Participant Media’s films hit the Venn-diagram overlap of Oscar bait: socially conscious, entertaining, somewhat profitable. Founded by eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll 15 years ago, the company has accumulated 73 Oscar nominations and 12 wins, including for 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth (best documentary feature) and 2015’s Spotlight (best picture). Participant lured audiences to three more Oscar-worthy films in 2018: best-picture nominees Roma—centered on an indigenous domestic worker in Mexico City—and Green Book, a road-trip tale about an African-American pianist and his Italian-American driver; and RBG, a feature-documentary nominee about Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The company’s success reaffirms the role its films play in these fractious times. “I think people realize they need to care as much as possible,” says C.E.O. David Linde. Adds Jonathan King, Participant’s president of narrative film and television, “Audiences lean into these stories a little more.”

There have been hiccups, such as with Green Book, which was criticized for marginalizing pianist Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali), an assertion that was inflamed when an anti-Muslim tweet from one of its screenwriters re-emerged online. “Did we anticipate there would be real conversation about the movie?” asks Linde. “One hundred percent. Am I disappointed by the vitriol? Of course.”

But the company keeps charging ahead. “It’s going to be incredibly rare that a film can reach everyone, and that everyone will embrace it,” says Diane Weyermann, president of documentary film and television. “Today, with this country being so divisive, it’s increasingly difficult.”