Neon and its longtime marketing chief Christian Parkes are parting ways.
Parkes joined the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anora” in 2017, a year after it was founded. He made waves with the first campaign he did at Neon for “I, Tonya,” a film about Tonya Harding that earned an Oscar nomination for Margot Robbie and a prize for Allison Janney as Harding’s mother LaVona Golden. He also worked on the marketing for such notable Neon releases as “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Titane,” “Longlegs,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and “Triangle of Sadness,” receiving plaudits for his innovations and outside-the-box initiatives. He most recently helped develop the promotional rollout for “Keeper,” an Osgood Perkins horror film that disappointed at the box office and suffered from poor reviews.
This year, Neon has released Oscar contenders such as Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.” Neon has won two best picture Oscars, capturing the top prize for “Parasite” and “Anora,” and is known for its scrappy promotions and bets on auteur-driven productions.
Parkes submitted his resignation this week. The parting is said to be amicable. Neon is expected to announce a new chief marketing officer in the coming weeks. A spokesperson for the indie studio declined to comment on this article.
Before joining Neon, Parkes worked at Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas and Drafthouse Films. He started as chief brand officer before getting promoted to chief marketing officer for the theater chain and its distribution arm. He also worked at Nasty Gal, MySpace, Levi Strauss, Gatorade and Nike.
