Sony Pictures Classics chiefs on what AI can't do, avoiding bidding wars and more

At this year’s festival to unveil our inaugural Cannes issue, I had to accidental to beryllium down with Sony Pictures Classics co-founders and co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard and EVP of Acquisitions, Production and Business Affairs Dylan Leiner connected the Main Stage astatine the Marché du Film to sermon the company’s festival strategy, bidding wars, artificial quality and more. Watch the afloat speech and work edited excerpts below.

How overmuch does the festival reception of a movie, the reviews coming retired of a festival, the buzz astir it, signifier decisions that you’re making? Or is it conscionable confirming what your gut already knows?

Leiner: I privation to archer 1 communicative that speaks to that, which was astatine the archetypal Berlin Film Festival we attended aft COVID. I remember, successful the aforesaid day, I ran into 3 planetary distributors who each asked if we had seen “The Teacher’s Lounge.” And I didn’t adjacent cognize what the movie was. It wasn’t connected our radar, it wasn’t successful competition. So we rapidly saw “Teacher’s Lounge” and we acquired the movie [which went connected to beryllium nominated for the 2024 planetary diagnostic Oscar]. And that was 1 of the large values of an in-person festival, the quality precise rapidly to pass with distributors, with tastemakers, with critics from astir the satellite and get that benignant of information. Gut, idiosyncratic taste... It plays into it a lot, but past we request reassurance. And being astatine a festival and being successful this fishbowl situation is truly adjuvant for that.

For a batch of people, myself included, the mystique of a festival is often astir the bidding warfare narratives: Who’s going to prime up what and what are they going to pay? I’m funny for your instrumentality on the archetypal large acquisition of this year’s Cannes, A24 buying “Club Kid” for a reported $17 million.

Bernard: Throughout the years, determination were companies [that would] possibly overpay, oregon they were going to bid to get this movie nary substance what, due to the fact that they were the header successful each the newspapers covering this festival. So successful presumption of a institution that’s branding — which, A24 is 1 of the champion successful branding — I deliberation that that had to bash with a small spot of the currency that went up. ... There’s a branding facet successful a batch of festivals for a movie that’s a blistery movie that the property has decided to prehend on.

Barker: Here’s a cardinal to however we person survived. It’s antithetic from the mode you speech astir it. When we get a movie, whether anyone other has offers, we effort to artifact it out. And we person trained ourselves to not fto that sound fuss us. What is it worthy to us? What bash we deliberation it’s going to do? Dylan runs these unthinkable models of what it’ll bash connected the debased end, what it volition bash connected the precocious end. And past you determine wherever you privation to be.

Bernard: Or we deliberation we tin marque it work.

Barker: But astatine nary constituent bash we beryllium astir and interest astir who other has a higher connection for the movie. Because I person to say, successful precise fewer instances, connected the movies we buy, are we the higher offer. We conscionable bash the champion we can, and if we suffer it, we suffer it.

Bernard: [French movie producer] Serge Silberman, a sage of the past, helium ever said, “You ne'er suffer wealth connected a movie you didn’t buy.”

That brings up a question that I had astir “Nuremberg,” which was a existent success. What you’re saying is, it performed successful alignment with your expectations. Were determination immoderate lessons that you took distant from that successful presumption of aboriginal projects that mightiness travel along?

Leiner: Yes, it performed successful accordance with our expectations. What’s absorbing astir that film, we acquired it present past year. Nobody other was truly funny successful the movie. ... So our situation fundamentally was to fig retired however to person the filmmaking squad that, due to the fact that it was a precise costly film, that we were the close institution to get the movie connected the presumption that we could spend and that we could marque it work. And it was a precise aggravated bid of telephone conversations, in-person meetings.

Bernard: We felt similar we were auditioning to get joined to somebody. We were ne'er going to beryllium capable to wage to marque their wealth back. It was a $40-million movie, and they were truly benignant of retired determination without anybody truly looking astatine it. And we said, “Listen, merchantability it to us. We deliberation it’s going to beryllium a large success. We’ll marque your movie mode much invaluable implicit the trial of time.”

Barker: There are 2 types of movies that are being made and distributed. One are the large tentpole workplace movies. It’s astir winning the play theatrically. These are the theatrical-driven movies. And it’s each astir making that immense fund backmost precise quickly. But the different benignant of film, which is wherefore we are successful business, is the evergreen. Every 1 of our films, we unfastened it with the champion selling propulsion we can. Yes, we effort to get the highest container office. But what we cognize volition happen, adjacent if the container bureau ends up being less, we judge successful these films arsenic semipermanent players. And these films person truly agelong tails. You look astatine movies similar “Run Lola Run” oregon “Call Me By Your Name” oregon adjacent “Living” ... They person generated revenues to the filmmakers and to america that’s mode beyond what the container bureau would person portended erstwhile it opened.

I would beryllium curious, what areas of the filmmaking process oregon the movie organisation process bash you deliberation AI is due for use, that you’ve experimented with it, that you’re excited astir its prospects? And wherever are your reddish lines, if you person any?

Barker: One of the radical connected our unit — we truly emotion our young staff. One of them was penning a screenplay with AI, and told maine they got definite rules connected AI. And I’m listening to each these rules. You can’t person your main quality dice successful a archetypal scene. You can’t person your romanticist pistillate pb beryllium wholly unlikable, radical aren’t going to go. I’m listening to this, and I said, “Have you ever seen ‘Sunset Boulevard?’” And she goes, “No, what is that?” I said, “Go ticker that movie.” She came backmost and she was like, “Holy cow.” I said, “Billy Wilder sat down and made that up based connected what helium observed.” AI is not going to beryllium capable to bash that.