Bridge Entertainment Labs

Bridge-building is at the core of finding real solutions. Congratulations to our Senior Fellow @StevenOlikara on receiving the Common Ground Award!

@StevenOlikara Steven's full acceptance speech: youtube.com/watch?v=KEwqKm…

Last week our founding CEO @StevenOlikara was honored by the Lumen Awards (presented by the Impact Lounge)! He received the Common Ground award for his work combating toxic polarization and working to help Americans of all stripes to better see each other. Steven has been a champion of depolarization since the earliest days of the bridge-building movement. From his early work founding @futurecaucus, to his work as a Fellow for @BuildersMvt and as a Senior Fellow for @GovArnoldUSC, to his tenure as CEO of Bridge Entertainment Labs, he has worked tirelessly to combat the division-industrial complex and to help knit the American community back together. At the award ceremony, Steven talked about: - The importance of walking in our purpose even when it’s difficult. - How storytelling can turn isolated bridge-building moments into a powerful cultural movement - The relationship between storytelling and American democracy, and how telling new American “stories of us” can reinvigorate our democracy for the next 250 years. @prohuman_org , @UWMadison Link to his full acceptance speech in the comments!

Hamnet Is a Parable for Americans’ Grief Over Polarization As we head into the Oscars tomorrow it’s clear that Hamnet, Academy-Award-winning director Chloé Zhao's latest feature film nominated for eight Academy Awards, is striking a chord in the hearts of Americans. Why is the film resonating so deeply? One reason is that the movie is a profound meditation on the importance of being seen, a feeling that often seems achingly missing from contemporary American life. In Hamnet, Zhao shows us two parents who struggle to see each other in the aftermath of their son Hamnet’s death. William, who needs isolation and to process his grief through his art, flees back to London and throws himself into writing a play about death and familial loss (Hamlet). Agnes needs intimate connection in order to heal, and so focuses deeply on her living children. Neither protagonist really sees or understands the other or what they need in order to process Hamnet’s death. This misunderstanding compounds the pain of loss, as William and Agnes snipe at each other and fall into mutual bitterness. In their pain and isolation, the couple mirrors contemporary American society. Like them, many of us struggle to feel seen. We're starving for the kinds of close relationships that make us feel truly understood. Like William and Agnes, our loneliness is compounded by our pain. Most of us feel like the country we love is in trouble, even if we don't always agree on why: a recent report found that 49 percent of Americans believe that our best times are behind us. And like the grieving couple, we struggle to understand the grief of our fellow Americans. But while Zhao brings us into this space of isolated grieving, she doesn't leave us there. As co-star Joe Alwyns said of the film, “It is heartbreaking but there’s also hope in there and it’s uplifting and it’s healing." In the beautiful end scene of the film, Agnes comes to see William's work on stage, and for the first time she truly understands the depth of his pain. At the same time, William—by watching an interaction Agnes has with a stage performer—starts to understand his wife's need for connection in order to fully process Hamnet's death. That shared seeing, and being seen, unlocks a collective understanding amongst the entire audience (both on and off screen) that is incredibly powerful. We can imagine what happens next: William and Agnes, each finally able to come together in a shared catharsis, gaining the ability to rebuild a bridge between them. Hamnet thus offers the seeds of a promise, as relevant to the audience as it is to William and Agnes: that in seeing each other and in understanding our shared struggles, we can be made whole again. Our country needs more storytellers like Zhao who are changing the cultural zeitgeist and making this promise much more real.

While being honored at the Impact Lounge’s Lumen Awards for his work as a bridge-builder, Bridge Entertainment Labs CEO @StevenOlikara made a beautiful point about the relationship of storytelling to America’s democracy. America created the opportunity for a storytelling industry to be created out of freedom of expression, and storytellers now have the responsibility to keep that value and opportunity alive as we shape the next 250 years of this country and beyond. #America250

@Variety @RealImagine @sundancefest "Reimagining Rural America Through Storytelling" Sundance panel full recording: youtube.com/watch?v=PQx-dJ…

@Variety recognized the Modern Rural Collective toolkit, a great resource from our friends at @RealImagine and Land O’Lakes to change how the entertainment industry tells the stories of rural Americans. The toolkit first debuted at our 2026 @sundancefest panel “Reimagining Rural America Through Storytelling.” Links to the article, and to the toolkit, and our Sundance panel in comments. “The deal calls for Imagine to work with Hollywood’s creative community and other producers to encourage them to develop more nuanced depictions of how people live and work in small-town America. “The partnership reflects the growing ties between consumer brands and top film and TV producers. It also comes as the nation is increasingly polarized along political and ideological lines that many see as defined by a big divide between urban and rural America.”

