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Participant Media Shutdown: Why Has This Oscar-Winning Company Come To A Close? EXPLAINED
Participant has backed critically acclaimed movies like Murderball, North Country, The Kite Runner, The Soloist, and documentaries like Oceans, Zero Days, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.
With Participant’s door shut, films like Spotlight, Flee, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Moonlight might not be made again. With Participant’s end, the hope for making the world a better place might also end. After earning 21 Oscars and pioneering a business model that gave social impact higher priority than box-office collections, 20-year-old media company shutting down sent shockwaves across Hollywood.
Billionaire and philanthropist Jeff Skoll founded the production house in 2004 and has co-produced and backed five series and 135 movies including Green Book and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, among others. It made films addressing global issues like climate change, human rights, and systematic corruption.
“After working at Participant, for every script I read or project I work on, I can’t help but question whether the finished show or movie will actively make the world a better place. And if the answer is no… then why bother?” said a former Participant emplyee. “(They) didn’t always succeed in achieving their desired reach or goals, but if more companies in media followed their lead and put a world-bettering mission or product first, the planet would be a vastly different place. For that reason, Participant’s closure is a blow to us all.”
![Spotlight [Photo Credits- IMDb]](https://www.pinkvilla.com/images/2024-04/1713526180_1280-x-720-92.jpg "Spotlight [Photo Credits- IMDb]")
What Does Jeff Skoll Have To Say Regarding Participant’s Shut Down?
Skoll broke the news of the company shutting down to its nearly 100 employees, most of whom will be dismissed, on April 16, as per Variety. No new content will be developed or produced and only a few core employees will oversee the Participant library comprising the 135 films it has made over the past two decade.
“I founded Participant with the mission of creating world-class content that inspires positive social change, prioritizing impact alongside commercial sustainability. Since then, the entertainment industry has seen revolutionary changes in how content is created, distributed and consumed,” Skole wrote in a memo circulated inside the company.
Regarding the premium content Participant made that had strong social impact, Skoll’s memo said, “Our titles drove tangible real-world change. We got out the vote and championed investigative journalism. From the passage of landmark legislation to enact labor protections for domestic workers in Mexico, to spurring state and federal action to address forever chemicals in the United States and Europe. Participant content has made the world a safer, more just place for millions of people.”
![When They See Us [Photo Credits- IMDb]](https://www.pinkvilla.com/images/2024-04/1713526151_1280-x-720-90.jpg "When They See Us [Photo Credits- IMDb]")
How Did Participant’s Company Dynamics And Business Look Like Before Shutting?
After David Linde, a former Universal Pictures executive, took over as CEO of Participant in 2015, Skoll has not actively managed the company for years. Under Linde, Participant grew to become the entertainment industry's largest certified B Corp—a certification that indicates a business satisfies B Lab's requirements for "social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency." He was in charge of films directed by Taika Waititi, Ava DuVernay, and Alfonso Cuaron, among others.
Following its acquisition of the Documentary Channel in early 2013, Participant Media also had the Pivot TV basic cable, channel for almost three years. One of the first casualties of cable cord-cutting and the emergence of streaming was Pivot TV. Even with insignificant affiliate payments, Participant, an independent solo channel operator, lacked the power to influence the major MVPDs in order to sustain the channel's distribution network. 2016 saw the closure of Pivot TV.
Achievements of Participants
Besides 21 Academy Awards out of 86 nominations, Participants has taken home 18 Emmy Awards for its five television series. The most noteworthy recent TV project it undertook was When They See Us on Netflix in 2019.
Participant has received recognition from the Producers Guild of America and the American Cinematheque, and its films have brought in over $3.3 billion at the global box office. Similar to every other aspect of the entertainment industry, Participant's output suffered during the pandemic and was reduced to just two films released in 2022 and 2023, from nearly 10 years earlier.
It will continue to work on a few projects, such as the post-production stage of the Hulu series Interior Chinatown, starring Jimmy O. Yang.
Reaction From Industry On Participant’s
“It’s very sad, but perhaps inevitable,” a C-suite Hollywood executive told Variety. The executive and two other prominent agents in the industry also admitted that Participant's production had decreased drastically during and after the pandemic and the aftermath of the labor strikes in Hollywood last year.
“The end of Participant Media is devastating news to anyone who cares about documentaries,” director Julie Cohen (RBG, Julia, My Name is Pauli Murray) wrote bluntly on X. Besides backing Oscar-winning movies, Participants rolled Oscar-winning documentaries including An Inconvenient Truth.
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