Oscar-bait no more: why serious-issue dramas are floundering

Dark Waters must be the least Todd Haynes film Todd Haynes has ever made. Based on the true story of a corporate lawyer (played by Mark Ruffalo) who switches sides to expose pollution by the DuPont chemical company, it is powerful and creditable, but does not feel like the work of the man who gave us the lush, stylised likes of Carol and Far from Heaven. It feels more like an Oscar-bait issue movie in the mould of Erin Brockovich. Except with Dark Waters, the awards panels didn’t bite and neither, going by US box-office numbers, have the public. The formula has stopped working, but the films keep coming.

Which is why we need to talk about Participant Media. Participant was founded in 2004 by eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll with the noble intention of producing movies with “socially relevant themes”. By many measures, it has succeeded. Participant has received 74 Oscar nominations and 19 wins. Its documentaries have included An Inconvenient Truth, Citizenfour and this year’s Oscar winner, American Factory. It has also had a hand in hits from Good Night, and Good Luck to Lincoln to Roma, and often backed up its movies with campaigning on the issues they raise.

At its best, Participant hits that sweet spot between commercial appeal and “social relevance”. At its worst, it has become an issue-movie production line. Its technique is well established: take a true story, ripped less from the headlines than the features section of