Participant Media
Participant Media logo
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Formerly called
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Participant Productions (2004–2007) |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Film production |
| Founded | January 2004 |
| Founder | Jeffrey Skoll |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Products | Movies, new media |
| Divisions | |
| Website | Official website |
Participant Media is an American film production company founded in 2004 by Jeffrey Skoll, dedicated to entertainment that inspires and compels social change. The company finances and co-produces films, and its digital hub, TakePart serves millions of socially conscious consumers each month with daily articles, videos and opportunities to take action.
After founding, the company was originally named Participant Productions, troubled from a number of failed attempts and projects subsequently entering development hell, but entered success after a series of trial and error, and went on to become one of the most well-known independent financiers. The company's name descriptively politicizes its basis on currently topical subjects presented to induce awareness in problematic social aspects.
The company has produced, financed, or co-produced over 75 films. Its films have been nominated for 50 Academy Awards, and have won 11, including Best Picture for Spotlight.
The company was founded in January 2004 as Participant Productions by Jeffrey Skoll, the "second employee" of eBay, to produce projects that were both commercially viable and socially relevant.
With $100 million in cash from Skoll's personal funds, Skoll was the company's first chief executive officer, but stepped down from that position in August 2006. Participant Productions' initial plans were to produce four to six films per year, each with a budget of $40 million. The company focused on films in six areas – the environment, health care, human rights, institutional responsibility, peace and tolerance, and social and economic justice. It evaluated projects by running them past its creative executives first, assessing their cost and commercial viability second, and then analyzing their social relevance last. Once the decision was made to go ahead with production, the company reached out to non-profit organizations to ask them to build campaigns around the release. In some cases, the studio has spent years creating positive word-of-mouth with advocacy groups, which are often encouraged to use the film to push their own agendas.
The new company quickly announced an ambitious slate of productions. Its first film was the drama film American Gun (2005), with equity partner IFC Films. Two weeks later, the company announced a co-production deal with Warner Bros. on two films – the geopolitical thriller film Syriana (2005) and the drama film Class Action (later re-titled North Country (2005). Participant Productions contributed half the budget of each film. Its fourth production, a documentary film, was announced in November 2004. Titled The World According to Sesame Street (2005), the film examined the impact of the children's television show Sesame Street on world culture, focusing on Kosovo, Bangladesh, South Africa and El Salvador. At the same time, the company began to implement an environmentally friendly strategy: Syriana was the company's first carbon-neutral production, and the company created carbon offsets for the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
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Wikipedia