Jordan Firstman tells San Sebastian how Club Kid sparked bidding war won by A24
Distributors cried in the meetings. Jordan Firstman still was not sure if the tears were real.
The writer, director and star of Club Kid told an In Conversation event at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday how fast joy turned to business after his Cannes premiere in May, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Watching that first screening, he said, was the best experience he had on the film so far. Then came the bidding war.
Firstman called the premiere surreal and said it happened very fast. The day after, he had to sit through round after round of meetings to choose a home for the film. He described the beauty of the moment quickly becoming about money, which he called a mind fuck and said left him feeling a little sad. In the meetings, he joked, executives grew emotional and he could not tell if they were crying to win the film.
It was a heated contest. A24 outbid virtually every other major independent and studio buyer to take global rights, the right to release the film around the world, The Hollywood Reporter reported after Cannes. Variety put the price at $17 million.
The film at the centre of it is Firstman's directorial debut and first fiction feature. It premiered in Un Certain Regard, Cannes' sidebar for distinctive new voices, with a runtime of 126 minutes. The Cannes world premiere drew a rave ovation.
In San Sebastian, where Club Kid is screening during the festival running from 18 to 26 September, Firstman was joined in a surprise appearance by co-star Diego Calva. The festival had billed the session as a look at the creative process behind the film.
Club Kid follows a washed-up New York party promoter whose life is upended when he learns he has a son he never knew about. Firstman plays Peter, a character he said draws in part on his own feeling of being a lost soul. Many scenes were shot inside real New York parties, capturing the nightlife as it happened.
Firstman serves as writer, director, star and executive producer. He said he had always felt A24 was the right place for the film, even while shooting, because it felt like an A24 movie. He also spoke of 10 years of rejection before Club Kid broke through, a run that included acting work such as Rachel Sennott's I Love LA on HBO.
What makes this stand out is how openly he described the whiplash. One night is applause and relief. The next morning is offers, strategy and tears that may or may not be tactics. For audiences meeting Peter for the first time in San Sebastian, that backstage deal is now part of the story too.
