s super important, the work that we do. I know we are committed to it,” he told guests at the dinner attended by a raft of Hollywood and European film execs.
“I know that film is an extraordinary tool, an opportunity to bring audiences together. We think it’s sacred at Neon. We think it’s a church. We think it’s an opportunity to build consensus, and I’m greatly concerned that a lot of our fellow executives in this industry are not holding the line, that they’re caved, people who are far more powerful than I am,” he said.
“I would love it if we would all make the commitment tonight to stick up for each other and to stick up to the simple beliefs that it is an absolute inalienable right to have the freedom of expression and film does that better than anything.”
Quinn was speaking amid growing debate over the threat to freedom in expression in the U.S., which has heated up in recent weeks following the temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show on ABC, over remarks he made on the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
It was the latest episode in an increasingly hostile environment for mainstream media and entertainment in the U.S. under Donald Trump, and a growing sense that many companies are avoiding content that could fall foul of the U.S. President.
Armando Iannucci, the Emmy winning British showrunner behind HBO‘s Veep and Avenue 5, has revealed on Tuesday, for example, that he was struggling to raise funding for a Donald Trump project amid fears of MAGA retribution.
Freedom of expression and issues of self-censorship were leitmotivs of this year’s Zurich Summit, with execs discussing attacks on cultural pluralism and as well as attitudes to hot button films.
In his speech, Quinn quoted French director Celine Sciamma, whose films Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Petite Maman (2021) were handled in the U.S. by Neon, to illustrate his point.
“Celine Sciamma said this great quote to me. She said, ‘If art isn’t political, is it truly art?’,” he recounted.
He also alluded to Laura Poitras’ 2014 documentary Citizenfour, about whistleblower Ed Snowden and illegal wiretapping practices at the National Security Agency (NSA), which Quinn and Jason Janego acquired for the U.S. at some personal risk to themselves during their time at Radius-TWC.
“Ed Snowden’s father came to the New York Film Festival premiere. At the end of it, there was a long Q and A, with everyone on the stage. He said one thing, and I’ve never forgotten it. He said, ‘The truth is coming and it cannot be stopped’. I truly believe that. So, everybody, let’s band together tonight. Let’s keep doing the great work.”
Zurich’s Game Changer award celebrates outstanding achievements and excellent contributions within the film industry. Previous recipients include Pamela Abdy, Patrick Wachsberger, Michael Barker and Tom Bernard as well as Roeg Sutherland.
Less than a decade after its launch by Quinn in 2017, Neon has risen to become one of the most prominent indie film production and distribution companies in the U.S., with past milestone releases including I, Tonya, Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, Anora, and upcoming titles including It Was Just An Accident and The Secret Agent.
Earlier in his speech, Quinn revealed how he had squatted the headquarters of Samuel Goldwyn Films which gave him his first job in distribution, in his early days at the company in the late 1990s, when his love of film cost him his first marriage.
“I was 27 and I was really ultimately in love with my job but everything was starting to fall apart around me. I realised I couldn’t afford my life. I couldn’t afford to work for Samuel Goldwyn and also have an apartment. I couldn’t afford to pay all my L.A. parking tickets. I couldn’t afford the car insurance, my car,” he recounted.
“I had this brilliant idea that I was going to move into work. There was an empty floor at our office building. I took all my stuff, moved out of my apartment, put it in a storage unit and slept at work. I’d go to the gym, change. I had a change of clothes in my car. It changed my life in a way that I didn’t take anything else for granted and I committed myself to film in way that I’m so thankful that I had that opportunity. ”
The fact he was literally living in the office meant Quinn ended up being involved in every aspect of the business, from being the projectionist to getting involved in development and production. He would be promoted to director of acquisitions for Samuel Goldwyn Films in 2000, which saw him relocate to the company’s New York office immediately.
In a cheeky aside directed at Sony Pictures Classics co-head Micheal Barker who was at the dinner, Quinn recalled how one of his preoccupations at Samuel Goldwyn had been figuring out what titles their rivals were getting access to.
Prior to the digitizations, this could be ascertained by monitoring the circulation of screening prints between distributors in New York.
“It was very competitive trying to find out who got access to what film. We would hire messengers to go pick up X film from whatever company to then screen. I would always go myself and get in under the radar and go up to the Sony Classics projection room and look at all the prints that they had and see what films they got access to that we did not. Michael, I thank you for that,” he said to laughter from the room.
The post Neon CEO Tom Quinn Calls For Industry Solidarity On Freedom Of Expression: “I’m Concerned A Lot Of Our Fellow Executives… Are Not Holding The Line” appeared first on Deadline.
