2th Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Production

On the occassion of the Berlin International Film Festival the Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Film Production was awarded at the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection. The prize, worth 20,000 euro, is given out by the Heinz Sielmann Foundation. In total, 28 productions from all across the world turned in their submissions.  The selection commitee suggested nine productions to the competition jury.

The jury was chaired by Michael Beier, Chaiman of the Heinz Sielmann Stiftung, Peter Dinges, Chairman of the German Federal Film Board (FFA), Susanne Freyer, Managing Director of akzente Film & Fernsehproduktion, Lars Jessen director/producer at Florida Film  and Dr. Bettina Rechenberg, Head of the division ‘Sustainable Production and Products, Waste Management’ at UBA.

The submitted productions varied very much in terms of their formats as well as the budgets. The bandwidth of the nominated productions ranged from small documentary films to TV movies  and an international feature film up to a several million euro series. For this reason the jury decided to award the Eisvogel award  ex-aquo to two very different productions.

The German mockumentary series Irgendwas mit Medien was honored with a cyan wing, a sculpture which the Berlin-based artist Marton Binder designed for the film award. The UFA Serial Drama followed already at the script level the approach to avoid resource-wasting scenes. Thanks to the careful selection of the locations and a largely use of bicycles, the carbon emissions were cut by around eighty percent. The Eisvogel Prize was handed over by Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media (BKM), to Marc Waterkamp, Production Manager of Irgendwas mit Medien at UFA Serial Drama . "Projects that creatively combine film, climate and environmentalism are a real inspiration for the entire indusry“, emphasized Claudia Roth.

A  resource-saving transport concept was also an important issue for the documentary series  22. Juli – Die Schüsse von München, produced by Constantin Entertainment for Sky Germany. In order to avoid any transatlantic flights of the crew, the international shoots were implemented by teams on location. Coordination with the director was done via video calls. The number of on-location shooting days was reduced by almost 30 percent. The savings achieved through the master location concept and remote production amounted to a reduction of around 27 tons of carbon emissions, as Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection, pointed out. She presented the Eisvogel Prize to Andreas Tuerpe, Production Manager at Constantin Entertainment.

For the first time an Eisvogel Prize was also awarded for upcoming filmmakers, worh of 5,000 euro. In the newcomer category five student film productions were presented in competition. The jury awarded the graduation film Exit Pangea, produced at the film university Babelsberg Konrad Wolf.  The producer had already taken a holistic approach during the development of this project. When shooting, the crew travelled by public transportation and a cargo bike served for the transportation within Potsdam. The good preparation of the production, which also included to avoid any single-use products, made it easy accessible for the crew to act more eco-friendly.

Photos: © GFS