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Hollywood Mourns Participant, the Oscar-Winning Studio that Wanted to Save the World
Industry players, former employees and talent respond to the shuttering of Jeff Skoll's Participant.
When Variety broke the news Tuesday that billionaire Jeff Skoll ’s 20-year-old company will shut down — after fetching 21 Oscars and introducing a business model that prioritized social impact a bit more than profits – many in the industry were rattled. Dozens of industry players mourned the studio in Instagram stories and on group text threads, terrified that Participant’s co-productions like “Roma,” “Spotlight,” “Murderball,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Flee” might not get made in a present-day Hollywood obsessed with cost-cutting and mired in a slowed-down streaming revolution. “If you’re coming out with one or two movies per year, you’d better blow the roof off like Legendary,” one the agents said, referencing the company which financed Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” series and just released the latest hit Godzilla film.
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