Participant, film studio behind 'Spotlight,’ shutters after 20 years

Participant, the activist film and television studio that has financed Oscar winners like “Spotlight” and socially conscious documentaries like “Food, Inc,” and “Waiting For Superman” is closing its doors after 20 years.

Billionaire Jeff Skoll told his staff of 100 in a memo shared with The Associated Press Tuesday that they were winding down company operations.

“This is not a step I am taking lightly,” Skoll wrote in the memo. “But after 20 years of groundbreaking content and world-changing impact campaigns, it is the right time for me to evaluate my next chapter and approach to tackling the pressing issues of our time.”

Since Skoll founded the company in 2004, Participant has released 135 films, 50 of which were documentaries and many of which were tied to awareness-raising impact campaigns. Their films have won 21 Academy Awards including best picture for “Spotlight” and “ Green Book,” best documentary for “An Inconvenient Truth” and “American Factory” and best international feature for “Roma.”