According to an October 24, 2026 article in The Wall Street Journal, young American moviegoers under 35 have adopted a brand-new catchphrase: “Let’s go see an A24 movie.” Historically, audiences don’t speak of major studios in this fashion — people did not say, for example, “Let’s go see a Paramount movie.”
The Journal piece centers on the release of A24’s new documentary, You Can See Everything, which chronicles the saga of 42-year-old Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of fraud in connection with the health-technology company she founded in 2003.
The A24 documentary, expected to be an Oscar contender, follows Holmes and her partner, hotel heir William Evans, as they spend a month at a rented home in Del Mar, California, in 2023, just before Holmes began serving her 11-year prison sentence.
Although the Journal explores “Inside A24’s Hit-Making Playbook,” it overlooks the surprising origin of the studio’s name, which traces back to Abruzzo, an obscure region in central Italy. As the story goes, 48-year-old Daniel Katz — co-founder of the New York City-based company alongside David Fenkel and John Hodges — named the studio after the highway he was driving on in 2012 while traveling from Teramo to Rome.
Citing a May 2017 GQ magazine podcast, Britannica noted simply that Katz drew “his inspiration [from] the A24 motorway,” while en route to Rome.
Katz is a former film industry finance specialist who previously worked at Guggenheim Partners, the investment firm that provided A24 with seed money.
Dom Serafini, editor of VideoAge and columnist for Il Centro (Abruzzo’s leading daily newspaper), attempted to contact Katz regarding his journey through Teramo. However, A24 — which operates without a traditional public relations department — declined to respond.
As for Abruzzo, it is a region east of Rome along Italy’s Adriatic Coast, with a population roughly half that of Rome itself. Driving from Rome to Teramo — one of Abruzzo’s four provinces (alongside Pescara, Chieti, and L’Aquila) via the A24 requires motorists to pass through the 10-kilometer Gran Sasso tunnel beneath the Apennines’ tallest mountain (pictured above). The route then winds through natural parks inhabited by native bears and eagles before opening up to wide, sandy beaches reminiscent of those in Santa Monica, California.
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