After the Cannes Film Festival premiere for Die My Love, stars Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson and director Lynne Ramsay held court in the back of a Croisette-adjacent restaurant at the films afterparty. As guests like Joaquin Phoenix, Charli XCX and Dakota Johnson shuffled in, one partygoer was stationed at the corner of the bar, barely looking up from his phone: Mubi chief content officer Jason Ropell.

For Mubi, like many other specialty outfits heading to the fest with an ability to buy, Die My Love, with its A-list cast, awards potential and selective auteur (its Ramsays first feature since 2017s YouWere Never Really Here), was a priority. On the heels of a $1 billion valuation and a $100million funding round headed by private equity firm Sequoia, Mubi landed the movie in a $24 million multi-territory deal. This Cannes was the first with Mubi established as a true global player. In addition to Die My Love, Kelly Reichardts The Mastermind a 70s-set heist movie starring Josh OConnor that premiered in Cannes competition was Mubis first fully financed in-house feature. It was only last year that the London-based streamer picked up global rights to Coralie Fargeats body horror movie TheSubstance for $12 million after original distributor Universal let go of the film. The movie was seen as a way of helping launch itself in North America. The plan worked better than even it could have anticipated, with $17million at the domestic box office and five Oscar nominations, including for best picture.

You have one Substance and all of a sudden you get every call for every fucking movie, says a U.S. agent whose talent works in the independent space.

Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel speaks during a keynote during SXSW London in June. Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images The company is now closing the gap between itself and A24 and Neon, with the three going head-to-head at more film festivals. But even if they are occasionally bidding for the same titles in Park City and Cannes (see Eva Victors Sundance standout Sorry, Baby), Neon, Mubi and A24 represent three different futures of indie cinema. Even if they are increasingly getting lumped together by both the industry and consumers, their businesses are incredibly different, according to a dozen insiders working in the global independent market that talked to The Hollywood Reporter.

Tom Quinns Neon has positioned itself as a curatorial powerhouse, a legendary Palme dOr whisperer and purveyor of high-end horror. At this years Cannes, Neon kept up its streak six years and running with its acquisition of Jafar Panahis best picture winner It Was Just an Accident, one of a slate of awards season hopefuls nabbed on the Croisette, including Oliver Laxes Sirt and Kleber Mendona Filhos The Secret Agent.

Neon has shown with Bong Joon Hos Parasite and Sean Bakers Anora that it knows how to navigate the Cannes-to-Oscar pipeline while also turning festival hype into box office gold. Anora earned more than $20 million domestically and grabbed the best picture statuette. But it wasnt so long ago that the company had an unfortunate one-two punch of Ferrari and Origin, splashy projects that ended with a combined $23 million at the North American box office and no major awards nominations.

Since then, the distributor has been on a hot streak. In addition to its awards contenders, it has homegrown horror thrillers like Longlegs and The Monkey (a combined $93 million, domestically). Neon, which acquired the Sundance genre standout Together, has told partners it is looking to lead the specialty horror space.

Then there is the upstart turned elderstatesman of the group, A24. As one producer who works in the indie space puts it, Neon and Mubi can run because A24 walked.

As of late, A24 has been acquiring fewer finished films as it continues to scale its in-house productions at an impressive clip. Its most recent valuation at $3.5 billion, following a secured a $250 million round in June 2024 led by a $75 million investment from Josh Kushners Thrive Capital, has buoyed the efforts.

But worrying to some is A24s box office performance in the first half of the year. Genre titles like the Ayo Edebiri-fronted Opus ($2 million domestic) and the splashier Jenna Ortega-starring Death of a Unicorn ($12.8 million domestic) underperformed, as did the studios attempt at the kid movie Legend of Ochi ($2.4 million domestic). There is also Danny and Michael Philippous horror Bring Her Back, which netted $14 million in its first two weekends domestically, unlikely to catch up to the duos first A24 title, Talk to Me, a Sundance acquisition that earned $48 million in North America. Of course, the company can mitigate financial windfalls with its rich output deals, like the pay-one agreement with WBD that sees A24 stream on HBO Max (ne Max).

Further adding to the A24 anxiety in the specialty and art house space is the mini-majors more commercial lean. Its investing in bigger IP theres an upcoming Elden Ring video game adaptation from Alex Garland and potential franchises. It missed out on buying Halloween and 28 Days Later but has a second Talk to Me coming and Onslaught, a chiller from Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard.

Nonetheless, multiple agents tell THR that directors still strive to have the A24 logo open their films. And the rest of its year is packed with potential, from Dwayne Johnsons The Smashing Machine to Timothe Chalamets Marty Supreme, each from a Safdie brother.

A24 opened up the space that were in, one veteran indie film executive noted. Even if theyve moved beyond that space now and are a little bit more concerned with [more mainstream]films.

For anyone looking to divine where the other two outfits are hoping to expand, look no further than recent hires.

Neon CEO Tom Quinn at a CinemaCon panel in Las Vegas in April. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Scaling at a much more measured pace is Neon. The company, privately held by Dan Friedkin and Micah Greens 30West, secured a new $200 million credit line at the end of last year from a lending consortium led by Comerica Bank to provide it with sufficient capital to sustain its aggressive acquisitions. In Cannes, Neon named marketing maestro RyanWerner of Cinetic Marketing its new president of global cinema. Werners exact purview is unclear, but his appointment could mark a shift toward more international releasing.

Ahead of Sundance, Mubi hired longtime IFC Films president Arianna Bocco as its new senior vp global distribution. The indie exec has a lot of goodwill in the domestic space and is seen as a bolstering of further efforts to push into North America. In May, Mubi said it was launching a theatrical operation in Italy, with former Lucky Red exec Gabriele DAndrea overseeing.

While Neon and A24 still do the majority of their exhibition business domestically, Mubis scope is global. The companys primary business is still its international streaming service (the Netflix for art house), and when it buys titles, it buys for the world, or as much of the world as it can get. Mubi is doing things differently, maybe because theyre European, maybe because theyre primarily a tech company, says one European producer with several films on the platform. They are less focused on one territory than on building a global audience for these kind of movies.

Its likely that audience accounts for the true land grab.

Its the Letterboxd crowd, one sales agent surmises. Put another way: each slate attracts self-proclaimed cinephiles.

Each actively courts that audience in its own way, usually with guerrilla tactics and internet-focused marketing efforts. A24 feeds the lore of its brand with a membership program that gives access to exclusive merch. Neon had a screening of Anora for sex workers and sold branded thongs. Mubi sponsors a 35-seat microcinema in East L.A.s favorite revival house, Vidiots.

Despite competition, industry insiders see room for all to thrive. A Euro sales agent who deals with all three firms adds: The hope is that they all succeed. The indie market needs more than one strong buyer and more than one strong model for the future.

This story appeared in the June 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.Click here to subscribe.