A24 Scales Back Documentary Division, Lays Off Five

A24 is scaling back its documentary filmmaking department with five people departing from that division, Variety has confirmed.

Headed by Nicole Stott, the division has produced recent docs including “Look Into My Eyes,” “The Last of the Sea Women,” “The Sixth” and Morgan Neville’s Steve Martin documentary “Steve!”

Stott and Emily Osborne, head of documentary production, will remain at A24 to work on ongoing projects, but five other roles were affected in the cutback.

Non-fiction projects that are already finished or in production, such as “André Is an Idiot” and “Architecton” will continue to be handled by A24. The same goes for other projects still in production such as the Philippou brothers’ wrestling doc “Deathmatch” and “The Yogurt Shop Murders.”

The company is not ruling out working with filmmakers on further documentary projects, but the market has become too challenging to support an entire division, sources indicated.

A documentary filmmaker who did want to be named expressed disappointment with the decision, saying that this is a crucial time when documentaries are most in need of support from established companies.

Previous notable A24 doc projects included “Amy,” which won the 2016 best documentary Oscar, and 2021 Val Kilmer documentary “Val.” Other non-fiction fare included the design docuseries “Home,” “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” “The Deepest Breath” and Steve McQueen’s “Occupied City.”

A24 has several narrative films at Cannes this year, including Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and Harry LIghton’s “Pillion.”

A24, which is known for its distinctive branding, has flourishing feature and TV arms. But the documentary business has been brutal of late, with distributors hesitating to take on numerous political and topical titles and some filmmakers choosing instead to self-distribute.