Series Stars... - Festival de télévision de Monte-Carlo

Focus on Germany
The Facts Behind Funding Fiction
As part of this year’s focus on Germany, The Monte Carlo TV Festival News
talks to Norbert Sauer, managing director and executive producer at UFA
Fernsehproduktion.
Norbert Sauer, managing director
and executive producer at UFA
Fernsehproduktion, will be taking
part in Wednesday’s Round Table
discussion on Fiction Funding
An MCTVF regular who has twice been nominated as Best Producer in the Golden
Nymphs, and who last year was a jury member, Norbert Sauer will be appearing on
Wednesday’s TV Xchanges Programme in the second Round Table discussion about
Fiction Funding: “Funding fiction is very challenging these days partly because it is almost
impossible to produce a series without being involved in a co-production, and partly
because broadcasters have less money. But having less money does not mean that they
have stopped needing high-end dramas. In fact they heed them more than ever,” he says.
“Therefore I feel that it is absolutely the right moment to present some ideas about new
funding models at the MCTVF. Our motto at UFA is ‘Inspiring People’ and it is an attitude
that goes into everything we produce, from formats right through to our flagship crime
dramas such as The Fifth Commandment and Soko Leipzig.”
In order to be able to produce fiction to its own very exacting standards, UFA has
formed a subsidiary department called The Berlin Office to handle all its international coproductions.
The unit works regularly with Talkback Thames.
“Ten years ago it was mainly individual companies producing drama series, but now coproductions
are the norm. When you add to that the fact that European producers are
competing with US drama powerhouses like HBO, clearly it is essential to have enough
funding to do the job properly,” he says. “I am totally inspired by the quality of classic
US fiction but clearly UFA is aiming to produce shows that are not only of the same high
standards, but also ones that have real longevity.”
GS
Co-Productions RULE
As part of this year’s focus on Germany, The Monte Carlo TV Festival
News talks to Christian Dorsch, General Manager, German Films Service
& Marketing and German Films Project Co-ordinator Konstanze Welz.
Since underwater submarine drama Das Boot shocked and thrilled
international audiences in the early 1980s, German directors have been in
demand all over the world. Now a new generation of directors and films,
in some cases nourished and inspired by the re-unification of the country,
have re-established German cinema as a powerful global brand.
“Films like black & white drama The White Ribbon, directed by Michael
Haneke which won the Palme D’Or and was nominated in 10 out of 13
categories in the German Film Awards, are part of a new wave of films,”
Dorsch, says. “Then there are The Lives Of Others, Run Lola Run and
Goodbye Lenin, are extremely successful abroad and we are again seeing
a new talent exodus to Hollywood, but that’s the way the business works
and it’s a kind of compliment.”
Despite the preponderance of co-productions these days, Konstanze Welz
does not see individual and national characteristics being diluted: “We have
18 films at the Cannes Film Festival this year and all are co-productions,
because you simply have to do that these days, even someone like Lars von
Trier is obliged to co-produce his films but they are still very much his films,
and very much Danish films,” she says. “Making films is very much a people
business and we make a huge effort to put our directors and producers in
touch with potential partners. I’ve just come back from a trip India where
I was looking for ways to make certain projects work. But it is quite tough
at the moment with films being postponed, and more and more directors
working in TV due to a lack of funding.”
GS
German Films Project Co-ordinator
Konstanze Welz
Christian Dorsch, General Manager,
German Films Service & Marketing
and German Films
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