@Variety @RealImagine @sundancefest Modern Rural Collective toolkit: #Resource" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">modernruralcollective.com/#Resource

@Variety @RealImagine @sundancefest @Variety article: variety.com/2026/biz/news/…

We are thrilled to announce that our founding CEO, Steven Olikara, is being recognized this year at the Lumen Awards (presented by The Impact Lounge)! He's receiving the Common Ground award for his work fighting toxic polarization and helping to heal the divides in our country. From his Senatorial campaign focused on depolarization, to his founding of Future Caucus (the largest cross-partisan organization of young elected leaders in the U.S.), to his current work with Bridge Entertainment Labs catalyzing the entertainment industry to tell new American "stories of us," Steven has been a consistent champion empowering Americans of all different stripes to better see each other. In their second year, The Lumen Awards focus on recognizing changemakers in the entertainment industry for their work both on- and off-screen. From Forbes: “Unlike traditional awards that focus mainly on what happens on screen, Lumen looks at the full picture. It honors filmmakers whose work helps us see urgent issues differently, but it also recognizes the people actually working on those issues in the real world.” Other honorees include Kate Beecroft (Writer & Director, East of Wall), Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry (CEO, Roddenberry Entertainment), Lydia Storie and Ai-jen Poo (Founders, Give Not Take Media), Liz Sargent (Writer & Director, Take Me Home), Patrick Macmanus (Showrunner, Director, Writer, Littleton Road Productions), Future Film Coalition, Coalition for Faith & Media, Creators Coalition on A.I., Shiloh Strong (Founder, Ashes to Films), Alyssa Dudek (Executive Director, Ashes to Films), Rachel Feldman (Lilly, Writer & Director), Doug Jung (Chief of War, Showrunner), Dr. John de la Parra (Director, Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation), and Rosie Jones & Peter Fellows (Pushers). Link to the full story in comments.

@sundancefest Modern Rural Collective toolkit: #Resource" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">modernruralcollective.com/#Resource

At our 2026 @Sundancefest panel, “Reimagining Rural America Through Storytelling,” we examined how cultural narratives about rural America are formed — and how storytellers can help reshape them. The conversation also marked the launch of the Rural Collective (MRC) Toolkit, developed by Land O'Lakes, Inc. and @RealImagine, designed to provide the entertainment industry with credible context and practical guidance for representing rural life across film and television. Link in comments Panel highlights: Amanda Farrand (Imagine Entertainment) reflected on how past industry decisions pushed rural stories out of television — and why telling these stories well today requires humility, immersion, and real connection to the communities being portrayed. @harleygirl122 (Modern Rural Collective, Land O’Lakes) spoke about how rural America is too often reduced to a single image or industry, when in reality it’s shaped by people, culture, and values. She also named three powerful ways stories shape perception: what we see, what we read, and what she calls the sonic narrative — the way rural America is heard. @nickolasbarnes (@UnitedTalent) challenged the idea of “flyover states,” pointing out that the heartland isn’t a place you pass over — it’s an ethos. He spoke candidly about how distance and media bubbles affect which rural stories are told, and which are ignored. @aijenpoo (@domesticworkers) shared how rural communities are living the realities of the care economy every day, often relying on neighbors and informal networks to support elders and families — care that rarely makes it into mainstream storytelling. @StevenOlikara (Bridge Entertainment Labs) closed by reflecting on storytelling as a way to bridge divides, reminding us that human, nuanced stories help us move beyond “us vs. them” narratives. Full panel recording linked in comments.

@sundancefest Full panel recording: youtube.com/watch?v=PQx-dJ…

@democracy_2076 @harmonylabs Link to the webinar recording: vimeo.com/1159003180?sha…

New insights from our partner @democracy_2076, which collaborated with @harmonylabs on research to demonstrate "The Power of Story to Grow Democracy.” The report and associated webinar shed light on how entertainment media shapes people’s understanding of democracy, and how storytellers can find ways to tell better stories about democracy One key insight: storytelling should focus on reaching audiences, not on changing audiences’ values. Why? Because the truth is that we need people with all different types of values in order to make our democracy work. We need Insider Transformers who push systems forward from within. We need Outsider Transformers who evolve systems to include previously marginalized people or ideas. We need Insider Restorers who confront corruption from within. We need Outsider Restorers who hold the system accountable. The whole webinar was full of insights for storytellers & democracy advocates about how you can use storytelling to grow democracy. Link to the full recording in comments!

@democracy_2076 @harmonylabs Link to the full report: democracy2076.org/imagining2076r…

Full statement and story: screendaily.com/news/top-film-…

This week several leading global festival directors issued an important statement addressing concerns related to freedom of speech and artistic expression coming out of the Berlin Film Festival. We encourage all festivals (and their audiences and sponsors) to support and uphold these values no matter the point of views being represented. “A core aspect of our role as cultural custodians is to create and protect the space for filmmakers, artists, professionals and audiences to come together. This includes people who bring with them not only a shared love of cinema, but also a huge variety of lived experiences and viewpoints. This is what gives our film festivals their vitality, relevance and value, and it is what festival ‘spirit’ is made from. “We must also navigate - with care - the fact that ‘everyone’ can include people with political and personal views that don’t always align, with each other, or with socially accepted or politically mandated positions. “Film festivals as we know, and need them, are becoming increasingly challenging to sustain in a climate where the appreciation of nuance is collapsing. Supporting genuine freedom of expression, including the freedom to articulate imperfect or unpopular opinions, has never been more important. We need to maintain spaces where discomfort is embraced, where debates can be expansive, where new ideas can propagate and where unexpected - and sometimes conflicting - perspectives are made visible. “We need all our stakeholders - audiences, creators, festival teams, public and private partners, industry, media, fellow institutions - to show each other grace, respect and solidarity as communities and networks connected through the love of film, or we risk losing these spaces completely. It is so much easier to destroy than it is to build.” (Read the full statement in the story linked in the comments) Statement signed by @eug @GionaNazzaro and others.