Participant Media Films Receive 13 Oscar® Nominations

LOS ANGELES (January 14, 2016) – Participant Media’s films received 13 Academy Award^® nominations, including Best Picture for Bridge of Spies and Spotlight, as well as Best Documentary for The Look of Silence.

Nominations for Bridge of Spies include Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Mark Rylance), Original Screenplay (Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen), Original Score (Thomas Newman), Production Design (Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich), and Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin).

Spotlight’s nominations include Best Picture, Director (Tom McCarthy), Original Screenplay (Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer), Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Supporting Actress (Rachel McAdams), and Film Editing (Tom McArdle).

Participant CEO David Linde said, “Everyone at Participant Media is thrilled that Spotlight and Bridge of Spies were recognized by the Academy across so many categories, including Best Picture. We are also very excited about the documentary nomination for The Look of Silence. This caps off an unprecedented year for Participant across narrative and documentary films, and we are deeply appreciative of the attention that the films have received and humbled by the nominations.”

Bridge of Spies, a DreamWorks Pictures and Fox 2000 Pictures production, is directed by Steven Spielberg, and produced by Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger. Executive producers are Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, and Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King. The title marks the seventh film Participant has collaborated with DreamWorks Studios, to which the partnership continues to grow through the recently formed Amblin Partners, a new film, television and digital content creation company.

Spotlight, the true story about The Boston Globe’s coverage of the 2003 Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, is produced Steve Golin and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content, and Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust of Rocklin/Faust. Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King are executive producers, with Michael Bederman, Open Road Films’ Tom Ortenberg and Peter Lawson, and Entertainment One’s Patrice Theroux and Harold van Lier. Kate Churchill is co-producer and David Mizner is associate producer.

Best Documentary nominee The Look of Silence has won top prizes from the Cinema Eye Honors, International Documentary Association, Gotham Awards, and CPH:DOX, in addition to Spirit Award and PGA nominations. It received top awards at the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival, among others. The companion piece to the Oscar^®-nominated The Act of Killing is directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen. The film’s executive producers include Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and André Singer. Currently on DVD and digital platforms, DraftHouse Films and Participant released The Look of Silence in July 2015.

This year, with a total of 13 nominations, Participant Media would like to acknowledge all partners across the three nominated projects: Open Road, Entertainment One, First Look Media, The Boston Globe, and Knight Ridder on behalf of Spotlight; Amblin Partners, DreamWorks Studios, and Disney for Bridge of Spies; and DraftHouse Films and Final Cut for Real for The Look of Silence.

The complete list of the 2016 Academy Award^® nominations is available here.