Abu Dhabi teams up for $250m film fund

Participant Media of Los Angeles joins ADMC's imagenation abu dhabi to finance 15 to 18 films in the next five years.

George Clooney in Syriana, one of the provocative films that are the trademark of Participant Media.

Participant Media of Los Angeles has teamed up with Abu Dhabi Media Company's imagenation abu dhabi to create a US$250 million (Dh917.5m) fund to finance 15 to 18 films in the next five years, the companies' chief executives announced yesterday. The equal partnership is the first of three alliances with major international brands expected to be announced in the next month by imagenation, the billion-dollar fund launched last week to create films and digital content for both the global and Arabic markets. "Your first partner also is a symbol of who you are as a company, and I think our relationship with Participant Media helps define imagenation," said Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Media Company, which owns The National. "It defines our value structure and some of the kinds of movies that we will be making." Participant, the entertainment company behind several socially provocative films, was founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll, a former president of eBay, as a film company with a dual emphasis on making a difference and making money. It made a name for itself with its first crop of films in 2005, including North Country, Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and the documentary Murderball - which together received 11 Academy Award nominations and an Oscar for George Clooney's performance in Syriana. The following year, Participant's environmental phenomenon, An Inconvenient Truth, won two Oscars and went to become the fourth-highest grossing documentary of all time. None of the company's more recent films shies away from controversial issues. They range from star vehicles such as Charlie Wilson's War, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, to documentaries including Darfur Now. Some combine the documentary format with star power, such as Errol Morris's award-winning film about Abu Ghraib. Within Hollywood, Participant has garnered almost as much attention for its unusual marketing strategy as for its movies. Each film is accompanied by a social action campaign, usually involving partnerships with non-profit organisations or schools, that creates discussions and programmes that last beyond the film's theatrical windows. For example, for its film The Kite Runner, the company teamed up with organisations such as Amnesty International and One Laptop Per Child to support literacy by rebuilding libraries, training teachers and providing computers to Afghanistan. The strategy, along with the success of the films, has helped to land Mr Skoll on Hollywood Reporter's list of "The Indie Power 50" this year, and Entertainment Weekly's roster of "The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood" last year. Since hiring Jim Berk as its chief executive in 2006, the company has been expanding. It added a television arm last year and rebranded itself from Participant Productions to Participant Media earlier this year to reflect its broader scope, stretching from publishing to digital media. "Since its founding, Participant has partnered with outside co-financiers on most of our films, and our long-term strategy has been to find a partner we can align with over multiple films during the next five years to both accelerate our expansion and increase our efficiency," said Mr Berk. "This fund with imagenation abu dhabi will increase our capacity to make films that not only entertain, but also raise awareness of issues and inspire social change. The partnership will expand our international presence and allow us to step up our business goals." Participant will take the lead in developing the films, as well as overseeing production and arranging worldwide distribution. The company will establish an office with a staff of about five in Abu Dhabi in the next few months, Mr Borgerding said. The first film project will be announced this autumn. [e-mail]