And the Eisvogel award goes to…

On the occasion of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Film Production  will be awarded for the fourth time to German and international film and  TV productions, that implemented innovative measures to reduce their environmental impact. The Eisvogel Prize is awarded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) and the Heinz Sielmann Foundation in cooperation with the Federal Government’s Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM). In the main category the Eisvogel film prize is worth 20,000 Euro dotiert. Newcomers are awarded with  a prize oney of  5,000 euro.

 

Various productions from Germany and abroad submitted sustainable produced films to the 2025 Eisvogel competition. In total, five productions were selected for the main category while two student productions are competing for the newcomer Eisvogel.  The spectrum of productions ranges from a music concert documentary to a German comedy series up to an international co-production. In the Irish documentay The Song Cycle, the musician Nick Kelly cycles with his guitar on his back from Dublin to the Glastonbury Festival. „“The Song Cycle began as an exploration of a more sustainable approach to live music", says Nick Kelly. "We are very proud that this project has shown not only that musicians can tour without driving but also that films can be made in a significantly more climate-friendly manner too..“ Nick Kelly will perform during the Berlinale. The Song Cycle is presented by the world sales company at the European Film Market.

 

When producing the Swedish feature film Kevlar Soul producer Ronny Fritsche pressed every button to carefully manage the resources. The Zentropa Sweden production developed environmental guidelines on efficient logistics, the use of second hand material, waste management, carpooling, and electric vehicles, which were part of the contract for crew members. "By embracing new approaches, we showed that sustainability can inspire creativity and set a standard for responsible filmmaking", underlines Ronny Fritsche.

 

By far the biggest production is the feature film Mother Mary by the award-winning American writer/director David Lowery who shot with the Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway
in Cologne and its environs for fifty days. Among the producers are the US independent company A24 and the Cologne-based Augenschein Filmproduktion. The preliminary planned master-location concept enabled the production to cut carbon emissions. "“A24 and augenschein Filmproduktion, in collaboration with Roman Russo and the Green Toolkit team, have delivered a groundbreaking sustainable production that sets international standards", says Auri Jackson, Sustainability Manager at A24. "Mother Mary  is the first international film production to have its CO₂ footprint calculated according to ISO 14067 and independently verified through a third-party audit – a significant step towards greater transparency and accountability in the industry".

 

For the ZDF commissioned production  Für immer Freibad, the good friends Filmproduktion arranged  a transportation service so that cast and crew could bring their own bikes and ride from the hotel to the set. The main location was an outdoor pool.  "This not only saved us a lot of car rides, but also strengthened the team spirit", emphasizes producer Ursula Pfriem. "In addition, all the actors came to the filming location by train and shared a trailer."

 

Short hauls were also taken by the German sitcom Tschappel, which Lax Entertainment and Apollonia Film produced for ZDFneo. The shooting took place in a village where the crew created an environment like in a studio so that the base was directly opposite the main location. „In order to cover the high energy demands and the requirements at the various outdoor locations in an environmentally friendly way, we used high-performance power stations in conjunction with a 400-watt photovoltaic panel", as the producers Charlotte Groth, Maximilian Greil, Paul Beck und Marius Beck explain.

 

One of the student productions which received an Eisvogel nomination is the action comedy Rein und raus (In and out), which was created at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf.  The production put a focus on avoiding food waste. Ths team used reusable containers, which kept the home-cooked vegan food fresh for longer. "Before I started to study, I worked on large film sets and experienced the massive waste of resources such as food on a daily basis. I couldn’t accept that and distributed the leftover food", producer Licia Flocke points out.

 

Saving resourcens was a main topic at the student production No More Pool Time, which was realized at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. A special requirement was to save lots of water during the shooting. „It was new for us to deal with a 50,000 liter pool, which needed different fill levels in the film in a non-chronological order", as director Jonas Baumann and producer Sebastian Sicker explain. "That’s why we looked for the specific solution that we can use a pump system and an identically sized set-up pool."

The Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Film Production award ceremony will take place at the Ministry for the Environment in Berlin on February 12, 2025.

 

Photos: © Nadja Hallström, Frederic Batier /A24, Max Rauer